Not having received my five year tie yet, it is unlikely that I hold any Gauteng Nomads records in an organisation that is over fifty years old. However, with our JVC being away diving in Indonesia I started the field at Glenvista for the 17^th time. I will have to check the archives to see whether this constitutes a record, second only to Tony Shaw. It appeared from the balcony that all went well and thanks to Greg Yeoman and Sheldon Botha for looking after the tee boxes.

The Andrew Mentis charity is starting to gain some traction and thanks once again to all those individuals who have dipped into their wallets to support our fund raising efforts. For those of you that don’t know Tyron Zaaiman, it means that you have somehow managed to avoid his raffle ticket sales. Not only is he my raffle ticket seller but also the debt collector for sales made and not yet paid. For the month of August, Tyron will continue to sell the second and final TaylorMade draw. The draw for the clubs and bag will be done at our Andrew Mentis Golf Day at Modderfontein on 5 September 2014.

On the topic of the Golf Day, the entry forms are available for both morning and afternoon times and the entry form will be distributed via email (that thing that comes to your computer) by Bev on her return. We have managed to keep the entry fee the same as the previous year, something one doesn’t hear too often any more. For those new Nomads that haven’t participated in an Andrew Mentis day before, it is an opportunity to invite guests and prospective Nomads to join us. According to our current waiting list, it would be good idea to get some prospective members added to it. There must be at least one Nomad in the fourball. There will be hole sponsorship available on the day and as in previous years, we will be looking for prize sponsors and donations. Anybody willing to assist with either of these should contact myself or Sean Ledden. There will also be the traditional raffles on the day and this year I have decided to raffle off two “rugby day experiences” to be drawn at prize giving.

The invitation for the Rugby Day at Ellis Park on 4 October, Springboks against New Zealand, is ready and will be sent out shortly. After much effort and negotiation with Ellis Park and Computicket, we have unfortunately not been able to reduce the cost of a ticket. The cost of the all-inclusive package for the day will be R1,050 per person. This will include your transport to and from the game (or parking ticket), food and drinks and the game ticket. We have fortunately managed to obtain tickets on the Main Grandstand on the western side of the stadium. These will be sought after tickets, so we are restricting it to four tickets per Nomad. I suggest you book and pay for your tickets as soon as possible.

Looking at the Ellis Park stats for South Africa vs NZ since the World Cup Final in 1995 our record is good, played 6, won 4, lost 2. In those six games – points for 192 and points against 173.

Go Bokke

Graham Bishop

Another game under the belt and by all accounts an enjoyable prize-giving held at Royal. Well done to Darren for introducing some new faces and a look into the future of Gauteng Nomads.

I have just returned from a 3 day stay in the Kruger National Park, which was brought about by a trip to Nelspruit to watch the Springboks play Wales. The Springboks (coached by that visionary, Heyneke Meyer and led by the youthful Victor Matfield, who in his autobiography, entitled “Victor – My Journey” makes reference to his matric year with a chap called Ken Blake), didn’t deliver a great performance, “maar n’ punt is n’ punt ou pal.”

After a successful Andrew Mentis Rugby Day held at Ellis Park last year, attended by many Nomads, including a Lowveld contingent, the Lowveld decided to do the same and extended an invitation to Gauteng. Ten of us made the trip to support their Andrew Mentis initiative and it was a massive success and well organised. Thanks to Gavin Bullen for all the hard work. As the Andrew Mentis Committee for 2014 we are again going to host the Ellis Park Rugby Day against New Zealand on 4 October 2014. As you may have heard at prize-giving, Ellis Park no longer allow group bookings directly through the stadium and this has been given to Computicket. The unfortunate reality at this stage is that they have increased the ticket prices from R350 to R650 or 46,15% (slightly above annual CPI and irrespective of where we are seated). We are obviously negotiating this price and will try our utmost to have it reduced. The result will however be an increase to our cost on the day and like all increases this will have to be passed on to the consumer. We will keep you informed of the progress of our negotiations, which one hopes is not as protracted as the platinum workers negotiations.

The Andrew Mentis fund raising is going well and we recently completed our first initiative. The beneficiary of the initiative was Woman and Men against Child Abuse (WMACA). It involved the acquisition and installation of shelving, which will be used for storage of case files in pending criminal proceedings against sexual offenders. Darren and I had the privilege of being there during the installation with Kevin Barbeau (Executive Director at WMACA). I would like to thank my client, Dietmar Krupke at Store-quip for providing the shelving at a discount and also for the free installation. My thanks also to Tania Otto of WMACA with whom I have dealt on their needs and providing me with insight into their charity and their fight against child abuse. For those of you that are interested you can visit their website on www.wmaca.org.za

Finally – the last two games have intentionally been raffle free, however, this is soon to change. We will be doing another TaylorMade draw, to be drawn at the Andrew Mentis Golf Day at Modderfontein on 5 September. Also, the diamond draw will be done at Xmas Cup at Randpark and tickets will be available from our October game.

Graham Bishop

What a pleasant experience to play a Nomad’s monthly game without having the responsibility of starting the field. I am pleased that it is over and fortunately I managed to avoid a match box throughout the year. I would like to thank all those individuals who assisted me over the last 16 games with the starting duties. A particular thank you to Joss Hamilton and Tony Shaw. Also to our new Junior Vice-Captain, Barry Bruton, good luck and enjoy it. Your points tally should improve as the year progresses.

A new challenge awaits this year and that is the responsibility of selecting a worthy charity, collecting funds on their behalf and appropriately distributing those funds. I have already submitted my charities for approval by The Andrew Mentis Nomads Foundation and will share these with you once I receive official correspondence. The delay in having the charities approved has not halted our fund raising efforts and we have already sold out our Bell’s draw tickets, TaylorMade raffle and are within a couple of numbers short of our Lotto Draw. To all the members who continue to support these fund raising efforts, month in and month out, we really do appreciate the donations.

I have not had an opportunity at a monthly game to introduce my new Andrew Mentis committee, so here they are. Darren Holm, Barry Bruton, John Brewin, Sean Ledden, Andrew Mostert and Tyron Zaaiman. We have also received some informal undertakings by members who are willing to assist where needed. Thank you to those who have put up their hands and I trust we will have a rewarding year and one that is beneficial to our charities.

For those of you who were not at prize-giving or did not manage to play at Kyalami, I discussed the future possibility of having donations recognised as tax deductible. The final information has not yet been received, but it looks positive and as soon as I receive it I will inform all members on how it will be implemented.

Graham Bishop

I hope you all enjoyed the Bushwillow course, and that all of you got home safely.

As mentioned at the prize-giving and at the game, the Andrew Mentis fundraising committee are currently selling a raffle for a full set of Taylormade clubs and bag including some extra accessories to the value of +/- R18 0000. There are a total of 100 tickets at R200.00 each. There will be 2 or 3 similar draws throughout the year so get your tickets before we do the first draw at the Gold cup game at Glendower.

Please diarise the 6 August, Andrew Mentis Golf Day, and the 4^th October, Andrew Mentis RugbyDay (SA vs NZ) at Ellis Park. These will be our main Fundraising events.

Looking forward to seeing all of you at Krugersdorp on Thursday 27^th March.

Cheers,

Darren Holm.

VC

Welcome back to all the Nomads. I trust you all had a good rest and a great festive season. I hope you had a great “first” game of the year, which, was actually our 13^th game of the year.

We currently have a confusing situation where our Andrew Mentis fundraising has now officially been handed over to Graham Bishop even before he has actually been elected as the Vice Captain. Hopefully Natex rectify this and extend Graham’s fund raising year to April 2015 so that when the new incoming VC takes over, he has actually been elected into the position.

Graham has a few charities in mind but has not chosen one as of yet. He will be doing various fundraising initiatives throughot the year, so watch this space.

See you all at Randpark, Bushwillow on the 19th February.

Cheers,

Darren Holm.

VC