Over 80 guests from around the County attended the annual Volunteers Dinner event, held last Thursday, 21st November, in the Main Barn at Essendon Country Club.
The annual social event which encompasses a thank you to all the various tireless volunteers, without which we would not be able to function, alongside the presentation of many of our annual prizes.
The guests of honour on the evening were Harry Cox of Welwyn Garden City, Jackie Foster of Bishop’s Stortford and Darcie West of Sandy Lodge.
Harry had two internal wins to celebrate with the Men’s 1st Team Player of the Year alongside the Boys Junior Challenge Trophy, an event where he averaged an incredible gross score of 68.38 across the season. Harry also was congratulated for his unprecedented back to back wins at the England Mens & Boys Champion of Champions events at Woodhall Spa in September. Darcie was present in respect to her stunning victory at the Girls Champion of Champions event, meaning that 50% of the England Golf Champion of Champions for 2024 reside in Hertfordshire! and finally Jackie, who has a standing invitation to this event every year due to the regularity of her successes, added the English Senior Womens Amateur Championship to her collection when she won the title at York GC in May.
Various other County prizes were presented on the evening, namely Scratch League winning shields for the 2024 season, with Harpenden Common picking up the premier Men’s title represented by Ryan & Dean Hodges collecting the trophy and shield on the night and East Herts picking up the female equivalent and picking up the trophy and shield were Lois Dewhurst & Jackie Reeve. Incidently, Harpenden Common have now won the Men’s title for the 4th successive year, tying the all-time record with Berkhamsted from the early 1990’s.
The Boys and Girls Order of Merit (BOOM & GOOM) winners were on hand to collect their trophies. A double for West Herts in the Boys, with Luca Ibekwem winning the Scratch title, and Nikhil Kaniyur winning the Handicap title. In the Girls event, Tala Clarke of Knebworth won the Scratch prize and Ameilia Parker of Letchworth won the Handicap prize.
Niall Johnston of Letchworth retained his Men’s Order of Merit title and Connor O’Brien of Brocket Hall was named Men’s 1st Team Most Valuable Player with a steady season, losing only 1 match, where he prioritised representing the county and always made himself available.
