The BTU Golfing Society (1926)
Origins in the "Golfing Circle" of the Institution of Heating and Ventilating Engineers
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Captain’s Welcome FarewellFareWelco me
‘Well, I’ve made it at last, although two years late, and on that point a special note of thanks to Nick for stepping in whilst I was temporarily out of action and for doing an excellent job as Captain for 2024/25.
It is an absolute pleasure, privilege and honour to be chosen as your captain for 2025/27. We have some excellent venues arranged for 2026 and we will endeavour to maintain the high standards now expected for the 2027 season; with some luck I might be able to tick one or two off my top 100 list as well. Apart from the list of venues for this year, there is all manner of other interesting information about the society on this website. We are also hoping to organise a similar event to Princes for the end of 2027 but perhaps venturing further afield with Le Touquet as one possible candidate for consideration. We will canvas the members for their view on this.
2026 is a landmark year for us as it is our Centenary and this anniversary coincided with the BTUGS hosting the biennial national event held at the Forest of Arden at the beginning of May. The two days were a great success that ran seamlessly and was in no small part almost entirely down to the efforts of Steve Rhodes and Ben Brown, so enormous gratitude to them.
There have been some changes to the committee line-up for 2026 and I would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the contribution made by those that are stepping down this year. Special thanks then go to Steve Rhodes, our Honorary Secretary for the past seven years, to Graeme Moss for a similar tenure as our Honorary Treasurer and to Dave Kendle, who for as long as I can remember, has been our day steward. Ken Minter is also stepping down as our President and I’m sure we all would want to thank Ken for everything he has done for the society not least in helping to reverse the dwindling numbers of the BTUGS.
We now have a well supported society that enjoys a good turnout at each event, so long may that continue to be the case. New members always welcome of course.
Thanks to Mark Turner for taking over as Honorary Secretary, to Ian Taylor for assuming the role of Honorary Treasurer, to Stew Shew as handicap secretary and finally to Tim Croft for undertaking the position of day steward, a role newly created for the vice captain which came as something of a surprise to Tim but has nevertheless accepted the position with good grace.
Another important announcement is that Martin Down has been elected as our new President with Ben Brown as Vice President. Both long serving members of the society, Martin as Honorary Secretary for over ten years, so worthy recipients of these honorary positions
I very much look forward to catching up with everyone during the year and hope your swing remains smooth and the flight of your ball always straight
Martin Richards
