Well, it’s been a busy week, starting to think about what we need to do when at last we are told that we can open the golf club again. Things will be very different in many aspects, so please be prepared to alter some of your routine at the Club, to ensure that you and everyone else stay safe.

Hopefully, England Golf will be contacting us soon with an opening date. They have released 5 documents in preparation, which outline the precautions we will need to put in place in order to safeguard the safety of our staff and members. They are under the headings of: -

• Communications

• Volunteers

• Business Support

• Preparing Your Facility

• Playing The Game

You can have a look at them all at: englandgolf.org/playsafe. Players may have to take different routes, to avoid bottlenecks; and members will have to sign in. Other issues which need to be addressed include: What if there is a restriction of numbers in the locker room? What happens if we need to change procedures overnight because something has happened that day? What happens if we need to extend the time between tee offs? It is evident from the documents from England Golf that the task is just enormous, and we are going to need some assistance. If you feel that you could help, particularly helping players when they arrive and throughout their time at the Club, then please let me have your name, email address and a contact telephone number, then we can devise the plan? Not knowing when we can start is a problem I realise, but we have already given the issue a lot of thinking time so we can get things cracking. Also, if you have any ideas on how we can implement all these procedures, then please let us know.

So sorry, that last week I mixed up my email address with my old work’s email address. I think that that was a reflex action. Apologies.

My email address really is: nbdirector@leekgolfclub.co.uk

By the way, if you have heard a rumour that we are going to open the Club on the 11th May, I am sorry to disappoint you, but no-one from England Golf has told us that and unless we hear something different this week, it is unlikely to happen. If you look at the documents from them, you will clearly see that we won’t be able to just turn the key in the lock and open the door. We will update you with everything planned and proposed as details are confirmed. Be assured that we will be in operation as soon as we can, ensuring that we do not jeopardise anyone’s safety and well-being. We also understand that the Local Authority will have the responsibility of enforcing the rules laid down by the Government, and it will be vital for us to comply in order to avoid the risk of a return to lockdown. We will need to get everything in place and safe before we allow anyone onto the course. I know that its really tough not playing, but please be patient.

Thanks for your memories. Had a lovely email from Tony and Pauline Swindells. They have been walking each day and enjoying the countryside. Tony told the story of how his father came back from the catering corps during the war with a pound of butter, a real luxury. Unfortunately, by the time he got home, there was nothing left of it, as it had all melted into his kit. Tony had not seen him for six years. Those days were really tough, like now; but Tony remembers his father’s encouragement and support in everything he did. Lovely story Tony, thanks.

Also, would like to welcome Stuart Dick to the Club as a new member. Stuart has joined but not had the chance to play yet. Honest, Stuart it is worth the wait.

Please keep sending me your news, it is so good to hear from you and finding out what you are doing with your time. I cannot believe how inventive you all are. And also, how good you are at keeping in touch with each other. Dave and Jackie Gallimore had a lovely chat with Ralph Harrison this week from either end of the drive. Karen, unfortunately, couldn’t take part as she was playing bridge with her golf club group. How good is that?

I thought I would try and do something different for a change, so Mr Amazon bought me a skipping rope this week. Guess what ... Can’t skip! I’m sure I could as a child, but that was some time ago. My record is currently 12, so I have a way to go. I will build up slowly.

I wonder what Thursday 7th May will bring. Let’s hope that we can move forward or at least see some daylight. Keep your fingers crossed.

Finally, we are very sorry to hear of the death of Graham Turner. We send our love and best wishes to his family and friends. Our thoughts are with you all at this time.

Keep safe my friends. Until next week.

Nel

Hi everyone,

I hope that you are all safe and keeping happy. The first three weeks of lockdown focused on: have we got enough food, have we got enough loo roll! This three weeks feels a lot different and is aimed much more directly at what are we doing to get ready for our return to ‘normality’?

So, lots of information this week, and I would be grateful if you could please pass it on to other members who may not have access to it.

The particularly good news is that members can be confident that there are more than enough funds to see the Club through until the end of the financial year, which is August 31st, 2020. This will be the case even if we are in lockdown until then and we have no income coming in. Let’s hope that we are back before then. If we aren’t, then contingency plans are constantly being updated to ensure financial stability until the end of the calendar year and beyond. As you can imagine, the situation is constantly changing. Further detail of the Club’s Financial Statement can be found in the Members’ Section of the Club website.

I received the go ahead from all those involved with the Captaincies and Presidencies at 9pm last night, so I hope that you have now received the confirmed notification. Many thanks to all of the honorary members who have agreed to carry over their offices until the end of 2021. Their competitions will also be transferred to next year and will not take place in this current year. We will try and organise an alternative event to celebrate their roles, but I don’t know what that is going to be yet.

Going along with that, I hope that you received the message from Mike Barker this week on the newsletter, relating to the cancellation of the Honours Board competitions, and the ongoing competitions. This could give us the opportunity to do something quite special and innovative, so if you have any ideas, then please let me know on: nbdirector@leekgolfclub.co.uk

Golf is going to be very different, just like the World, and we need to be ready for the start. We will follow the guidelines of England Golf and safety will be at the forefront of everything. Experience learned from others is extremely valuable, and as Denmark is opening its courses, a manager of one course has produced an article on what happened when they opened the doors. He called it a massive surge of golfers. The author suggested that clubs should expect every club member to want to play in the first three days of opening. That could be a bit of a problem. So, plans are being devised for our club to be ready for the onslaught, as well as being fair to every member. I will ensure that everyone knows what those plans will be. I have to get you reading the blog somehow. As soon as we have the organisation in place, I will let you know.

I will also be able to give you a timetable of what facilities are going to be available, when. If the course is open, it is likely that the Clubhouse will not be available until a bit later. I will be putting together a plan, with no dates, but under the headings of Day 1, Week 1, Week 2 etc, so that when we get the go ahead, we can just slot everything in. Once again, I will get back to you with details.

I suppose that what I am saying is that your Board is on the case and doing everything it can to be ready. It is a bit like herding cats though as things change so rapidly.

Your Board are now meeting regularly on Zoom. Our Compliance Director is delighted that the government are following us and having their meetings on Zoom too. It is so good to be in the vanguard! And, he also sent a message out this week with an emoji!! Dave, you are getting too technological.

Todays blog has been very different, but I have to tell you this before I go. I did the scariest thing ever last weekend…… I let my husband cut my hair!! A sentence I never in my wildest dreams thought that I would ever write! However, I still have two ears and two eyebrows, so I think that you would call it a result. I may have a slight list to starboard, but I can live with that.

Take care all you lovely people and look after each other, and one more thing: each day do one thing you need to do, and also do one thing that you want to do (following the government guidelines!).

Until next week.

Nel

Hello Everybody.

Can you believe that we have been doing this for over three weeks? The time goes by really quickly, and yet it feels as though we have been like this for ages. Very weird.

Please look at the website for a screen shot of the second board meeting. I have to ask the question: ‘would you buy a second-hand car from any of these people?’

Although that was the second Zoom meeting, the board members have been constantly in touch since lockdown, and in fact, I have had more conversations with them, both written and verbal, than I have with Max.

It is a very difficult time trying to plan and is a bit like slicing custard. As soon as we decide something, the goalposts get moved and we start all over again. Be assured dear member, that your board is working very hard to ensure that we can open the course at the first opportunity.

I think that I need to warn you though, that not everything will be available on the first day. There will be things that cannot be opened until we can get into the buildings, like deep cleaning, sorting out the kitchen, disinfecting the cellars, ordering bar and catering supplies and ensuring that everywhere is safe for you all. Thank you for your patience.

I have been receiving lovely messages from you and got one this week from Gill Armstrong who is at her house in France with Angie. They are keeping busy through lockdown which in France is until at least May 11th. Gill says that she is missing seeing people but is keeping in touch through technology. To be honest, Gill, I don’t think that you would notice the difference between the two countries. Of all the things that I miss, the main one is personal contact. And, don’t talk to me about social distancing. I think that it should be called anti-social distancing. I am just missing everyone so much.

Pete Leese emailed regarding music. Pete is keeping busy with recording his weekly show for the Radio Ship which includes music from Radio Caroline (remember them from the 60s & 70s?). Pete invites members who enjoy music from that era to go onto the link: www.theradioship.net and go back in time.

If you haven’t seen the photo of Jennie Flower’s golf course, please go to the website. I tried to put it on with the blog last week, but it wouldn’t fit. Likewise, the screen shot of the board. Do look for photos there.

Now we are starting another three weeks of lockdown, we just need to hang in there. By the way, I have had to stop wunning, it is wrecking my knees. I am back to walking. Maybe I need to recognise my age. On the app I was using, the overriding message was ‘celebrate’, and that is a good message. Celebrate the start as well as the finish. If you run, then celebrate the fact that you got out there and started. If you have been in touch with people you haven’t been in contact with for a while, then celebrate. And if you have people in your life that you love, then celebrate that too.

We are enormously lucky, and I am celebrating that fact. For some, this time is incredibly hard and our thoughts this week are with the family and friends of Jeanne Smith, who died last Saturday. We send our very best wishes to her loved ones and remember and celebrate good times on the course with Jeanne.

Please keep in contact and send me your news. It would be lovely to share it with everyone. Email me on nbdirector@leekgolfclub.co.uk. I look forward to hearing from you.

Stay safe you lovely people.

Nel

Hi there,

And how are you all? I am writing this before the Government meeting on Monday, but I am assuming that nothing has changed. And, if it has and lockdown is over ……..WOOOOOOWWWWW!

Before I get too carried away, I hope that you are staying safe, and finding lots of things to do. I am now reviewing my routine. First of all, you may say ‘What routine?’ and how right you are.

I have even written it down and split it into hourly activities, and am I sticking to it? What do you think? I can get distracted very easily. Something more interesting comes along, and then whatever I was planning just goes out of the window. I then have a major guilt complex. Do you have the same problem? Yes? Right, so give yourself a break. It is not crucial to be filling every second of your time doing jobs and feeling that you just have to be doing something, anything.

I am here to give you full permission to slow up, sit down, read a book, have a coffee, do some exercise if that is what you want to do. But, take a break and smell the roses. The world is a wonderful place and we need to appreciate it and everything in it a bit more.

Yes, by all means carry on doing the cleaning, and catching up on things which need doing, but make sure that you leave some time for you. You are very precious, and the world would not be the same without you.

Right, lecture over.

It has been lovely to receive your news, please keep it coming to nbdirector@leekgolfclub.co.uk. Remember I told you about Jennie Flower’s family building an indoor golf course? I could not have got it more wrong. I enclose a photo of their tabletop course. I think it is brilliant. Let me know what you are doing and how you are keeping yourselves occupied and building in a bit of relaxation too.

Members have been telling me how lovely it is when folk walking past, knock on the door and then retreat to say hello from the end of the drive. Mike and Maria’s daughter Nic and her husband had a conversation from the road this week.

Hazel McCrady emailed to say, ‘thank God for the phone’. It is so good to be able to stay in touch and talk to friends. I have Whatsapp and Skype, and it is great to actually see people too. Can recommend it. I would like to say that my technology skills have improved, but unfortunately, they haven’t. I get someone else to sort it out and set it up, and then I take all the credit! Other than the wonderful technology at our fingertips, it is a bit like returning to a bygone age. I did not grow up during the war, but there was rationing until I was 3, and I don’t recall it. I just wondered if any of our members remember stories from that time, like Trevor Eccleston who wrote that his uncle cut up an old tyre so that he could sole his own shoes. Times then were really hard, and it went on for years. For me, now, is probably the worst experience of my lifetime, but I count myself as lucky.

I am attempting to keep fit, although sometimes it falls off the end of that routine sheet and I have started to wun. Yes, you heard it right, I wun. It isn’t a walk and it isn’t a run; it is a bit in between. So, is that a wun or a ralk? Can’t decide which, but think I prefer the wun. Other people will walk quicker than I can wun. It takes me about 20 minutes, and I go really slowly, but try hard not to stop. I am doing it as part of the programme on my meditation app. It says you are killing two birds with one stone, but I am not convinced yet. Seems to me like hard work and feels like it is killing me, let alone two birds. It says that at the end, you should be looking forward to your next run. I don’t think so! I hope that I will come to enjoy it, but I have never been much of a runner, so I have my doubts.

The Board had its first internet meeting this week. It was highly successful once we had sorted everything out. It may even come to the stage where we continue to operate like this. Saves a lot of petrol. Does this make us Zoomers?

Regarding officers, I would like to welcome back Dave Allen who has kindly consented to take on the role of Health and Safety Officer. Good to have you on board David.

I hope that you are continuing to tune into facebook for Greg’s page on Leek Golf Club Pro Shop, and on to Leek Golf Club’s page, where there are some lovely photos.

Finally, on behalf of Leek Golf Club, I send best wishes and love to George. I had an email from him this week, to say that he had received lots of cards and wanted to thank everyone for their kindness. We are thinking of you and your family George.

We will see what next week brings, and in the meantime look after yourselves and cherish each other. Until then,

Nel

 Hi everyone,

Blog 3 and how are you all doing? We are still chugging along and still cleaning. I think it should be like Strictly Come Dancing … Keeeeep Dusting!!

You are probably now cleaning the house for the umpteenth time. Housework is so boring isn’t it? So, what else are you doing? The Flower household have set up an indoor golf course. Jennie is going to send me some pictures, but I am envisaging under the chair and into the jam jar, and down the stairs into the bucket. Any other ideas? It may be easier for you to set something up outside like a crazy golf course. You could try chipping the ball off the shed roof and onto the kids’ trampoline – what do you say Greg? I hope that you have seen this week’s newsletter, Greg has loads of ideas, and he is also posting them on his facebook page: Leek Golf Club Pro Shop. Some lovely pictures too of the course on the Leek Golf Club facebook page; be assured that our hallowed turf is being cared for and nurtured. The staff are doing a great job.

Would like to say an enormous thank you to everyone who has volunteered their services to help members. I now have a list, and if anyone else wants to join it, you would be most welcome.

I had a lovely email from David Smith regarding support for doing the shopping. Two of David and Ursula’s grandsons are helping out. David writes that he photographs the shopping list and texts it to them alternatively. One grandson, who is dating a nurse, sticks to the list, no deviation. However, according to David, the other grandson hasn’t found the love of his life yet and is unlikely to do so judging by his deviation from the list (anyone know a millionaire with a 21-year-old daughter?). They now have the dearest coffee known to man, steak the size of half a cow and other items that took his fancy but weren’t on the list. It’s a good job they didn’t stock caviar!!! David and Ursula left a message for Mark - keep to the list! Love it you two and enjoy some great meals. It is lovely to see the community spirit of everyone and thanks again for helping out.

I said in Blog 1, that there were some things that I would not revert to after this is all over, and keeping in touch better, is definitely something I intend to maintain. Our neighbours at home have been brilliant. We are close in age to the self-isolation section of the country, so we are being sensible and not venturing through the gates, except for our walk each day; so our neighbours have been picking things up for us, and now that my chocolate stash has been replenished, life is good. Max, thanks to Dave Brookhouse, has his Sentinel delivered, we never thought that that was possible living out in the sticks –He is delighted. He had been going through withdrawal, but now the smile is back. Let me just make that clear; Dave Brookhouse is not delivering the Sentinel, he told us about how to do it! Glad we got that cleared up.

When we were talking about how simple life used to be, some members sent examples of what their mums did – like Sunday afternoon tea with salmon sandwiches and home-made cake, followed by tinned fruit and evaporated milk. I think that Marg Yeomans and I must have gone to the same teas, we certainly used to eat the same things. We are still wondering how they managed to feed a family of four with one tin of salmon! Special treats for us were a whole Kit Kat to yourself instead of having to share it. What bliss!

I don’t know about anyone else, but I could really do with a haircut. Maria and Mike Wootton were saying that we would all look like hippies by the time this is over. Now, those WERE the days, and Mike and Maria, this I want to see! I do realise that there will be plenty of members who will not have a clue what I am talking about when I say Hippies, as they are too young. But believe me, I am totally aware that I am part of the very lucky generation who grew up with: The Beatles, Elvis, The Rolling Stones, Woodstock, Flower Power and The Animals. Plus, one of my favourites, The Beach Boys, who are still going. They have got to be going on 80, but like my mum used to say to me ‘classic never goes out of style.’ I am now beginning to question her judgment! I am not too decrepit though to say that there is a lot of good music around now too. Got any favourites? Let me know, and I can remind other members of good music now as well as then.

I love getting your news and funny things that have happened over the week, please keep them coming, and unless you tell me not to, I would love to pass some of them on to the other members.

Keeeeeep writing, OH NO, we are back to Strictly again.

See you next week and look after each other you extraordinary people.

Nel