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THE YEAR AHEAD
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Many fixtures that went well in 2023 are being
repeated this year by popular request.
Wales SM defeated GBV on the same early March weekend
that GBV were victorious over the Fitzwilliam SC from
Dublin, made even better (or worse if Irish) by Marcus
Smith’s last minute drop goal. The York tour is one of
many reports that will appear in the next newsletter.
England, Scotland and Irish SM sides await later in
the year with the doubles only match against the
Jesters and Festival of Squash in the latter part of
2024.
The Newsletter will continue with Aubrey’s 5
questions. Alison Goy is next in line. Meanwhile the
Chair has found out that James Dubois sings in a
Barbershop Chorus and Trevor Cox builds Film Sets when
not playing squash which will feature too.
Our annual tournament returns to Colet’s and has been
placed early in September (7th&8th) at the start of
the season. Golf Days in Surrey and Windermere with
more multi player fixtures to include the RAF and Navy
will add to another busy year which will feature
prominently in our new website.
Finally, can I ask you to consider buying the now
printed book of our 60th Anniversary produced by our
esteemed secretary Nigel Belle.
We wish all our playing members selected for Home
Internationals many winning matches.
Ian Graham (Chair)
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60’S EVENT TO CELEBRATE THE GB VETS 60TH
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The final weekend of our Anniversary year saw 60
members attend a 60’s disco for our final 60th
year celebration, and what a night!
Huge thanks go to Karen Hume who had the original
idea and went on to organise the whole thing superbly.
Karen was ably assisted by Robert Smith and a lot of
mannequins (not, I hasten to add, other committee
members)! Jane and Nigel Belle provided original
clothes from the 60’s that they had worn themselves.
Thanks to Nick Wise who produced excellent posters and
LP covers (gratis!) and Karen with lots of helpers
dressed the room.There were clothes and masks for
those wanting pictures.
There was fantastic bowl food x 4 – Cone of scampi
& chips, Thai green curry, lamb tagine and chocolate
brownies all served by the hard working Colet’s bar
staff with Geoff Howes’ liaison work behind the
scenes. Thanks too to Geoff for all his professional
photos.
Our disco, DJ Andy Bailey, played a string of great
hits that had most guests on the floor (dancing not
passed out!) at some stage. “Dad” dancing was great
and hard to watch in equal measure, but the epic
Chubby Checkers “Let’s Twist Again” revealed just how
many of our playing members can still bend their
knees! There were great outfits from Belles Elvis
Presley, Gollaglee’s Clint Eastwood, and Bradburn’s
Ian Gillan. Prizes though, went to the ladies with
Jackie Redfern wearing her Mum’s original crimplene
dress and Lynne Davies ’Mary Quant combo (£18 off
EBay) taking the bottles of champagne. Geoff Walton’s
magic tricks kept everybody entertained and he was
thanked for travelling a long way to perform. The
photos in this Newsletter and on the website will
illustrate what a brilliant evening was had by all.
Karen you are a star!!
Ian Graham
Photos
from the day
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GB Vets Golf Day Report 2023
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Another spectacular golfing day at Surbiton Golf
Club on Monday September 4th saw 18 members of the
club compete for the annual GB Vets Golfing Day
Trophy. Well there will be a trophy when I get
round to sorting one out.
Another year goes by and it seems that
some golfers mature with age, or is it just that their
handicap goes up so they can score the same. For the
second year running David Johnson came first, with a
previous winner David Esser second and James
Barrington third. Chris Howes won the prize for best
lady’s score. Dillwyn Rosser won both the longest
drive and nearest the pin in 2 shots. He actually
drove the hole and narrowly missed his eagle putt.
Stuart Hardy won nearest the pin. The team prize
(teams were randomly drawn after the round) went to
John Galt, Kevin Connors and myself.
A mix of made up awards ensured that
everyone left with at least a ball as a memento of the
day, which will probably be lost the first time they
play with it.
The fixture is booked for the 9th September next year
but with a 1.00 start. This date is the Monday after
the proposed club championships finals weekend.
Hopefully even more of you will join
us next year.
Geoff Howes
Photos
from the day
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Club Championship 2023
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The 2023 Club Championship was held at a new
venue, Nuffield Health, St Albans. We were
celebrating our 60th Anniversary and it was hoped
that the entries would be an improvement on the
last few years. This proved not to be the case,
but the competitors who entered enjoyed a
successful weekend of squash. The low entries did
not reduce the standard of squash played, with
many International players competing there were
some exceedingly competitive matches. The
tournament was opened up to England Squash Masters
players who were not GB Vets members and some
local players provided stiff competition to our
members. Andy Duckworth pushed Dean Newberry all
the way in a close 5 set match in the Over 45
event.
Other winners were Marvin Rust,
John Parkes and Allen Barwise in the O’50, 60 and 65
tournaments.
Barry Featherstone entered the
O’70 and O’75’s, winning them both. With Mike Clemson
playing (he says) in his last competitive event taking
the O’80 title. The Non County events were won by Dan
Sweeney and Keith Ragg.
The ladies title was decided in
a close match between Catherine Ruffle and Keeley
Peacock with Catherine winning.
The ladies doubles nearly
didn’t happen when Kim Ricks was unable to compete,
but a local player, Louise Dalwood, was called in as a
replacement and formed a winning partnership with
Keeley Peacock. The mixed doubles title was won by Dan
Sweeney and Catherine Ruffle.
The men’s doubles events
usually prove to be some of the best matches over the
weekend. Unfortunately we had very low entries but the
finals were won by Hurford and Stiles in the O’40 and
Howes and Waddy in the O75.
The two final awards were for
the Burrell Trophy which was given to Allen Barwise
for services to the club and for contribution to the
tournament, the Norman Hunt Trophy to Philip
Courtenay-Luck.
Main Report
Geoff Howes
Tournament Director
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Chair's Annual Report 2022-23
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A bumper year for GB Vets, pushing forward with
various new projects and starting our 60th
Anniversary year with many planned events.
The aim to arrange multi player
fixtures was successful with matches against the Civil
Service, Oxford University, Scotland Masters ( to
honour John Rae and Jim Dougal ) and Wales Masters.
Tours were another success with an inaugural visit to
play Gibraltar who will come to England later this
year. We fielded a team at the Jersey Festival and our
annual fixture at the Fitzwilliam Club in Dublin was
more successful than the Rugby result. The Festival of
Squash at the RAC Woodcote Park playing against the
Army, RAC and Escorts had a lot of players turning out
to enjoy a great days squash in magnificent
surroundings. Perhaps the only downside was the Army
team walking off with the trophy again!
Our players have been very busy and
successful this year. The British Open produced 4
winners and 9 runners up. In the Home Internationals
39 members will be playing for their country. The
World Championships in Poland had 20 members enter. A
tremendous 3 gold, 2 silver and 2 bronze medals were
won.
Two Golf competitions were played in
Surbiton and Windermere with 40 members turning out.
Regular fixtures that have happened for many years
were also played with results in newsletters and on
the website. Our Newsletters remain an interesting and
well read feature of our club. Sara Howlett, Mark
Cowley, Karen Hume and David Leakey the most recent
subjects of 5 Questions. Our annual tournament was
less popular. Robert Smith was awarded the Burrell
trophy and David Parker picked up the Norman Hunt
trophy. GBV continues to thrive with 25 new members in
the last year.
We are now well into the 60th year and
a lot more is planned. There are 3 more multi players
events against England, Ireland and the Jesters
(Doubles only). Our Festival of Squash will be on
Sunday November 26th and the preceding day will be an
event at Colet’s with squash games in the afternoon
and dinner/disco/auction in the evening.
I am indebted to members of the
committee for doing virtually all the work to make
these events so successful. Without them little of
note would happen and they have my sincere thanks.
Ian Graham (Chair)
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Newsletter Message 2023
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2023 60th ANNIVERSARY YEAR
The GB Vets will celebrate their
Diamond Jubilee in style with a number of extra events
and regular fixtures given a boost.
Our larger team fixtures got off to an
early start last December with the Scottish Masters
winning the opening match against GBV in Carlisle. The
Welsh Masters challenge is arranged for April 1st at
Bridgend with games against England and Ireland
Masters to follow later in the year.
A celebratory dinner has now been
planned at Colet’s on November 25th with Squash games
in the afternoon. The annual Festival of Squash
follows on the next day at RAC Woodcote Park. Our
tournament has been opened up to all comers with links
on the GBV and ESM websites for entries. IProsports
have kindly agreed to sponsor this event. We
anticipate a larger entry at St Albans. The Non-County
and Doubles events should be popular this year and
there are some very fine trophies to be won.
Players and players no longer, are all
invited to get involved. Put yourself forward for
matches (we need a range of abilities),or come along
to support our teams. You can attend the Dinner at
Colet’s or watch the Finals at St Albans and attendant
AGM. Golfers should give the events at Surbiton and/or
Windermere a try.
The Newsletters and Website will keep
you up to date and do not miss General Sir David
Leakey’s (Black Rod) answers to 5 questions. The GB
Vets are an all inclusive club and your support in
this historic year will be much appreciated.
Ian Graham (Chair)
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BUY CLUB MERCHANDISE - ON LINE!
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Now you can view and purchase Club Merchandise on line! We've also added some new items - not only do we sell the regular polo and tee shirts for both men and women but now also shorts and warm-up jackets. The order process is very simple:
- Go to www.iprosports.co.uk and click on the 'Club Zone' link at the top of the Home Page.
- Scroll down to the Vets Club logo and click on it. All garments are then displayed, click on product(s) required, select size, colour, personalisation (if required), click on 'add to cart'.
- When finished go to checkout, place order, pay, that's it!
Exceptions: Lamb's wool v neck pullovers are bought from another source and can't (yet) be obtained on line. For information on these and to order contact the Hon.Sec.
Old stock at low, low prices: There are a few men's tee shirts (large and XL) and a number of ladies shirts (all sizes) available from the Hon.Sec. All at £10, buy now, first come first served!
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