The Annual Dinner for Cheshire Golf was the first since the recent Unification of the CUGC and CCLGA and it was held at the fine venue of Carden Park.
As well as Cheshire ladies and men officials there were plenty of guests from counties and other golf associations enjoying an excellent night featuring awards, good speeches and climaxed with great entertainment from guest speaker Richard Walker MBE.
The awards were given out before the meal and announced by compere Simon Dangar receiving deserved awards were Men’s Player of the Year and Order of Merit winner Sam Prince, Senior Player of the year and Order of Merit winner Gareth Bradley, Boys player of the Year Harry Kell, Junior Organiser of the Year Dave Clarke (Lymm GC) and a special award for Chris Peterson for his 15 years of unstinting service as Men’s chair of selectors from 2009- 2024. Dan Hayes was awarded his county colours to round off an incredible season that saw him win the Carris Trophy, runner-up in the Brabazon Trophy, represent England Boys and Men and also GB&I Boys in the Jacques Leglise Trophy. He also won several other major tournaments.
The very successful Junior Team were also on the stage to received deserved applause for their great season. Cheshire President Roy Claxton (Eaton GC)outlined the rest of the evening’s entertainment: “The evening was a great success with many compliments being made by our guests.
“I suppose the highlight of the evening was Richard Walker OBE, my son-in-law’s speech details of which will follow.
“Les Wilson the Past President of England Golf and gave the toast to Cheshire Golf.
“Les touched on the unification but didn’t go into too much detail. He mentioned his past role in England Golf and was quite entertaining.
“I was next up and my speech was to obviously thank everyone for their efforts and it was concentrated on this dinner being quite an historic occasion as it was the first following the unification of the CUGC and the CCLGA and it was basically about the benefits of bringing both bodies under the one umbrella and how we are to look forward working together to develop golf within Cheshire and beyond.
“Finally it was Richard Walker OBE, my son-in-law, who received his OBE for services tobusiness and the environment.
“Richard climbed Mount Everest twice not quite making the summit in 2011 but went back last year and finally made the peak with his mountaineering guide Kenton Edward Cool .
“On both occasions Richard raised Million’s of pounds for his charity to build the world’s first rare dementia support centre.
“The state-of-the-art centre in London will be the world’s first centre of excellence for supporting those living with inherited and young onset dementia.
“Richard has been appointed Ambassador for Alzheimer’s Research UK and he is also CEO of Iceland Food Supermarkets employing over 33,000 people.
“His speech was extremely interesting showing lots of slides during his accent of Everest – he became snow blind on the descent which caused a lot of concern but he made it down -despite the problem of not being able to see!
“Richard also ran the London Marathon recently and collapsed near the end and was unconscious for over 30 minutes, we thought we had lost him and again he raised thousands for his charity. He is definitely a one-off star.”
Copy & images: Geoff Garnett
