The 2010 AGM was held on the 18th July aboard our usual venue, the Levin Is Strijd, and was attended by 20 Badgers and guests. Pre-dinner drinks were served in the blazing sunshine on th poop deck before the Badgers decended below decks for lunch and some well earned Badgering.....

The well loved and respected Marco.  The arse

Someone thought it a good idea to let John Pye take some photos...

 

 

Once lunch was completed, after lunch speeches were led by a outgoing captain John Pye.

Stand up John Pye!! Oh, you are....

 

 

 

 

Following this and maintaining with the traditions of the Badgers Golf Society, the main speech was delivered on behalf of the committee by Alec Vallintine, taking the opportunity to thank a number of Badgers. First thanks as ever went to the members for their continuing support including, and especially, those on the day, even Marco...... 

Marco had asked the committee before lunch in Davys why people take an instant dislike to him. Well Marco, it just saves time. In these current economically challenged times it was good to see so many of you willing to take time out from work to spend the afternoon in celebration of the Badgers, so thank-you very much. As we say every year at the AGM, being a Badger isn't just about playing with your balls, it's about the social side of Badgering too. At the end of the day it is the members society and can only exist whilst it enjoys such good support from the members. So first toast went to all of our members, our guests and our absent friends - to Badgers everywhere and anywhere!

 

Big Al does the honours for the Committee

 

 

 

Next thanks went to those contractors who have sponsored the prizes at the golf days this year. This is always greatly appreciated as it allows us to keep the costs of the days down for the members and allows us to fund other things such as the merchandising ie branded badger balls of which more will be ordered soon - so, thank-you to Alan Ruddy of Ruddy Joinery, John Pye of Simplicity, Steve Brewer of PIP and Mark Smith of Commercial Stone who all sponsored the prizes for our golf days this year.

Of conspicuous absence on the day was Lord Smith himself, for those who didn't know Mark was en route to the Pyrenees where the day after the AGM he would be cycling in the Etape du Tour which follows the same route the Tour de France riders attempt the following Thursday, a 174km route featuring over 4000m of climb including a continuous 25km ride up the 2000m plus Col de Tormalet. Smudge had to try and do the whole thing whilst maintaining an average speed of over 15km per hour, a massive undertaking as he's not exactly built like Lance Armstrong - he played rugby you know. So glasses were raised to wish Smudger, in his absence, good luck.

Next, thanks went to John Pye for his tenure as Captain of the Badgers. John as you may remember replaced Eugenio as captain and many people asked if the tenure for the captain has reduced, as the last two seem to had been very short.....can't say we've noticed it ourselves. For Johns year of captain we donated monies to Sparks, the childrens charity which also included a generous dontation from the members on the day. Despite his vertical challenges, John led by example as Captain, attending every golf day. We even forgive him for bringing Chris along.

As a Captains gift John generously gave each Badger a bottle of Badgers Golden Glory Ale which many of us savoured being the first drink we've ever got out of the tight bugger! In the absence of a Captains Golf Day (John was obviously not as familiar with the website as he should have been), Alan Ruddy retained the Captains Day trophy until we get a Captain generous enough to organise a golf day. If anybody wanted to have a beer with John after the meal you had to be quick, he'd already warned us that he had to shoot off smartish once we were finished as he'd arranged for one of the elderly groundsmen from his golf club to come round and have a look at a shrub he bought for his wife which has got a strange climbing plant coming up through it. He was quite keen to get home early in case there was a chance of an old mans beard in his wife's bush.

It was also nice to see on the day past captain Richard Maggs who has recovered from a heart attack a couple of years ago and has put this behind him to get back into the Badgers with gusto.

Maggsy keeps a low profile and keeps the dissappointment of Simons absence to himself....

 

 

 

Another past captain with us on the day, or as we like to refer to him, a past it captain, was Mike Stone. All three Captains were presented with their Captains Badges, which may be worn on any Badger occasion to show recognition of their achievement and status within the Badgers, or simply mark them out as a show-off.

Past Captains John Pye, Richard Maggs and Mike Stone receive their Captains Badgers

 

 

 

 

Captains Badges would also be awarded to Eugenio Caruso and Simon Tuson, our other previous Captains and also to the lucky recipient of the Badgers Head for this year. For those who don't know, Simon had to retire temporarily from the Badgers due to ill-health following his leg operation a few years ago, although we're not sure he's ever recovered from rooming with the Accsys project boys on his last Badgers Golf Tour. Our best wishes go to him.

Our other past captain, Eugenio, was unable to attend as it was his wedding anniversary that weekend and he'd whisked Mrs Caruso off to a Greek island for a romantic weekend. He'd organised a greek banquet to mark the day where he planned to ply her with fine greek wine and food then liquer out on the balcony. Eugenio does speak four languages, so he's always been keen to impress with his cunning linguist skills.

Finally, thanks were extended to the other comittee members present and those Badgers who help in the organisation of the days, Michael Healy our trophy Badger who organised all of the trophys, Richard Gent for his financial management and organisation of each Badger outing including the AGM, and Harry Cutts our fixtures secretary for booking each golf day, even if this was at times left to the last minute. The Badgers Vase, the yearly committee invitational match in celebration of the Badgers Birthday has yet to be arranged by defending holder Harry Cutts. As we'd said at the AGM the previous year, with Harry hosting and arranging the next Badgers Vase match, standards would not so much be slipping but plummeting, and thanks to Basildons finest - boy, were we ever right.....

Over the past year membership had fallen ever so slightly from 42 to 36, a drop of 6. Current theory is that this could be attributable to Marco and Chris but we're still looking into this. Regardless of the slight drop in numbers, attendance at each of the golf days has been good, but new members are always welcome to keep the society healthy, so all members were reminded that if you know anybody suitable, bring them along. At our golf days we have an average attendance of 24. Of our 36 members, only 4 managed to attend all 4 golf days. So hats off to Chris Knapp, Eugenio Caruso, John Pye and Richard Gent!!!

15 Badgers managed 3 days, 6 badgers managed 2 days, and 10 Badgers managed 1 day ......on average, our members attended 2 days each which is the same number of times as last year. Ideally we'd wish for more, but we recognise there are family and business committments that have to be taken into account. In total we scored 2651 points across our days. In respect of the golf itself, overall 88 people have now played on our Badger days as members or guests since the first outing in May 2003 with an average playing handicap of 20, one down from last year. This is no thanks to Marco who went up from 21 to 24!! Sharpies done his bit though, dropping from 5 to 3 and could potentially be our first scratch Badger player, so congratulations went to Steve!

In terms of our ability, last year the average score was 32 off a handicap of 21 and this year it was exactly the same which reflects the fairness of the handicap adjustment system. Credit to all members for playing well and generally playing to your handicaps! Badger day winners this year were Steve Eades at Birchwood, Pete Gallagher at Woldingham, Nigel Smith at Darenth and Derek Slatford at South Essex. With the exception of Pete, all were first timers on the winners podium. Congratulations went to all in joining this elite club of winners, who will now be awarded Badger Badges in recognition of their achievement.With us on the day we also had past winners Steve Sharp, Mike Stone, Alan Ruddy, Richard Maggs and Alec Vallintine who joined Nigel and Derek to receive their badges. Badges for previous winners Steve Brewer, Pete Gallagher, Phil Tweddle, John Deely, Eugenio Caruso, Steve Hook, Dick Watts and Steve Eades will be awarded at their next Badgers event.

This year there were 2nd places for Richard Maggs at Birchwood, Dave Guildford at Woldingham, Dave Bullock at Darenth and Chris Knapp at South Essex. 3rd places went to John Barnes at Birchwood, Richard Maggs at Woldingham, Steve Brewer at Darenth and Steve Sharp at South Essex, a feat repeated from last year. There were Nearest the Pins for John Barnes at Birchwood, Colin Johnson at Woldingham, Steve Hook at Darenth and Pete Gallagher at South Essex. Longest drives were won by Steve Brewer at Birchwood, John Pye at Woldingham, Harry Cutts at Darenth and Ian Ferguson at South Essex. Lastly, team prizes went to Steve Eades, John Barnes, Eugenio Caruso and Dave Bullock at Birchwood, Wayne Dexter, Gary Lang, Jim Allen and Eugenio Caruso at Woldingham, Steve Hook, Keith Ives, Paul Ives and Alec Vallintine at Darenth and at South Essex we had Ian Ferguson, John Pye, Keith Ives and Mark Doughty.

In summary, of our 36 members 20 have gone home with prizes this year which is a pretty good spread, especially given the number of members who have only appeared once or twice. So, when you come to a Badger day you have a greater than 55% chance of going home with something! Next season will commence on September 11th with a visit to new course Cray Valley as we've ditched Birchwood due to the repeated piss taking we've suffered there. This will be followed in November with a visit to Woldingham, in April we return to Darenth before the seasons climax at South Essex in June. Mind you, this is all dependant of course on our fixtures secretary actually booking them in time.

So, 2009-10, and despite the best efforts of Harry who is to organisation what BP are to the environment, another great Badgering year. We then moved onto the Captaincy of the Badgers for our 2009-2010 season and the awarding of the Badger Captain Trophy. All were reminded that the appointment of the Badgers Captain is designed to award both performance and support of the non committee members, so we simply take the combined total of the scores across the year and divide by four for the number of appearances. As with the previous year, the contest this year was a pretty tight one and was only decided at South Essex as there was such a high standard of golf played by the top runners. As usual, the top spaces were all filled by those who've made it to all 4 golf days so as the saying goes, you've gotta be in it to win it.

The average average score was 18 to give you an idea of where you sat, and the placings, in reverse order, were;

35th with an average of 5 points; Jim Allan  
Joint 31st with an average of 6 points; Alan Evans, Jamie Lewis, John Deely and Steve Hook
30th with an average of7 points; TIm Holt
29th with an average of 8 points; Clive Miles
Joint 27th with an average of 9 points; Alan Ruddy and Mike Healy
26th with an average of 10 points; Alec Vallintine
Joint 22nd with an average of 15 points; Chris Pye, Colin Johnson, Harry Cutts and John Birdseye
Joint 20th with an average of 16 points; Mark Smith and Mike Stone
19th with an average of 19 points; Marco Franchi
Joint 17th with an average of 21 points; John Merralls and Peter Gallagher
16th with an average of 23 points; John Barnes
15th with an average of 24 points; Keith Ives
Joint 13th with an average of 25 points; Richard Maggs and Wayne Dexter
Joint 7th with an average of 26 points; David Bullock, Dave Guildford, Frank Kingham, Nigel Smith, Steve Eades and Steve Sharp  
Joint 5th with an average of 28 points; Derek Slatford and Steve Brewer

 

Now onto the top four and it's the four who attended each golf day. It's worth summerising at this point the selection criteria we use for the captain - it can't be a committee member and you can't be the captain twice in a 5 year period, this gives everbody a chance to gain this accolade. So, in reverse order, the top four;

4th with 31 points; Chris Knapp
Joint 2nd with 33 points; Eugenio Caruso and Richard Gent
1st with 35 points; John Pye 

So, on the basis that John and Eugenio have both been recent captains and Gentys on the comittee, the Captain for 2010-2011 was Chris Knapp, but a big round of applause also went to John for defending his 'Best Badger' status. Unfortunately Chris was unable to attand today as he was at the Goodwood races, apparently his wife's quite an accomplished rider and Chris was keen to be there as a horse owner friend of his told him that if he turned up with his wife today, he be willing to drop his jockies and enter her instead.

Happy Badgering!!

 

More Photos from the AGM!!

 The only time Harry Cutts is ever quiet....

Shaken, but definitely not stirred......