I hope everyone had a great Christmas and that Santa was kind to you all. I think most people were still getting organised after the festivities as only 5 people played golf today. Congratulations to Brenda who got the best score of those souls who braved the elements.

The AGM at Oakleaf on Wednesday was only attended by "Woodham" ladies and therefore it is unlikely that there will be a full blown ladies section running there next season which is a great pity as that was one of the objectives we set ourselves when we moved there last March.

We had a great Turkey Trot today organised by Margaret Russell. The day started with ginger wine which was just what was needed to keep us warm. However, the weather was kind (just a little windy) and despite the forecast for rain we all managed to get in before it started. The meal was very good and then came the fun part with the results (how did Deb manage to get 25 points from 9 holes? - I think I'll have to look at her handicap!), games and even indoor darts. Many thanks to Margaret and all her helpers for keeping us all entertained throughout the day.

Many thanks to everyone who came along to the Riverside at Chester-le-Street on Thursday to attend the County Durham Golf Partnership AGM and Presentation where Pat and I received our award for Club Volunteer of the Year. That so many of you wanted to come along meant almost as much to us as winning the award itself - we really are extremely grateful to all of you.

What an exciting week, Pat and I were thrilled to find out that we had not only been nominated for the County Durham Golf Partnership Club Volunteer of the Year but that we had won it. We had absolutely no idea that this was going on so many thanks to everyone who was involved in the nomination process. It was really kind of you all to think of us. To top it off, I won the 9 hole competition, Pat won the 18 holes (despite being injured) and we had cake after the game today which was really nice as a number of people turned up who hadn't played golf. The award itself will be presented on Thursday.

Many thanks to Margaret Russell for organising a great presentation evening. It was lovely to be back at Woodham and I'm sure that everyone was impressed with the way the room looked with the new decoration, the table with all the trophies and lighting looked very impressive. The food also was very nice and served with a smile - thanks to the catering staff for making us feel so welcome.

Thanks also need to go to everyone who spent the afternoon making the room look perfect.

The Oakleaf AGM is to be held at 7:00pm on Wednesday 10th December at the Sports Complex. This meeting is required as part of the Oakleaf constitution. The normal annual reports from the captain, secretary, handicap secretary and treasurer will be given and the meeting will also be used to see whether there are enough people who intend to rejoin Oakleaf to be able to form a ladies committee for next season.

We started the Winter Competitions this week in very blustery conditions - but it was nice to be back at Woodham where the majority of the members played. Three ladies played at Oakleaf and then came to Woodham for the EGM. The proposals put forward by committee were accepted so we are are officially "reformed" and can be called Woodham Ladies Section again!

Today saw the last of the Summer competitions played at Oakleaf - and what glorious weather we had so there were no excuses for the rather high scores returned by everyone except Liz and Steph who won with a magnificent net 69. We now are going to hold winter competitions both at Woodham and Oakleaf. Sign up sheets will eventually be in place in each locker room but whilst we are waiting for the notice boards to be installed at Woodham Pat will have the draw sheets so let her know if you want to put your name down. Maggie will be organising the competition at Oakleaf so if there are any cancellations then contact her.

Following the committee meeting on Tuesday evening it was agreed that we need to hold a very short EGM to "officially" reform the ladies section at Woodham. This will be held after the first Winter League game at Woodham on Sunday 19th October. There will be two items of business:-

• Report from the treasurer on the Woodham Ladies Golf Section funds

• Appointment of a committee

We must be coming toward the end of the season as the notice is up in the locker room at Oakleaf for the Presentation Evening which is to be held at Woodham on Friday 7th November. The cost of the 3 course meal is £12.50 please indicate your menu choices on the notice. All trophies should be returned to Margaret Russell as soon as possible so they can be engraved.

The Winter League starts at both Oakleaf and Woodham on Sunday 19th October. Sign up sheets for Oakleaf are on the notice board. Unfortunately the notice boards are not up yet at Woodham and therefore Pat has the list - please let her know if you wish to play.

A meeting is to be held of all members of Woodham Golf Club on Thursday 18th September at 19:15 to discuss the reformation of the Members Committee and the relevant sections. The following roles are open for election/re-election.  If anyone is interested in applying/reapplying for these roles please come along to the meeting or if unable to attend, leave a letter with Ernie Wilson marked for the attention of Dennis Noble.

• Club Chairman

• Club Secretary

• Mens Section Handicap Secretary + Assistants

• Mens Section Competitions Secretary + Assistants

• Club Treasurer

• Course Liaison Officer

• In addition we would be looking for organisers for the Winter Friendly Fours.

The aim is to commence plans for the 2015 season and in due course this will also entail appointment of Captain and Vice Captain.

All members of the Golf Club are invited and representation of the owners have also been asked to attend to bring everyone up-to-date on the course development.

Following the email that went out regarding the running of the winter competitions etc. at Woodham, it appears that the majority of members are in favour of the proposals made by committee. Therefore the section will move ahead on that basis.

Sorry for the rather short news this week but its a difficult time at the moment - many thanks to all the club members who have been in touch, sent cards etc. We are still waiting to hear when Gary's funeral will be, my brother's has been arranged for the 5th September.

Well done to the Bronze Team (Margaret Russell and Barbara Robinson) who won their first round Thomlinson match against Roseberry Grange at Wearside this week. Unfortunately the Silver Team (Janice and Tracey) lost their match. The Bronze team now have to played Boldon at Crook in a couple of weeks time.

The committee met this week to discuss where to hold the winter competitions now that a lot of ladies have re-joined Woodham. A letter will be emailed to all members to let them know the proposal and gauge opinion. In the meantime tee times have been booked for Bank Holiday Monday to have a game of golf at Woodham perhaps followed by a meal as they should be serving "Lite Bites" in the Spike Bar. Please let myself, Pat or Margaret Russell know if you are interested in taking part (the first tee time is 9:56 and the draw will be done next Sunday). Any men who may be interested are welcome to join as well as it would be nice to get a few people out on the course again.

What a great trip to the KP club for our annual Woodham Waywards adventure. Janice and Tracey managed to blag an upgrade to a room with a hot tub. What a result - after the first day's golf I think we had 10 people in the hot tub all at once and my bones certainly felt the benefit the next day. I believe that there is some photographic evidence of this - but it would be unfair to publish any of them on the web site!

The results of the golf were as follows:-

Many thanks to Margaret for organising another great event which was enjoyed by everyone.

We have received the following information regarding the new fees for Woodham when it re-opens:-

Green fees 1st August - 31st March 2015
Players who were members at 31st October 2013 receive a 20% discount if they rejoin during the month of August (shown as "2013 members" below).

• Adult 8 month membership new member   £300.00
  Adult 8 Month membership  2013 member £240.00

• Weekday 8 month membership new member £267.00
  Weekday  8 month membership 2013 member £213.00

• Joint 8 month membership new member £565.00
  Joint 8 month membership 2013 member £452.00

Membership prices on pro rata basis September onwards (example full £263.00). 2013 members joining in September would pay the full £263.00.

Levy monies will be collected from 1st April 2015 onwards.
2013 members will receive FOC game of golf in the 1st week of August valid until Thursday 7th

2015 Membership 1st April-31st March 2016

Full £450.00 Weekday £400.00 Joint £850.00

Buggies £20.00 visitor    £12.00 members rate.
Shop opening hours 8am-6pm Monday- Friday. 8am-5pm weekends from Friday 25th July.
New Pro shop telephone number 01325 319977
Payment options cash, cheque, credit/debit card - Please note no standing order facilities

They are still hoping to allow people to play from 1st August and therefore it is proposed that we all take advantage of our free round to pay the waltzer on Sunday 3rd August at Woodham. Please let me or any other committee member know if toy are interested in playing (especially those people who have not joined Oakleaf - it would be lovely to see you all there).

Many thanks to Margaret Russell for a great Captain's Day. Obviously running Captains Day at Oakleaf was going to be a new experience for everyone and Margaret did a great job in keeping us fed and watered on the course, organising a nice meal afterwards and then sorting out the evening entertainment.

I'm sure that everyone enjoyed themselves and liked all the gifts provided by Margaret. I was also lucky enough to win a couple of the golf prizes as well so left the course with my arms full which was very nice. The trip to Billingham Forum was a lovely end to the day and for those of you who weren't there we not only saw Roy Orbison, but Elvis and Jerry Lee Lewis as well (you may have thought they were dead but I can assure you that they were very much alive and singing!!)

Another busy week of golf with a number of ladies playing in the Vine Trophy on Monday, the Afternoon Team had a good win at Whickham on Wednesday followed by a very narrow defeat away at Consett (4-3) on Friday. At least everyone is keeping fit!

Don't forget about the early start and road closures next Sunday for Captain's Day. We are teeing off at 10am and according to the signs they are closing the roads from 9:00 (not 9:30).

Not to be outdone by the Evening League team the Afternoon team won their first home match against Whickham on Tuesday. Its a busy week for them this week with two away matches and we wish them all the best for what will no doubt be very competitive games.

Please sign up for the matchplay championship so that the draw can be done after golf next weekend. Sign up sheets are now on the notice board right up to August so there's no excuse for not getting your names down in good time!

As you are all aware, Captain's Day is on the 15th June and we will be teeing off slightly earlier than usual to ensure that we have time to get round the course and have a meal before going to Billingham Forum. However, the Aycliffe Fun Run is taking place that morning and there will be road closures from 9:30 - so please make sure that you get to Oakleaf early.

Another good win for the Evening League team who won 4.5 - 0.5 at home against Chester-le-Street last Tuesday. Good luck to the Afternoon team who have their first home match against Whickham this Tuesday.

A week full of birthdays - mine on Thursday, Margaret Russell's on Friday and Janice's yesterday. We celebrated again today after golf with yet more birthday cake (apparently this was number 5 of 6 that Margaret had been given for her 70th birthday). It was wonderful that we all managed to keep the secret so that she had no idea that she would be having a party or that we had been invited to it. Apparently the 11 wood was only tried out once today and although it was not her best shot of the day Margaret said that it went in a straight line which is always an achievement in my book! Many thanks to everyone for the cards and good wishes.

The balance of money for Woodham Waywards at the KP club is due by the end of June.

A great win this week for the Evening League team who won a very tight match at Hartlepool 3-2. Their next game is at home against Chester-le-Street on Tuesday so lets hope that they can maintain their winning streak.

Please ensure that you sign-up for Lady Captain's Day on the 15th June. Margaret has organised golf and a meal following by a Roy Orbison tribute evening at Billingham Forum. It sounds like it will great fun so clear your diaries and lets hope for some great weather like today!

A much better day weather wise than the forecast lead us to believe. It was actually quite warm out there today so no excuses for the golf - for the second week running we had a reduction only competition (but the scores were better than last week so who knows, we may get nearer our handicaps when we play our next qualifier!).

Good luck to the Evening League team who play their first match against Hartlepool (away) on Thursday.

Unfortunately the Afternoon League lost their first match of the season at Heworth 6-1.

Bring your waterproofs on Sunday we may need them

Joint website update today from Anita (Wizard) Maxwell and Sourcerers Apprentice Linda Luke.

We have our first team match this week, the Afternoon Ladies are away at Royal Heworth, good luck on the day.

Woodham Waywards deposit to Liz Nelson as soon as possible please.

An early start this morning - the clocks went forward an hour and we had a committee meeting prior to the golf (we must be gluttons for punishment!). Unfortunately it was a bit murky all day and the sun never got through the clouds. However despite the weather I think everyone enjoyed playing a scramble - the scores were excellent.

Thanks to everyone who attended the meetings on Tuesday evening. It was very nice to receive my Captain's gift (for those people who were not there it was a lovely engraved vase) - I'm very grateful. Here's wishing Margaret every success for the forthcoming season.

Margaret R is currently arranging the Woodham Waywards trip so if you are interested in going to the KP Club near Pocklington (York) please let her know. Deposits of £20 need to be paid straight away and the total cost of an overnight stay, dinner, breakfast and golf is £90. An extra nights accommodation can be arranged for those who want a longer break.

Another interesting day weather wise - I think we had all four seasons in one day. The hail made putting a bit tricky I have to say! Congratulations to Barbara and Roz who managed to get 38 points despite the weather.

Well, this is my last week as Captain - so just a quick reminder that the AGM/EGM/AGM is being held at Oak Leaf on Tuesday at 7pm. Please arrive in good time so that we can make a prompt start as there is quite a bit of business to get through and we only have the room for 2 hours.

The conditions were very tricky today with a very blustery wind. At least it is drying the course out and the fairways are a lot firmer than two weeks ago when we came back to Oak Leaf.  It was great to see some many people taking part today and hopefully this will continue throughout the season.

We now have a notice board in the locker room so the draw sheets are pinned up making it easier for everyone to sign up for each of the games. We have also put the team match availability sheets up. I would be grateful if members could indicate whether they can play in these as I expect we will need to draw on everyone during the season to fulfil the fixtures.

The first week of the summer competitions and the weather was kind - in fact it got quite warm on the golf course. Oak Leaf have confirmed all of the Durham County team fixtures so it looks like we are all systems go for the 2014 season - here's hoping that we can manage to field enough players for each of them. I think approximately 18 ladies have now joined Oak Leaf so we are in a healthy position.

Today was the last week of "Woodham's Winter Tour" - week 16 and it doesn't seem any time at all since the shock of Woodham closing. Anyway, here we are having finally found a temporary home at Oak Leaf where we will be able to play our competitions and keep the spirit of Woodham alive. Twelve of us played today and 14 have signed up for next week which is a great start for the new section.

There will be a meeting on Tuesday 25th March in the function room at Oak Leaf to officially suspend Woodham Ladies Section and form the new section at Oak Leaf. Therefore we will have three meeting taking place one after the other. Woodham's AGM (originally scheduled for November) followed by an EGM to suspend the section, appoint trustees to look after the bank account (nominations are required) and agree the amount of money to be transferred to the new "Woodham Ladies @ Oak Leaf" Section. Finally for those ladies that have joined Oak Leaf there will be an AGM to officially agree the constitution and form the new section. It all may sound a bit complicated, but I'm afraid that it needs to be done and hopefully won't take too long to complete. Margaret Russell will be sending out the details in the next few days and will be requesting nominations for the new committee and the trustees to look after the old bank account.

Margaret Russell and I met with Bob Fleming (leader of Great Aycliffe Town Council) and Julie Welsh (the new golf manager) yesterday to discuss moving the section to Oak Leaf. The meeting was very positive and they are happy for us to run our competitions and take part in the County fixtures. The membership fees can be paid by direct debit over 6 months with an admin fee of just £5 making the payment £55 per month for under 60's and £47.50 for the senior ladies for 6 months providing membership until 31st March 2015.

The next committee meeting will to be held on Tuesday 25th February at 6:30pm in the function room at Oak Leaf . We will discuss the outcome of the meeting and whether there are any other issues/queries that need to be raised with Oak Leaf. Hopefully it will be possible to sort out all the arrangements for an EGM at this meeting and all section members will be informed of these as soon as possible.

I’m afraid to say that we have got to the end of the road as far as the Administrators of Woodham Golf Club are concerned.  Although they have not rejected our proposal, the Administrator is not ready to consider any options for opening the club until they are further down the line with the sale. Pat spoke to the Agents today and it looks like they are working to a timetable of having bids returned by the end of March. Therefore the very earliest that a sale will go through is the end of May (I'm assuming that this will take an absolute minimum of 2 months). Naturally should there be no bids the administrator will reconsider his position and our offer will be on the table but the Agent has indicated that there has been quite a bit of interest. As a Ladies Section we need to agree on a new location by early March in order to confirm match fixtures etc. with the County. This of course means committing to another course and paying the appropriate green fees.

I’m sorry if you feel that your hopes have been raised only to be dashed again but I felt that we had to give it a try. The response to my email was overwhelming and it is great to know that there is still so much support for Woodham golf club.  I will of course keep you informed if I hear back from Administrator.  In the meantime thank you very much for your support.

I therefore believe that our only option is to negotiate with Great Aycliffe Town Council to move the section to Oak Leaf. I appreciate that this is not everyone’s first choice but the feedback that I have got from many members is that they will consider joining for a year in the hope that Woodham re-opens in time for the following season and it is on that basis that I think we should move forward.

We will need to have an EGM to go through the process of moving the section and the proposed date for this is Tuesday 11th March. In order to sort out the arrangements for this it is proposed that the committee meeting is brought forward one week to Monday 24th February. The location and times of these will be confirmed as soon as possible.

Another sunny day today for our golf and despite all the rain that we've had this week I think the course was marginally drier than last Sunday.

I now have 32 names of people willing to help out should our proposal to run Woodham be accepted by the administrators. Although this is not enough to keep the place running I think there is enough support out there to make it work. We really have to make a decision about our home before the beginning of March if possible and therefore we shall be contacting the administrator this week (fingers crossed).

Our proposal to go to the administrators should there be enough support to run Woodham seems to be gaining momentum. I will try to keep everyone up to date with progress as we try to move forward. Although there may be a lot of issues to address I think we would kick ourselves if we did not at least try.

Very wet and muddy at Hall Garth today - but at least the sun shone (on the righteous?).

At the committee meeting this week we discussed the future home of the section and reluctantly came to the conclusion that it was unlikely that we would be able play competitive golf at Hall Garth. I have been in contact with Bob Fleming and he has stated that we would be able to move the section to Oak Leaf and would be able to play all our competitions and organise ourselves as we want. The membership cost for the year from 1st April is £325 for under 60's and £280 for over 60's. He would keep that price even if we joined on the 1st March (effectively getting a free month and the costs include all the affiliation fees).

The committee want to keep the Oak Leaf option open and in the meantime explore the avenue of working with the administrators to re-open Woodham. Effectively we would be proposing to them that volunteers take over the running of the pro shop in return for reduced golf fees. Pat has spoken to the administrator and although they are probably not ready to consider this option yet as the course has only just gone up for sale, we think that if the sale drags on it would be a way for them to keep their costs down. However, the only way this would work is for us to get together a large number of people willing to help. I will be sending out an email to gauge everyone's opinion very soon once we have thought through some of the logistics.

The weather was not quite as bad as the forecast, but bad enough that we decided not to play any golf. The course looked even wetter than last week and by the time we had finish our coffees the path back to the car park was quite flooded. Perhaps you'll all get some golf in next week. Pat and I are down in Kent so please let Margaret Russell know of any cancellations etc.

The course was very wet today and as it was still raining quite heavily we took to decision just to have a cup of coffee (or two). It was very nice to meet Margaret Mayhew who is a member of Hall Garth having moved across from Mount Oswald. Hopefully next week when she joins us again we will actually be able to play some golf.

We held our first committee meeting of the New Year at Hall Garth on Monday and spent most of the time looking at the process for suspending Woodham Ladies Section and starting up a new one at Hall Garth.

To ensure that we are up and running in time for the new season we are proposing to hold the first AGM of the Hall Garth Ladies Section during the week commencing 3rd March (probably on the Tuesday),  this will be open to all lady members of Hall Garth i.e. those who have paid their annual subscription. We also need to hold an EGM to suspend Woodham Ladies Section and this will be held during the previous week (this will be open to all Woodham Ladies Section Members as at the end of October 2013). The purpose of the EGM is to agree how the assets of the section will be managed whilst Woodham is closed.

The annual membership fee for Hall Garth is £240 plus a £30 levy to cover the cost of the affiliation fees to the County and EGU, golf insurance and a section levy to help with the running costs (we are not sure yet how much will be returned to the section).

Happy New Year to everyone.

Not much news at the moment. Discussions with Hall Garth are continuing and there will be a committee meeting tomorrow evening to discuss progress to date and the proposed constitution for the new club. I will keep you posted when there is anything concrete to tell.