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WWGS Society History 2002-2021

2015

With 30 full members 2015 was always going to be our biggest challenge to date, but even I was surprised at the enthusiasm and sheer numbers of the members playing this year. The 2015 Wanderers season started way back in late March at South Shields golf club, a match dominated by the weather which turned out to set the standard for the season. Over the last seven months we have had horizontal hailstones at Shields and monsoon conditions at Throston, from gale force winds at Ripon to a calm and sunny day at Stocksfield, it feels like we have had the lot. Whatever the weather the turnout this year has been amazing so here's the first of Gunny's “Statto” bits for the 2015 season- 2015 saw the highest number of active members, 30 have played 2 or more rounds, the previous highest was 25 in 2008. This season also saw our highest attendance, with an average of 22 players per round. The average points score per player, per round was 31.2 points, and the average winning score was 41.3 points. Our popular Team Challenge day changed venue this season, in the past we have used Castle Eden and Wearside for this event, this year we chose our second home Houghton. As it turned out it was an inspired choice, with warm sunny weather and an excellent turn out the day was a great success. On the day the Chairman's team (led by Jim Rooks in Chairman Paul Marshall's absence) won a very tight battle by 9 1/2 points to 8 1/2 points against the Champions team led by Dave Sanders. Another of our regular events the Weekend Away trip followed quickly on the heels of the Team Challenge day. Following on the success of last year we picked North Yorkshire again for the venue and once again it was enjoyed by all involved. The winner and recipient of "The Claw" for this year was Eddie Harrison who won by a considerable margin of 10 points. A big thank you must go to Dennis Williams for booking the courses and accommodation and also to John Ford for ensuring we were suitably fed and watered. Now for the main, season long, competitions (the Nearest the Pin, Longest Drive, Two's Pot and of course the Main Championship) with the increase in membership the competition was greater than ever. An indication of this is that over the sixteen rounds we had twelve different round winners and no one player has won more than two rounds. The Nearest the Pin competition was pretty much a one horse race this year, won by Jim Rooks with 5 wins. Jim had the category sealed up with with 3 rounds still to play. The Longest Drive category however went all the way to the final match of the season. John Ford and Paul Baker went into the match with 3 round win's each, Rico Liverani & John Pringle were both still in the hunt with 2 round wins and could have forced a play-off. As it was Paul Baker won on the final day giving him 4 round wins and the Longest Drive category win. As for the Two's Pot, well you may have noticed we Wanderers are not really renowned for our accuracy and this season was to be no different. Here's the last of Gunny's Statto bit's for this year- We played a total of 63 par 3 holes and all the massed rank's of Wanderers could manage was a measly 20 "two's" between us all season! The lack of accuracy did play into Jim Rooks hands, making him approximately £140 better off by way of winning Tim's Two's Pot. Our annual knockout competition the Tim Aberdeen Memorial Shield produced some epic battles along the way. The final this year was played at Houghton between between Eddie Harrison and Russell Byrne with Russell coming out on top sealing a 2&1 win over Eddie. This competition takes a lot of administration and organising and I, on behalf of all who took part, would like to thank John Ford for his persistence and patience. Click HERE for a full report. Now for the big one, the Main Championship and the race for the Claret Jug. As has become traditional this year the Championship went all the way to the wire with three players still in with a shout going into the final round, Derek Griffiths, Dave Sanders & Frank Birch. On Finals day only one of the three increased their total, Derek Griffiths increased by 5 points but it wasn't quite enough. In third place overall was the defending Champion Dave Sanders with 352 points. Thanks to those 5 points Derek Griffiths overtook Dave taking second place with a total of 354 points. Last but certainly not least the winner and our new Champion Golfer for 2015 is Frank Birch with a total of 357 points.

2016

Over the last seven months we have played a wide variety of courses all over the North East and beyond. This season, in an attempt to find courses new to the Society we have expanded our range beyond the 20 miles / 30 minutes from Sunderland "border" and judging from the player numbers this decision went down well with the membership. We started the season way back in March at a Society regular, South Shields. As usual the weather played a part in the proceedings with high winds and squally heavy showers, this was to set the pattern for the early part of our season. The second round was to have been at Saltburn but that was also affected by the weather so we hastily rearranged the match to Cleveland Links just down the road. Unfortunately one of our members didn't get the message and turned up at Saltburn like Billy Nomates wondering where everyone was, sorry Mr Watts! The first of this season's Society "Majors" our annual homage to the Ryder Cup the Team Challenge Day took place at our second home, Houghton in June. This season we added a twist to the usual "Captain vs Chairman" team format by making it a "Juniors vs Seniors" match (over 50's vs under 50's, with a little leeway to balance the team numbers). After a very tight battle the winners on the day were the Seniors team led by John Ford with a score of 8-7. Team Challenge Day was closely followed by our second Major, the Weekend Away trip to fight for the Borders Championship and the honour of looking after The Claw for the year. Once again the weather caused us problems. This year we decided to journey over to Lancashire and South Cumbria for our trip, playing at Kirby Lonsdale and Grange-over-Sands but the day before the trip we got news that Grange was flooded and only 9 holes were open. Following a few phone calls we managed to get booked into Bentham Golf Club, a decision that turned out to be a good one! The winner of the Borders Championship was Andy Trewick, the start of what would turn into a trend this season. As we approached the climax of the season we were due to play Beamish on the August Bank Holiday Sunday but once again the weather intervened with heavy overnight rain making the course unplayable. Luckily the following day was Bank Holiday Monday and we managed to rearrange the match for then. This change played into the hands of a couple of Members including Dave Watts who originally couldn't make the Sunday game. Thankfully for him this time he got the message and after telling his wife he was "just popping out to get some milk and a paper" managed to play the match. This season we tweaked the rules of our third Major the Tim Aberdeen Shield knockout competition by encouraging matches to be played at designated rounds of the Championship. This change appears to have gone down well as the majority of matches were played and we had very few byes this year. The final of this seasons Aberdeen Shield was between Jim Rooks and Dave Coates and was played at Tyneside with Dave coming out the winner to become the third recipient of the Aberdeen Shield. The rules of the Two's Pot competition were also tweaked slightly this season. Instead of the whole prize fund going to one winner we now divide it equally between all those who managed to score a two. Sadly this rule change didn't improve our accuracy as we still only managed a measly 14 two's between us for the whole season! The Two's Pot itself had already been won by Rico Liverani, with three Two's (two at the same course), just as well really as true to form there were none carded at Wearside. As usual the Longest Drive & Nearest the Pin categories were very tight run affairs as both competitions went down to the wire, only being decided on Finals Day. The Longest Drive category needed a play off hole to break the stalemate with Andy Trewick and Paul Baker tied on 3 wins each, Andy outdrove Paul on the tie break 17th hole at Finals day to take the category Championship win. Paul got his revenge by winning the final Nearest the Pin of the season, taking the Category Championship from Andy by a distance of 44cm (they both tied with 2 wins each but Paul had the closer distance of 2.4m to Andy's 2.88m). As for the main event, the Society Championship, came down to a three way battle between Dave Coates, Ian Gunn and long time leader Andy Trewick. After 17 rounds across the North East & Cumbria nine points covered the top three players going into Finals Day at Wearside. Ian was the first of the three into the clubhouse and though he improved his total by four points it wasn't enough so it was all down to the final two, Dave and Andy. As the final group came in it was clear that the long time Championship leader Andy Trewick had won the Championship by four points on 312, with Ian in second on 308 and Dave in third with 301. On behalf of the whole Society I would like to congratulate our new Champion Andy and all our other category winners.

2017

For the 2017 season we saw the Wanderers membership level off at 28 full members, as in previous years we lost a few and gained a few. The five new members to our band Andy Dodd, Chris Hewison, Paul Imeson, Steve Taylor and Gary West seem to have settled in very well and appear to have enjoyed the season's events. We were also joined by a few guest players at some events, three of which intend to join the Society next year so the membership levels appear very healthy. As for the choice of courses, after fifteen seasons it is becoming more difficult to find new venues for the society and we are always open to suggestions from the membership. For the 2017 season we did manage three courses we had not played before, Rothbury, Close House (Filly) and the newest in the North East the Ramside Cathedral course. In an attempt to help raise the scoring we tweaked our unique handicap adjustment system, allowing a little more scope to recoup strokes following a bad round. When we started this system in 2016 we knew it would be a work in progress and would require a few years to bed in and it appears to be working though there are still a few issues to iron out. It wouldn't have been a Wanderers season if the weather hadn't played a part. We almost had the lot, from torrential rain at South Shields to blowing a gale at Seaton Carew and Ramside, the only thing missing was snow. We even had to reschedule the match at Houghton due to heavy rain before the game, but every cloud has a silver lining and a least it was warm & sunny when we played there the following weekend. Our second Major, the Aberdeen Shield knockout competition started way back in March at the pre season gathering at Sharpley Springs and ran all the way through to the final in September. This year's finalists were Mark Wilson and Eddie Harrison and following a real ding dong battle in gale force conditions at Whitburn. Eddie came out victorious on the 18th hole when Mark missed a long putt that would have meant a playoff hole would have been needed, so Eddie becomes the fourth recipient of the Tim Aberdeen Memorial Shield. Once again thanks go to John Ford for administering and running this competition. Now for the big one, the Main Championship and the race for the Claret Jug. On the whole our new handicap system has lowered the overall round scores but this has had the effect of making the Championship even tighter. Going into the final round at Wearside there were no less than seven players in with a good shout of lifting the Claret Jug. On Finals day five of those seven players increased their overall points total. In third place overall, having increased his tally by 2 points came the defending Champion Andy Trewick with 310 points. Even though he increased his total by 7 points once again Derek Griffiths was the runner up for the third time in four years, with a total of 311 points. Always the bridesmaid, never the blushing bride eh Derek? Last but certainly not least, the winner of the Claret Jug and our new Champion Golfer for 2017 is Bryan Mountford with a total of 316 points.

2018

For the 2018 season the Wanderers had 30 full members, some played more games than others though we did average 17 members playing per round. As usual we gained a few and lost a few over the winter including two past Champions. We added five new members to our band of happy hackers - Joe Bell, Doug Imeson, Scott Paxton, Steve Rudd and Brian Slack, most of whom seem to have settled in very well and appear to have enjoyed the season's events. As usual it wouldn't have been a Wanderers season if the weather hadn't played a part through the year. We had planned to play our usual pre season warm up game at Hobson Golf Club in March but thanks to the “Beast From The East” (remember that?) we had to cancel. This was mainly due to the course being buried under two foot of snow, though some of our hardier members still wanted to play! We even had to postpone the first match of the season to the following week due to the (usually bone dry) links course at Newbiggin-by-the-Sea being flooded. Thankfully the rest of the season was relatively trouble free weather-wise thanks to one of the best summers in living memory.

After sixteen seasons as a Society it is becoming increasingly difficult to find new venues in the local area to sample, that said we still managed to add three new courses to our list (Dalmahoy East & West plus Morpeth). So to make up for the lack of new courses we decided to revisit a couple of venues unused by the society for a good few years. On the whole the comments were positive regarding our choice of courses for this season. With regards to the running of the Society, following suggestions and comments that our “Course Scratch Score” handicap adjustment system was unfair to lower handicappers we took the comments on board and decided to scrap that method. Its replacement is loosely based on the official R&A handicap system with adjustment bands based on the individual players starting handicap. Our new system appears to be working OK though there are still a few issues to sort out over the winter before the 2019 season.

Right, now for the main reason we were all there for, the golf. For the first of this seasons Society Majors, the Borders Championship, this year we decided to head north to the outskirts of Edinburgh and play at Dalmahoy Golf Club, stopping at the hotel on site. There are two separate 18 hole courses. The West course can be best described as short but technical, making accuracy a premium and the East course is best described as a bit of a beast with long but relatively wide fairways bordered by rough that can only be described as jungle like! In our infinite wisdom we decided to play the “easy” West course on the first day which lulled us all into a false sense of security. The East course is a totally different kettle of fish which was reflected in the scores. The winner on the first day was Dave Watts with 45 points whereas the winner the following day was Paul Baker with 34, a whopping 11 points less! The winner and 2018 Borders Champion taking the honour of being the guardian of The Claw for this year with a total of 69 points (45+24) was Dave Watts, his first Society "Major" win in eight years as a Member.

Another of our Society's annual events is our Team Challenge day, this year we had intended to play this competition at Wearside Golf Club on August Bank Holiday Monday but due the a number of factors there wasn't a big enough entry for that day. We tried swapping dates around, hoping to increase the entry list but this didn't help either. Eventually we did manage to hold the event at Blyth, though we had to reduce it to an 18 hole singles event. As this is our Society's homage to the Ryder Cup, and the game was played at the start of Ryder Cup week, for this year only we made this a USA versus Europe match. Following an enjoyable afternoon's golf the result mirrored the actual competition played on the outskirts of Paris the following weekend with Team Europe thoroughly wuppin' Team USA's ass by 6 points to 3.

Now for the season long competitions.

Firstly the Longest Drive category, last season this category was dominated by one player but this year there was more competition with two players winning 3 rounds each in second place but the winner with four round wins was Andy Trewick. The Nearest the Pin competition was a much closer run thing with NINE players going into the final round with a chance of winning. Thankfully (for me at least) this was all resolved at Wearside when Andy Dodd won the final round making him the category Champion for 2018.

As for the Two's Pot competition, last season we had 23 two's but this year all we could muster was a paltry 16! All the better for the players who did manage a two as the share value went up from £5.50 to £8.00 this year. After a three way tie last year we also had an outright winner, Andy Dodd who carded 4 two's this year. For 2018 we decided to reintroduce a competition we ran for one year way back in 2008, the Birdie Bowl. As you would expect we had a lot more Birdies than Twos, 88 in total. Ironically, given the ten year gap, we had the same winner in 2018, Jim Rooks won the bowl with 13 birdies.

For the 2018 season we changed the format for our second Major, the Aberdeen Shield. In the past years we have run it and its predecessor the Chairman's Cup as a pure knockout competition like the FA Cup. In an attempt to reduce the number of games we have changed to a Champions League style format with a league phase followed by a knockout phase. This year's Final was a rerun of the battle for the main Championship with Gordon Grant taking on Craig English at Sharpley Springs Golf Club in early October. The well matched pair fought out a ding-dong battle which went all the way to the 18 th hole, requiring a playoff hole to decide the winner. In the end Craig English came out the winner and new Tim Aberdeen Memorial Shield Champion.

Now for the big one, the Main Championship and the race for the Claret Jug. In recent years there have been as many as seven players going into Finals day with a chance of winning but this season one player went into the match with an eight point lead. Once again it was a battle between Gordon and Craig, with Gordon holding the upper hand going into the final round and indeed going into the back nine holes. But then Craig began the fight back and by the end of the round he had overtook Gordon eventually winning by two points with a total of 361 to join his Aberdeen Shield win. Runner up Gordon finished just behind with 359 points. In third place (after a “rounds played” countback) was Jim Rooks on 350 points with outgoing Champion Bryan Mountford in fourth.

2019

Membership –

At the end of the 2018 season our Chairman and my fellow Society founder member Paul Marshall decided that due to work & family constraints he had to take a hiatus from the Society for now. This left us with the task of choosing his replacement as Society Chairman, thankfully long term member Jim Rooks stepped up to the plate and agreed to become Chairman. As for the membership itself, for 2019 we had 24 full members including Gary West's dad Les playing his first full season with us. We did have more than our fair share of injuries this year, starting at our first match at Ravensworth when Steve Grant, playing in his first full Society match in over a year, was on the receiving end of a wayward shot requiring a check over at hospital. Sadly this wasn't Steve's only medical problem as a reoccurrence of his long term back problem kept him out for the rest of the season and sadly may well have brought an end to his golfing career. A couple of weeks after Steve's problems Andy Trewick damaged his Achilles tendon ruling him out for three months. Then Tom McDonald had a major health scare, ruling him out for the rest of the season. As we headed towards the end of the season Joe Bell was sidelined after needed life saving surgery while away in Spain. Finally defending Champion Craig English was ruled out for the rest of the season after damaging his quadriceps. After a year like this I am thinking about contacting BUPA to see if we can get some sponsorship for next year!

Courses –

As we have all but exhausted the supply of local courses new to the Society, for the 2019 season we decided to visit some venues used in the past but not for some years. We did manage to squeeze in three new courses, Ravensworth, South Leeds & Woodhall Hills the latter two were part of our Weekend Away trip see below for more details. Weather wise the season was going great with just the odd shower during our events. That was right up until the final three matches when the golfing gods decided to throw us a curve ball. Our first attempt at playing Beamish had to be postponed due to the course being waterlogged, luckily it could be rearranged on the only spare weekend left available. Then the following weekend Durham City was rained off and as there was no time left we had to abandon that round. At least we managed to tee off on the rearranged Beamish match date despite the light drizzle. Sadly that was the best it got as the course had to be closed following a heavy shower after only playing 4 holes meaning the 2019 Championship would be over 14 rounds instead of the planned 16 this season. Even Finals Day was pretty much ruined by the weather as it rained almost all day making the course soggy to say the least, but at least we finished the round meaning the 2019 Championship was decided out on the course instead of in the clubhouse.

Rules & handicaps –

At the start of the 2019 season our sport's governing body, the Royal & Ancient totally revamped the official Rules of Golf. As a private Society we can have our own variations but they do for the most part adhere to the rules. The R&A have even pinched one of our Society rules, the “double drop” for a lost ball; I knew we should have copyrighted it! Our Society handicap system was tweaked slightly but remained basically the same as last year. The only significant change this season was to add a “win points bonus” which seemed popular, especially with the round winners!

Competitions –

The first of this season's Majors was the Weekend Away trip (AKA the Borders Championship). For this season we traveled to Yorkshire and were based in Leeds, playing South Leeds on the Saturday and Woodhall Hills on the Sunday. South Leeds would have been a very good course in the past but really needs an injection of cash to bring it back to its former glory. The greens in particular were very poor, it's the only course we have needed to play preferred lies on the greens! Saturday night in Leeds proved to be a little hectic, the combination of the number of students in the area and the UEFA Champions League final made getting into a local pub very difficult but we did manage it eventually. Following a good night's kip in the hotel overlooking Headingley Cricket Ground we took the short drive to Woodhall Hills Golf Club for our second round. Instantly we knew this was a far better course, with a great welcome and food combining with a very tough and challenging course making for a great day's competition. After two hard fought games the winner and custodian of The Claw for 2019 was Alan Welsh, taking his first Society Major win since joining us in 2014.

For 2019 our Team Challenge event was held at South Shields Golf Club and we used the single game format first adopted last year, it appeared to work well again. The two team captains were Chairman Jim Rooks & the new “pensioner” Eddie Harrison who had retired from the Fire Service the day before. The captains took charge of two teams of eight players with Eddie's team coming out victorious by five points to three.

Longest Drive category, this season there were four players going into the final round with a chance of winning, Andy Dodd, Bryan Mountford, Gary West & Dave Watts. In the end Dave became this year's winner with four round wins.

As usual the Nearest the Pin competition was a very close run thing eventually being decided by a distance of only 9mm! Five players went into the final round with a realistic chance of winning, Andy Dodd, Craig English, Bernie Fitzsimmon, Brian Slack & Gary West. The eventual winner was Brian Slack with 2 round wins and a shortest distance of 0.5m beating Craig English who also had 2 wins but a distance of 0.59m!

In the past the Two's Pot competition has been quite tight, usually being won by just one or two Two's. But this season we had a runaway winner in the shape of Andy Dodd who managed an excellent haul of 9 two's including three at Blyth alone (one on each par 3 hole!). The share value this year worked out at £5.50 per two so Andy put most of his winnings to good use by paying his 2020 Society subs to our Treasurer John!

The Birdie Bowl, as you would expect we had a lot more Birdies than Twos, 74 in total. The outcome was similar to the Two's pot above with Andy Dodd coming out the clear winner with 19 Birdie's. Jim Rooks finished second with 13 Two's, including an Eagle on the par 5 ninth hole at Stocksfield.

For our second Major, the Tim Aberdeen Memorial Shield we decided to continue with the Champions League style format adopted last year. This season we tweaked it slightly by increasing the numbers progressing from the league phase and expanding the knockout phase. On the whole this worked well but a little creative rule twisting was required mid competition that will need some clarification before next season. After all this the final was a hard fought battle between Dave Watts and Brian Slack in atrocious weather conditions at Sharpley Springs Golf Club the day before Finals Day with Dave Watts coming out victorious.

Now for the big one, the Main Championship and the race for the Claret Jug. In recent years there have been as many as seven players going into Finals day with a chance of winning but this season there were only three in with a realistic shot. Alan Welsh went into the final game leading by a single point from long time Championship leader Mark Wilson. Then Andy Dodd made up the top three a further point behind. After battling through the atrocious weather conditions at Wearside and a course that should really have been closed we have our new winner and Champion Golfer for 2019 Mark Wilson who took the title by one point from Alan Welsh with Andy Dodd a further point behind. That's your lot for another year, on behalf of the whole Society I would like to congratulate our new Champion Mark Wilson and all our other category winners.

2020

The 2020 Wanderers season will go down as the strangest ever due to the COVID19 Pandemic that caused mayhem around the world. Little did we know when we gathered for our traditional pre-season meeting in February that all our planning would go down the pan, but the writing was on the wall even then. We had intended to start our season at Newbiggin towards the end of March but the week before our planned start the whole country went into Lockdown making almost all non essential gatherings illegal. Thankfully our season finally got underway at Catterick in June, albeit in a severely restricted form.

Membership –

For the most part the 2020 Society Membership list remained the same with the exception of one new member and one returning member. Fellow founder member Paul Marshall decided his work & family duties now allowed him time to rejoin us so we welcomed him back into the fold. In addition the committee decided to bestow the title of Hon President to Paul as a way of thanking him for all he has done for our Society over the years. In addition to Paul's return we welcomed a new member Stuart Barron who joined just before our season finally got underway meaning we started the season with 22 Members. Two of our members still had long term health problems that limited their appearances this year, Craig English was still recovering from his quadriceps injury and Alan Welsh had knee and back issues.

Courses –

As the COVID19 pandemic evolved and the country was put into lockdown most activities were put on hold or cancelled and our society was no exception. When the country slowly emerged from lockdown in June I did some phoning around and managed to arrange a revised season that included most of the courses we intended to play originally. After a lot of rearrangement we managed to put together a 14 match season including two new courses to the society, Hobson and Teeside, both of which received favourable comments from the society members. For a change we had planned to have our traditional Finals Day celebrations at our second home, Houghton but thanks to the restrictions this had to be cancelled, along with our weekend away trip to Harrogate. Thankfully this year the weather played ball, unlike last year we didn't have to postpone or cancel any events and the majority were played in favourable conditions.

Rules & handicaps –

As it seemed to work well for the 2019 season we decided not to change our handicap adjustment system for 2020. Thats the first time we have done that for many a season, we must finally be getting something right! The restrictions imposed by the Government meant we needed to alter some of our rules but things remained the same for the most part.

Competitions –

Due to the restrictions imposed following the pandemic most of our usual competitions sadly had to be cancelled including the Tim Aberdeen Shield, Team Challenge, Nearest the Pin and Longest Drive categories. Even once we got underway there was always a chance of another full lockdown so we decided to see how far we could get before deciding on running a Championship. As it was we managed all 14 rearranged matches meaning we could run a full Championship. The 14 included 3 games played north of the Tyne, a concept we have used before for the Borders Championship so at least we managed two competitions.

The first of our to two remaining "Majors" this season was the re-jigged Borders Championship as indicated above. Using the three scores gained at the matches at Blyth, Newbiggin and Morpeth, a format we last used back in 2009. After the three hard fought games and following a tie breaker on "rounds won" the winner and custodian of The Claw for 2020 was John Ford, taking his first Society Major win since 2007.

Now for the Main Championship and the race for the Claret Jug. The restrictions and late start to the season meant we played less rounds than in previous years (14 instead of the usual 16) and there were four players going into the final game with a chance of lifting the jug. Andy Dodd went into the final match with a five point lead over Jim Rooks and Dave Sanders. On the day Jim had a fantastic round scoring 41 points. Therefore the winner and Champion Golfer for the third time was our Society Chairman Jim Rooks with a total of 337 points. Jim took the title by seven points from Andy Dodd on 330 with Dave Sanders a further point behind. Well that's your lot for the strangest and hectic year in our Society history, on behalf of the whole Society Membership I would like to congratulate our two 2020 Champions Jim Rooks and John Ford.

2021

As in 2020 the 2021 Wanderers season was severely disrupted by the COVID19 Pandemic that was still causing mayhem around the world. Once again many of our usual competitions had to be cancelled as there were still many restrictions in place when our season finally got underway at Catterick in May. At least we managed to run a 14 round season and by the end we were almost back to normal with most restrictions being lifted.

Membership –

For 2021 we had 23 full Members with an average attendance of just under 19 playing each round including the odd guest player. We welcomed back both Paul Marshall and Paul Baker who returned to the Society after a couple of years away. Following his recovery from his quadriceps injury it was good to welcome Craig English for the odd outing but sadly Alan Welsh's knee and back issues were still causing him major problems and he was unable to play.

Courses –

At the start of the year Derek Griffiths did some phoning around to try to arrange the 2021 fixtures. This proved to be easier said than done as we were still in lockdown with very few clubs having staff in to take calls. Given the difficulties involved Derek managed to arrange almost a full season of matches and with a couple of additions we had a 14 match Championship, thanks go to Derek for all his hard work. We were due to play our 100th different course since the Society was formed in 2002 but due to the restrictions we decided to leave this till 2022 which will also coincide with our 20th anniversary. For this auspicious event we plan to arrange to play somewhere special. For our Finals Day this year we returned to our second home, Houghton and even managed to have the usual post match celebratory meal & prizegiving.

Rules & handicaps –

As it seemed to work well for the previous couple of seasons we decided not to change our handicap adjustment system for 2021. As far as I can remember that's the first time we have left things unchanged for two seasons in our history, despite the odd grumble and comment we must finally be getting something right!

Competitions –

Once again due to the restrictions imposed following the pandemic most of our usual competitions sadly had to be cancelled including the Team Challenge, Nearest the Pin and Longest Drive categories. We did however manage to run the Tim Aberdeen Shield knockout competition after a year away, along with the Main and the Borders Championships. This years Borders Competition was played on the three "Rivers" courses (Tyneside, Teesside & Wearside) so at least we managed three competitions in 2021, one more than last year.

Borders Championship (Three Rivers) –

The first of our three "Majors" this season was the re-jigged Borders Championship (Three Rivers Challenge) as indicated above. After the three hard fought games the result was very tight with just 4 points covering the top 3. The recipient of The Claw for 2021 was Andy Dodd, taking his first Society Major win.

Tim Aberdeen Shield –

The second of our "Majors" was the welcome return of the Tim Aberdeen Memorial Shield after a year away. Following a hard fought competition it all came down to the final between Andy Trewick and Jim Rooks which was played at Houghton and by all accounts it was a match that paid tribute to Tim's memory with his Brother in Law and long term friend Jim coming out on top beating Andy 5&3.

Main Championship –

Now for the Main Championship and the race for the Claret Jug. The restrictions and late start to the season meant once again we played less rounds than in most years (14 instead of the usual 16). After 13 rounds there were four players going into the final game with a chance of lifting the jug. Andy Dodd (325 points) went into the final match with very healthy 15 point lead over John Ford (310 points) with Andy Trewick (309 points) & Dave Sanders (308 points) a further 1 and 2 points back respectively. On the day Andy Dodd did enough to keep the lead therefore the winner and our Champion Golfer for the 2021 season was Andy Dodd with a total of 325 points. In second place on 316 points came Dave Sanders and third place went to Eddie Harrison, a further 3 points behind on 313. On behalf of the Society Membership I would like to congratulate our three 2021 Champions Andy Dodd (Main Championship and Borders) and Jim Rooks (Tim Aberdeen Shield), hopefully there will be more categories to fight for next season.

And Finally –

Now for a couple of thank you's. Firstly I would like to thank the two “Paul's” (Marshall & Baker) along with Kevin Hall of DESCO Ltd once again for their kind sponsorship of our Wearside match this season. Finally, a very big thank you to all our members and guest players who have supported the Society throughout what has been a difficult year at times. For 2022 we are hoping to be able to run a full season including the return of some old favorites like Nearest the Pin and Longest Drive. We are also planning a special event to celebrate both our 100th course and our 20th year as a Society. I look forward to meeting up with you all again in early 2022 to start another Wanderers season.

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