The Docker Club

Dear OWGS members,

Your Committee has been considering how the OWGS should remember and pay tribute to John Goodeve-Docker, who had been Honorary Secretary and Treasurer of the Society for almost 30 years before his sad passing in November last year. John contributed a huge amount to the Society - organising our Spring and Autumn meetings, keeping on top of our finances, maintaining an excellent relationship with College, keeping in close touch with leaving College golfers and encouraging them to join the Society, keeping the Committee under control, supporting the Halford Hewitt team and arranging their accommodation, to name just a few, and all done with great good humour and charm. Many of you will have your own very happy personal memories of John.

He is truly irreplaceable.

Your Committee has decided to honour John in two ways:

1) The Docker Club

We have renamed the 100 Club as “The Docker Club” and are now relaunching it. Please see the background to the 100 Club. In summary, it is an annual draw with 40% of the contributions being paid out as prizes and the remaining 60% being used as required to help support our younger members of whatever golfing standard to play in OWGS events.

If you wish to enter The Docker Club draw this year, which will take place at the Spring Meeting dinner on 2 May, please transfer funds (in multiples of £10) by 30 April to:

Old Wellingtonian Golf Society

Barclays Bank

20-11-74

03195678

Please set up a recurring annual payment; that way you will enter the draw for future years as well as for this year without taking any further action. Thank you in advance for your contributions.

Note that the above account number is different from the one which you use to pay your annual subscriptions and other OWGS payments.

If you have already contributed to the 100 Club over the past 12 months by way of a regular annual standing order, you will participate in this year’s Docker Club draw and you need do nothing more -

unless you wish to increase your contribution. Standing orders from some recent participants seem to have lapsed, and so they will not participate in this year’s draw unless their contributions are refreshed. I will contact you individually to let you know if that applies to you.

2) The John Goodeve-Docker Trophy

The Goodeve-Docker family have generously presented the OWGS with a silver salver. We asked this to be engraved with “The John Goodeve-Docker Trophy”. John always stayed at Rye to the very end of the Sunday of the Spring Meeting, and encouraged members to do the same. We have therefore decided that the salver will be presented to the player who scores most stableford points in the 2 foursomes rounds on the Sunday morning and afternoon. It will be presented for the first time next Sunday.

I look forward to seeing many of you at Rye next weekend, and others of you elsewhere on the OWGS circuit this summer and autumn.

Best wishes,

Henry Somerset

(President, OWGS)