Where's Wally?

More about that in a moment, but first,

 2022 is upon us, and it has started with the selection of my successor as Wallasey Golf Club captain. Tony Davies is the gentleman to whom I will hand over in March. The selection process is a two meeting affair. In November 2021 the ex-Captains met without me to put together a shortlist of names for consideration and after some toing and froing we were presented with a shortlist to consider in a meeting before lunch s a few weeks ago.

After the dinner, myself and SWHBO drove to the new Captains home to offer him the gig. Luckily he said yes and he was then announced to the members at a presentation evening the following Monday. All a bit of cloak and dagger but huge fun.

Then, last Friday we had our annual ball. Three times it had been rescheduled and it was renamed The Frost Ball. It went really well, with a good Soul band, excellent food and good company. The only down side was that a few guests contracted COVID subsequent to it, but luckily nobody seems too unwell.

The following Sunday I then trotted off to Anfield with my cousin to see the mighty Bees take on Liverpool in their first league meeting for a long time..Brentford unfortunately were a bit off the pace, and while they had chances to put some pressure on the home side, they won at a canter. The day was not dissimilar to a rugby day, with a few beers before and after and the match really only being the reason to get out.

It's not Wally you looking for but two West London titans having their 15 minutes of fame on the Brentford FC web site, fan zone....

 

Good news to report is that my new golf net has arrived and I will be trying to assemble it tomorrow. The first attempt did not go too well as there seems to be a number of difficult operations which the netting does not allow to work, so i am waiting for the manufacturer to come back to me with some help.

So there we go, half way through January, the weather is glorious and I still have two dinners to look forward to. The weight loss programme will kick in in due course.  

James Nimmo (1954-2021)

As I have already outlined in previous blog entries, becoming a golf club captain in the Liverpool area automatically allows you to embrace 27 new friends, and develop a lifetime of experiences with them. Through time the group will diminish as people become ill, move away or fall out of love with golf, but there is always hope that those moments are still far away in the distance.

Sadly for the Visionaries we have already lost one of our own. News reached us a week or so ago that James 'Jim' Nimmo, our year group captain representing West Derby collapsed in the shower at home and despite best efforts of neighbours he never recovered consciousness and died yesterday. He was 67.

Jim was a true gentleman and one of the good guys. We had only known him for short of two years but we had all grown to love him and call him a friend. He battled adversity at his golf club and fought tooth and nail for the traditions and heritage of the place to be maintained, at a time when others had different ideas. These battles on their own made him waiver when he was offered a second term as Captain, however, with the knowledge that he could spend time with the Visionaries and enjoy golf away from West Derby, he agreed to continue.

He had some health scares last year but we all assumed the treatment he received had stabilised him, but that sadly was not the case. We will all miss his smiling face and charming manner. I was lucky to play early with him in his initial year as Captain, and then again recently when he showed off the progress West Derby were making  in tackling drainage problems, and re-routing challenges brought about by stray golf balls peppering the  neighbourhood. I played with him at Wallasey only three weeks ago and dined with him at S & A more recently than that. 

We, as a group, will discuss how best we can remember Jim, and ensure he stays in the hearts and minds of the Visionaries, but for now our thoughts are with Brenda, his partner, and his children.

Sleep easy Jim we will miss you dearly.

 

Subliminal shutdown

Once more we are faced with a COVID dilemma as a new strain first noticed in South Africa, sweeps across the world. The new virus spreads very quickly but according to the Saffers it has mild symptoms and few people are dying from it. Yes South Africa has a younger population but they are less efficient with their vaccines than we are, so what are we and the Government to  make of it?

Generally I do not think the British people have gone one step beyond to have two vaccines and a booster just to sit at home starring at the wall. The booster programme in particular was designed to allow a normal lifestyle to be embraced. If you feel poorly, then stay at home you might have COVID, you might have the flu or you might just have a cold. If you feel well then get on with things. Even if you are asymptomatic you are not going to influence the speed at which  this thing is already spreading and as long as deaths and hospitalisations are maintaining a flat rate , or even slowly increasing, then the speed of the booster programme should come to our aid.

There will be people who see the opportunity to call in sick over the festive period as a bonus, almost an extra few days on the national holiday,and businesses or public services will have to close as a result.There  will be health workers hugely frustrated that the majority of people in hospital are not fully inoculated but a virus has a life too. It does not plan to wipe out every host it infects. That would be destroying the very environment it need to breed, multiply and eventually mutate. This Omicron variant sounds a lot like a cryptocurrency and COVID seems to be behaving much like one too. Huge peeks of infection followed by  big falls. 

It is good to see the Government calling it's bluff at the moment even if the scientists and health professionals say we are about to be hit by another tidal wave of infection. The vast majority who make it to our TV screens seem to be from the Dad's Army school of doomery, each one grasping for that key nugget that they can use in a 'told you so' moment in the future.

Let's  enjoy the festive break and everything that goes with it and tackle any new challenges which 2022 may hold for us, full on.......or should that be mask on!!!

Merry Christmas and happy New Year to all of you. 

 

Voting for Christmas

The rugby Varsity match would always signal the start of Christmas as far aa I was concerned and it was usually played on the second Tuesday of December. I then tried to have some sort of party to go to every day from then until Christmas Eve. The build-up to Christmas was always much more enjoyable then the day itself.   Things have changed and now the match will be played in late March and I think trying to start my Christmas celebrations then would be a bit tricky.

So my new kick-off event has been the golf club turkey trot, a competition played in pairs for which the top three prizes are turkey. Last weekend myself and my partner came second and so I was in amongst the prizes. The Senior men also had a competition on the following Monday and again me and my partner came second. Only wine for prizes on this occasion though. 

So now the countdown for Christmas has started in earnest, but the news of a new strain of COVID is making it difficult for me to go out every day and be sociable. I did manage to go to Gino's skybar again last night with a few of the Visionaries. It was an excellent night which I think a few of the cry-offs might now be regretting not attending. Today I brought the Wallasey golf club green staff a drink in the clubhouse as a small thank you for all the hard work they have put in on behalf of the members this year. The rest of next week is looking a bit sparse though, as the latest government statistics and press conferences have put people on the back foot.

I am concerned that the information we are being given is not allowing people to make the right choices. We are never told how the death rate at the moment compares to the 2019 five year average for the same time period. We are not told how many people in hospital do not have the recommended number of jabs, and by their own admission nobody has indicated how severe the latest strain is. Indeed the data from South Africa indicates it could be quite mild.

The virus has no reason to kill all the hosts it is mutating on as that will be self defeating as eventually it will die off. If the side effects are minor then we are just facing another flu or common cold Winter challenge but there is no need to shut everything down just for that. Get on with life, get jabbed and live life for the reason it exists.

So back to the diary and address book to see who I can go out with next week!!

Roast Guineapig

 The St Andrews dinner season concluded last night at Heswall. It was a very pleasant evening with all main guests sitting around an oval table. Only problem was there were thirteen of us and I know some people who would not have entertained sitting on a table with such a number, but we all seemed to survive.

The Address to the Haggis was conducted in due style with actions which would give Wallasey's Tom Blackstock a run for his money in the Address to the Haggis stakes. All in all a great night made all the better by being able to drink London Pride all night, a rare opportunity on the Wirral but Heswall golf club always seems to have it on draught and it was lovely.

The penultimate dinner was at Woolton where they always schedule their dinner on St Andrews Day. This year it was a Tuesday and I was thankful that Wednesday was a Wintery day which meant golf was cancelled.

The rest of this week has been involved with storm damage repairs. We had a large limb come down off one tree, but the main problems were the eight fence sections which were lost. The debris was scattered over a large area  to such an extent  that neighbours came round with armfulls of wood,,,,I think these are yours!!

So the exterior is secured once more, I just have the boundary sections to fix, a door to the store room to repair and then all the old wood and branches to dispose of. In the day that would have been a big bonfire, but it seems those days are long gone. There is one leek in the room which I might have to put through the insurance people, but I am holding off on that just at the moment to check no other leeks appear this weekend, when the rain is forecast to be heavy, but the wind less so.

One of the granddaughters has a birthday tomorrow so there is a pool party going on as I type, Then we are hopefully off to a woodland light trail. The Harry Potter experience last weekend was postponed because of the storm, hopefully we will have better luck tonight. Both Ava and Nell have had an early Christmas present of a guinea-pig each. They are a delicacy in Peru but we did not have the nerve to try them when we were in Cousco. Maybe we can eat one of the new ones when nobody is looking!!!

 

St Andrew @ Wallasey

 Last night Wallasey hosted the annual St Andrews dinner, the third I have attended, with still two to go. I had a lead role in this one as I had to make my last major speech of my Captaincy . There were about 100 people in attendance and the in-house catering team did us proud with traditional Scottish fayre including the haggis which I got the opportunity to stab to death. The address was conducted by Tom Blackstock in his usual exuberant style with bagpipes accompaniment.

Then it was up to me to summarise my 18 months in office and I threw a few stories in to add to the entertainment. I was fortunate to recieve a standing ovation at the end of it which was a great surprise and very much appreciated.

We then adjourned to the bar to exchange stories and experiences with the ex-Captains and my personal guests, Jim Mitchell and Paul Spivey. Jim very kindly led the evening with the Selkirk grace  to maintain the Scottish theme 

Golf is now starting to return to normal with no formal events to attend so I can return to playing at the Club when I want to. That said, the weather has been awful with high winds and rain. We lost eight fence panels at home and I have obtained enough wood to replace them, so that will take me a few days. The price of wood was extraordinary and has increased three fold since I last needed to buy some. So at least I now have enough to see us through the next few years as most of the panels which came down were over 20 years old. The ones which remained and survived I had already replaced at some previous time.

The golf club lost the three elegant pine trees by the clubhouse but not any of the scrubby sycamore around which they were circled. So that will be a maintenance job for the greens staff that they were not expecting!

So two St Andrews dinners this week then we are into December and the festive dinner season. Lets hope the latest COVID mutation is kept at bay long enough for everybody to enjoy it. Ho ho ho!

Princes to paupers

Last week I was in Sandwich in Kent for the inaugural final of the Linksnet golf society. Kent is a long way from anywhere, even Kent itself, so the four and a half hour drive was not too bad and the company and competition were first rate. Princes golf course which hosted the event though was a real disappointment. The layouts were very samey and so had no wow factor about them and the service and food in the Lodges was very poor. So poor in fact that I wrote a letter of complaint. They seemed very non-plus about it all so i will not be back, nor will I recommend the place to anybody else.

Compare that to our day at Royal Birkdale a few days later when we were treated like royalty and had an excellent day with The Visionaries. My golf stood up to it pretty well and the meal afterwards was first class. even won a fiver from the captain of S & A which does not happen too many times in a season.

We are now well into the dining season, The Bromborough St Andrews dinner kicked things off and was a very pleasant red jacket affair and on Saturday we had the Leasowe St Andrews dinner, a more boisterous event. Sandwiched between the two was the Bidston Summer Ball which showed off everything good about Bidston. The girls could wear their finest adn the hospitality was first class.

Most clubs in and around Liverpool have a St Andrews event and it seems to stem from the fact that many of the great golf designers originated from Scotland, and St Andrews in particular so these dinners are in recognition of them, rather, than usually assumed, the patron saint of Scotland.

Wallasey hold their event this weekend when I do a speech summarising my 18 months in office. Then I am pretty much done in terms of official dinners and speeches at the club. Our incoming captain will be announced  to the members on 10th January.