Activity Group News

Activity Round-Up

With the pandemic continuing to affect all walks of life, the Activity Groups are using their imagination to adapt and find new ways of operating.

Bridge, Chess and Backgammon are all now being played successfully online, with great uptake from the members. In the literary world, the Book Clubs have also taken to meeting online via Zoom, again with great success.

The Photography Group is holding weekly Zoom events, with expert speakers from all over the world on subjects ranging from ‘Astro photography’ to ‘Wildlife on your doorstep’. For a nominal sum of £3.00, these Wednesday meetings are enormously popular and well worth an evening of your time. Similarly, after a busy programme of tours of the gardens at Woodcote Park, the Gardening Committee is now starting online talks by gardening professionals.

Outdoor groups including Running and Cycling are continuing to meet up in appropriate socially-distanced groups and enjoying the Surrey countryside and fresh air as well as that allimportant human interaction.

The Young Members Committee have decided to trial a new format for their monthly drinks, with several committee members each hosting a table for up to six people in the Long Bar, to make introductions and keep the conversation flowing.

The Tennis and Squash courts and the Billiards tables are available to book, although there are some special arrangements in place. If you are looking for a new playing partner why not try our Member Connect service on the website, which will help you to find and contact members with similar interests?

Looking forward to next year, Skiing have already booked and filled two trips to the slopes, to those firm favourites Val d’Isère and Les Arcs, and are planning a third to Champoluc in the heart of the Italian Alps.

For the latest information about the Activity Groups, and on how you can join in, please visit the Activities section of the Club website.

Young Members’ Golf

On the hottest day of the summer, 68 Young Members and their guests took to the Old Course to play in the highly-coveted Young Members’ Millennial Trophy Golf Tournament.

Despite the heat and the obvious lack of practice during the lockdown, the standard of golf was excellent. With a betterball stableford score in the high 30s only securing middle of the pack, to win you needed Fortuna, the Roman goddess of luck, on your side.

Congratulations to Lloyd Peters and his guest Fraser McGuinness for winning the day with the hugely impressive score of 50!

FIRST PLACE: Lloyd Peters and Fraser McGuinness (50 Points) SECOND PLACE: William Brewin and Max Wainwright (47 Points) THIRD PLACE: Chris Ryan and Blake Webster (44 Points on count back) LONGEST DRIVE: Sam Sutton NEAREST TO THE PIN: Chris Dowty For the full results please visit the Young Members section of the Club’s website.

Running simultaneously, for those who were not quite golf course ready, were the Young Members’ Golf Workshops. Under the guidance of our outstanding Club pros, three groups spent the afternoon learning basic golfing techniques, hopefully setting them on the way for next year’s tournament.

A huge thank you to everyone who helped organise and host our first post-lockdown Young Members’ event – in particular, thanks to Jacqui Ballard and Andy Wolstenholme, our two Club captains, for presenting the prizes.

We hope to run a full summer of golf in 2021 with the Millennial Trophy taking place on Sunday 8 August 2021.

Bridge

Almost without pausing for a careful, masked breath — and overcoming the panic of not having a green baize to sit at, a partner to glare at, evocatively coloured packs of cards to fondle and fights to win – the bridge playing fraternity and sorority have reinvented themselves.

The transition to the internet went (almost) smoothly. Now, Group members can sit at home, alone or ignoring anyone in their family, just as if they were at a bridge table at the Club.

If you make a mistake, your partner will barely have time to send you a message berating you before the hand appears magically on the screen — each one of us seeing only our own cards — with a written demand for each player to make their bid. No time to explain how much better you would have played the previous hand, because you are feeling the pressure of considering the next one. It’s not like at the table where you refrain from looking at your hand until you have got your complaint, rather than your bidding, off your chest. The cards are staring at you, calling out to be utilised and played with. Even at the end of the competition, recriminations must wait as the results, the table, every hand, are all instantly available within a decimal point of a second.

We are reluctant to mention any drawbacks for fear our screens might choose to freeze in retribution, but we will say — quietly — that neither the app nor the machine makes a cup of tea or coffee, nor a sandwich nor even a biscuit. Roll on the return to Pall Mall and Woodcote Park.

Garden Walks at Woodcote Park

For several years the Gardening Group has arranged walks around the grounds at Woodcote Park so that members can appreciate the new planting and understand the plans for the future. Once lockdown had been relaxed we were able to reintroduce these walks with smaller groups and, unfortunately, no gathering for a glass of wine afterwards!

Sixty-eight members were taken around the grounds and gardens over the summer. We had sunny days and some very wet ones but all the members were delighted to be able to attend an event outdoors after the weeks of lockdown.

We walked through the newly-cleared woodland and saw the lovely wood sculptures and seats. We admired the wildflower banks, fields and borders and the impressive new Members’ Arboretum with 23 new trees funded by member contributions.

The herbaceous borders around the Fountain looked fabulous and the sundial garden, heather bank and Japanese Garden were looking stunning with a mass of exuberant planting.

Thanks to the enthusiasm of all those who attended we are committed to having more walks, so that even more members can appreciate the amazing transformation to the grounds and gardens at Woodcote Park.

Photography

The pandemic led to the cancellation of our planned 2020 programme, but the Photography Group moved quickly to create an extensive new series of weekly events on Zoom. This has provided the opportunity to reach out to speakers in far flung places as well as those in the UK.

Recent events have included presentations by many leading photographers, including a wildlife photographer based in South Africa. Coming events include photos of Vermont taken by our speaker who is based there, as well as everything from flowers to astrophotography.

The use of Zoom opens up these events to all members, wherever they live, and to those who are wary of venturing out during these difficult times. If you are interested, please go to ‘My Account’ and tick ‘Photography’ on the ‘Activities and Interests’ page and you will receive notification of all future events. The Photography Group’s section of the Club website also has information on forthcoming events. Everyone is welcome, irrespective of your photographic skills, and we look forward to seeing you.

Cricket

The Club’s cricket team saw the start of its 2020 season and invitation to participate in the Philadelphia Cricket Festival in May scuppered by COVID-19. It wasn’t until 22 July, and then only by following strict ECB social distancing guidelines, that the ‘Aristocrats’ were able to take to the field at Battersea Park for the season’s first action.

In a close-run contest, we were defeated by 13 runs by the Carlton Club. Three further mid-week Running The Woodcote Park Running Group resumed its activities in June, as soon as government rules allowed up to six people to congregate outside.

Since then, it has been keeping to its regular schedule of running on the first Sunday and third Saturday of each month. The COVID-19 situation has not dampened the enthusiasm of the Group, which has added new routes as well as more runners. In fact, in these stay-at-home times, there is no better way to stay in shape and increase one’s resistance to viruses than to engage in aerobic activities. Please visit the Running Group section of the Club website for more information. losses (against Marlborough Blues, The Ivy and HAC) were suffered before the Club gained its first win of the campaign, beating the Oriental Club at Merchant Taylor’s School by 110 runs.

The Aristocrats then won two more on the trot against Tadworth CC (by 15 runs) and the Savile Club (by 138 runs); victories that positioned the Club with a real chance of securing a winning season.

The latest results and match reports can be

viewed in the cricket section of the Club website.