SUNSHADES & DECKING and RCF WINDOWS /
AYLESBURY GLASS
The year 2020 will live in everyone’s memory as
the year the world changed forever !!!
Never in the history of the Bears, and it’s been
20 years, have we had such a sad year as 2020.
The Coronavirus came in so fast it didn’t give
anyone a chance to prepare for it and it just devastated the whole
world!!
We will always remember, and be grateful to, the
key workers and certainly the NHS, who dedicated their lives to
getting us through it.
They put the GREAT back into Great
Britain.
We must also remember the poor souls who lost
their lives to this terrible pandemic.
CORONAVIRUS / COVID
19
Due to the pandemic we were sadly forced to
cancel all meetings after our March meeting at Temple GC when the
1st lockdown came in to operation.
Once the Government ruling on large crowd
gatherings came into play we knew that the Bears would struggle to
hold a meeting in 2020 due to the average attendance of Bears
meetings being 30 players.
Luckily in August the easing of Government
restrictions enabled golf clubs to open up again and we restarted
our season at Oxford GC but with the restriction of 30 players in
attendance.
We then managed to hold meetings right through
until October albeit with restrictions and even changing venues and
one date.
Sadly November saw the 2nd lockdown
which meant we had to cancel our ‘end of season’ bash at Whipsnade
GC.
Despite all these interruptions we still managed
to donate £600 to several charities including our own chosen
charity.
ORDER OF MERIT 2020
This obviously didn’t happen so the lucky members
who won it in 2019 happily carried it through 2020 !!
Well done to Pete Smees, runner-up Mike
Sparkes.
Congratulations also go to our very own
WEBMEISTER Graham Ecob for winning the Absent Friends Trophy,
runner-up Phil Clack.
You lucky people keeping it for 2 years
!!
SUSPENSION OF NEW MEMBERSHIP FOR
2021
With the present outlook looking bleak, golf
clubs with advice from England Golf, are restricting societies to a
maximum of 30 players (this is not for the course but for the
clubhouse if catering is required)
Graham and I have therefore decided to suspend
the new membership register for 2021.
With over 60 members at present this will give
established members the chance to get a few games in should the
limit be extended through 2021.
This will also be extended to members guests
while the limit on numbers is in place.
Once the situation changes we will of course
review the restrictions but we feel it is important to support the
members who have supported us so well in the past.
We want to thank each & every one of you
for helping us raise the following funds & you will see how that
money was distributed to each charity :-
Donations for 2020
Cancer Care Unit (our chosen
charity)
(to help towards the wages of the
Macmillan Cancer Support Nurses)
£320
NHS Fund
£100
Florence Nightingale Hospice
(Aylesbury)
£100
Batchworth GC Captains
Charity
(Educating & Empowering children in Third
World countries)
£80
Grand total raised & donated by the
Bears: - £600
Bears Chosen Charity for 2021 is:-
Cancer Care & Haematology Unit at Stoke
Mandeville Hospital
This newsletter is shorter than the usual
long winded one you normally receive at the start of each season,
see, the pandemic has even affected the newsletter
!!
The following sections are for the new
members who joined us through 2020 and will hopefully answer any
questions they might have out the Bears.
LAST MINUTE
CANCELLATIONS
When we give the golf club final numbers (usually
a couple of days prior to our visit) this is the number that has to
be paid for. If by any chance a player has to cancel at the last
minute due to unforeseen circumstances they will have to pay for
their already booked place. A few years ago most clubs would only
charge for the food that had to be bought in, but now most clubs
specify that we have bought ‘the package’ which means the whole
amount has to be paid for. This is due to the fact I think they
were losing too much money on the cancelled green fees as well as
the food and as most catering is franchised the golf clubs were
receiving nothing towards the upkeep of the course. Please remember
that if you do have to pay for a last minute cancellation it’s not
the society that is demanding the money but the golf
club.
SPONSORS
We can’t operate without them so a big thanks
must go to all of them for all their help.
You are all very important to us and I don’t
think it’s fair to pick out just a few of you because you have
bigger adverts in our event diary. We have been lucky enough to
welcome several new sponsors for 2021 enabling us to carry on the
great work the Bears do donating to several charities as we go
about our golf.
We can’t thank the regular small sponsors enough,
we can’t operate without your help and collectively you help us so
much.
d.
Copyright 2021. Clip
Design/Grumpy Designs 2015. All Rights Reserved.