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My initial intention in writing these monthly inserts was to follow a diary type report. It seems however that if you would like to arrange any Nomads events in the future and are concerned that it may conflict with other events, June is the month to do it. What an uneventful time as Captain. The only thing I can attribute to this must be the onset of winter.
I think you will all agree that the committee has gone to great lengths to improve the winter clothing on offer. All our clothing is now branded and colour co-ordinated. We have sleeveless and long sleeve jackets, white and black under shirts, beanies and navy blue jerseys for after the game. Please adhere to our dress code and order your clothing from Bev.
The change in climate was certainly evident at our Bryanston game. I managed to maintain my concentration for the first two holes and then the thought of another 16 of those kicked in. Under the trying conditions, I thought that Bryanston looked in good condition and the improvements to their facilities make it a top Joburg course. It certainly played more difficult than when we there in January. At this stage I would usually thank the Captain, Vice-Captain or committee member from Bryanston for joining us on the day, but I can omit this section. I did however have the pleasure of playing with Pat Frampton on his 100th game and Robbie Von Hagen who received his 10 year tie. Thanks to Steve Anticevich for joining us in what was almost a three ball. Unfortunately once again there were some members who finished in the dark. We tried our best to move the allocated first tee off time from 11h14 to 10h45. Unfortunately there were 7 ladies fourballs, all off one tee and our 128 players had to be a little patient.
On the day I had the privilege of buying Ken Blake and his three ball a drink on the 18th hole. Congratulations to Ken on his 45 year tie and if that was not dedication enough, he has never missed a game. Of those 45 years, Ken has spent 40 of them on the Gauteng committee. Thanks, once again, to Ken for all his efforts and archiving – I managed to rent a bakkie from Tempest and have collected his archive files from his home.
You will slowly see that we have introduced a calendar year, to be embroidered under the Gauteng Nomads logo on the playing shirt. The year depicted on the shirt will denote the year in which that person was Captain of Gauteng/Transvaal. This is certainly not compulsory for previous Captain’s but I think it is an initiative worth supporting. As a 5 year Nomad and playing together for the first time at Houghton, how was I to know that Richard Moore was Captain in 1988? I am pleased to see that Richard has given me his shirt and it is off to Dion Cuyler for embroidery. If there are any other previous Captain’s that would like their year embroidered onto their shirt, please bring it to me at a monthly game and I will arrange it and return it at the next game.
The next few weeks of Nomads appear more eventful, starting with a trip to my 5th Botswana Nationals. We have a team of 8 guys going up to represent South Africa. Shortly thereafter we are off to attend the Border 40th anniversary and then the Highveld Trophy at Wingate.
Lastly – one of the reasons for attending the Boland anniversary is to represent Gauteng at the 119th National Management Meeting. Prior to attending, I am required to submit a report that elaborates on the status of our Club. The report has taken me many hours to compile so I thought I would include a small snippet. “You may have noticed that in our minutes of our first meeting, we discussed the wearing of our red “Panaino” hats at National prize-givings. Just to clarify our position on this. One of our long standing members, Ronnie Panaino, who was inducted in June 1978 and who most people associate with the wearing of his traditional red or black hat, was going to play his 34th and final National Tournament in 2012 at Southern Natal Nationals at Port Shepstone. For this reason we decided to introduce the red hat to acknowledge Ronnie and bid him farewell at Nationals. We have after consideration of the comments received from various people and in particular, “the wearing of a hat under a closed roof is a sign of disrespect,” decided that we will no longer be wearing these hats at any future National Tournaments.”
See you at the next game.
Graham Bishop