Tydd St Giles Golf Club have given senior member Brian Shales an honorary lifetime membership to mark the outstanding work he has done over the past 20 years.
Shales first joined the men’s section back in 1977 and spent time on the committee, before moving onto the seniors – formed in 1977 – when there was only about a dozen playing competitions on a Tuesday.
He eventually joined the senior committee in 1998 and was appointed captain in 2002 – a position held for a mammoth ten years.
During that decade Shales, along with Malcolm Ross and Robin Neale, set about the task of building a strong senior section and introducing a mass of events.
In 2003 they were asked by the management to set up and run a seniors’ open day, which turned out to be the backbone for other major events that followed.
The charity golf days they put on were very successful and, during his ten years, more than £20,000 was raised for selected charities.
Shales got very lucky one year, as he persuaded ex-Scottish football international and Norwich City goalkeeper Bryan Gunn to play as a guest celebrity at one of the many charity events.
The most popular new event he helped introduce came in 2000 was a competition played over three days using the Ryder Cup format.
Meanwhile, 2010 saw Tydd host the Lincolnshire Annual Past Captains day – which attracted 160 golfers from around the region.
This remains the largest number of players for a single seniors’ event at Tydd St Giles to date.
Building up the seniors’ section continued during Shales’ stint at the helm, with matches against other clubs growing.
Fixtures against the likes of Wensum Valley, Richmond Park and March, to name but a few, are now regular occurances.
In 2011, two additional in-house competitions were introduced and proved to be a great success – The Rabbits Cup, and Scratch Championship.
The last two years has seen Shales’ role change to project co-ordinator, while 2014 saw the installation of the shoe cleaner – a much needed asset to the club.
This year, the Halfway house was completed which was highlighted as a great asset for all major competitions.
Shales said: “All that has been achieved could not have been done whithout the great support from Robin Neale, John Dugard and Malcolm Ross – not forgetting the support from the management at Tydd St Giles.”
Shales has now has stepped back from the limelight and is enjoying a quieter time with his family, as well as enjoying playing a few rounds of golf.
- Tydd St Giles results: Seniors’ section: Monthly Medal: Division One – 1st Gerry Sherriff 83-13=70; 2nd Ken Parker 85-14=71; 3rd Paul Burrell 83-12=71.
Division Two – 1st Barry Hill 87-18=69; 2nd Richard Martin 92-20=72; 3rd Richard Talbot 94-21=73.
Division Three – 1st Trevor Hunt 99-27=72; 2nd David Boon 101-28=73; 3rd John Hewitt 102-28=74.
