By Dave Bruce

Last Friday the Axe Cliff Golf Club Seniors held their annual general meeting and were delighted to welcome and elect their new captain for 2023, Steve Thompson.

Before Steve took over outgoing captain, David Lacey, in his last address, eloquently took members through his year. He had a challenging start with the outgoing excellent managers, Simon and Jill Wellington, handing over the running of the club to new directors, Jo Hopgood, Tom Spencer and Kyle Philpotts, who have since done a tremendous job in helping to secure a good future for the 128 year-old club.

Despite the weather most of the weekly competitions were completed and enjoyed some along 19 matches against other clubs, winning all but one home games. These are great fun and always played in the right spirit and he encouraged all members to continue supporting them. He thanked everyone for their generosity in helping to raise £846 for his main charity, The Seaton & District Hospital at Home Nurses, through raffles and quizes held during the year.

David highlighted the real transformation that all members had witnessed to the course, especially the greens and surrounds, giving due acclaim to the club greenkeeper, staff and volunteers with special thanks to Tom Spencer and Tony Snell. He gave grateful thanks to all staff of - Alex, Harry, Andy and Don and his committee of Steve, Bill (treasurer), Leighton (fixture secretary) and Chris (handicap secretary) for helping him organise the many events in 2022. His captaincy proved and endorsed what a wonderfully friendly club we have at Axe Cliff. David thank you for an excellent year.

Steve, in his incoming acceptance address, stated that that it was a great honour to become the new captain and thanked his committee for their support. He had already printed our Fixture List for 2023 and it was good to see that the popular Seniors Open would return in April. We are certainly lucky to have Steve, who is a young 60 year-old retired physics teacher who only moved to Seaton, with his partner Marie, about two years ago. He has been a great help to David during 2022 with the friendly matches and he and Marie have organised a number of very successful quizes held in the clubhouse which will also continue for this year. He obviously loves Axe Cliff which he considers a good test for his amazing 5.8 handicap. He has played in the National Thornton Cup which is for handicaps of 0-6 for the counties of Essex and Lincolnshire. I think that we are in for another exciting year and I only hope that my nerves can stand it!

The AGM followed a Shotgun start stableford so that all get in for the meeting to start promptly at 1.30 pm. The stableford winners were Division One: 1 Terry Atkins, 40 points; 2. Mike Wickins 38. Division 2: - Chris Walker, 37 points; 2 Richard Bush 34 .