Captain's Charity Day - 14 October
It just goes to show that it's the simple ideas that can often be the most effective. Originally, I had planned to have a Texas Scramble for just 20 teams. But our clever Chairman, John Perry, thought that we should duplicate Captain's Drive In and have places for 20 teams in the morning and 20 more in the afternoon.

And the result was that we had 39 teams playing. And with the event opened up to all sections of the members it was good to see ladies, juniors and vets playing amongst the 'normal' members.

Having paid out nearly £400 in prize money, I still managed to raise over £500 for the Great North Air Ambulance thanks to the generosity of the members who also bought raffle tickets.

Our junior members featured highly with three in the morning's winning team and four in the third placed team. Neil Graham, our League Player of The Year turned up on spec and helped his team to second place in the morning. Family bonds obviously work with the Williamsons coasting into second in the afternoon. And it was good to see greens master, George Gainford, guide his team to third in the afternoon. Amazingly, one team put in a no return and that must be a rarity in a Texas Scramble! However the highlight of the day was Kevin Robson's ace on the 15th which no doubt helped his team to win in the afternoon with a record breaking score of 50.9 - effectively, a birdie on every single hole!! But an expensive day for Kevin to have an ace. Just as well his team won!

The competition winners were as follows:
Morning Texas Scramble
1st - G. Ross, A. Scrimshaw, M. Haywood, Alan Scrimshaw with 66 - 10.3 = 55.7
2nd - W. Breckons, K. Young, M. Cronin, N. Graham with 61 - 3.5 = 57.5
3rd - L. Anderson. J. Fung, B. Waters, J. Chambers with 64 - 6.2 = 57.8

Afternoon Texas Scramble
1st - G. Hill, Kevin Robson, D. Carroll, J. Bell with 54 - 3.1 = 50.9
2nd - R. Williamson, K. Williamson, A. Williamson, C. Williamson with 63 - 6.3 = 56.7
3rd - N. Hurst, K. Dobson, A. Dunn, G. Gainford with 64 - 5.1 = 58.9

The raffle prize winners were as follows:
Round of golf at Ramside - Ken Duffell
Bottle of whiskey - Alan Hepple
Bottle of wine - J.C. Bennett
Callaway Gift Set - K. Young
Bottle of wine - James Dobson
Bottle of wine - Gordon Garratt
Golf balls - Dave Stewart

So, at the end of a very successful day, my sincere thanks to:
- The members from all sections for their enthusiastic and generous support.
- Gordon Garratt for all his hard work during the day
- Rachel and the team for the excellent food and bar service throughout
- George and his team for the great course, especially considering the time of year
- My dear lady Christine for her excellent sales skills with the raffle book
- John Perry for his idea, helping with starting and his raffle prize contributions
- John Crawford for his service and raffle prize
- Phil Brookbanks for his raffle prize

The cheque for Great North Air Ambulance will be presented to the Director of Fund Raising at the AGM on December 7.

The Charity Day means that the total so far is close to £1500 and rising! All of this has come, one way or the other, from the members.

From me, and on behalf of GNAA, thank you so much.