Essex Provincial Grand Stewards Golf Day, South Essex Golf Club

The eagerly awaited Provincial Grand Stewards Golf Day finally took place at the South Essex Golf Club on Friday 31st July 2021.

The originally planned Spring Event that had been months in the planning, had to be rescheduled twice in May and June, creating significant logistical planning implications.

Undeterred, the organising team of Stewards, myself included, led by WB Christian Webb, maintained their positivity, and constant communication with the changing circa 20 x Four Ball teams (80 participants).  Christian  reported that “the committed brethren and friends were amazingly understanding and patient even after what May have felt like a deluge of calls and emails from me”. 

The day was finally upon us and the teams began arriving at 8am to a full English breakfast and tea. The teams were teeing off on two separate courses and playing the front nine on one and back nine on the other using a team based Texas Scramble format.  After staggering playing teams between breakfast, the driving range and the flawless scheduling of the tee times, we got all the teams off on time to enjoy some great playing and scoring efforts.  

The 80 golfers were supported by us Stewards delivering drinks and snacks and coordinating the nearest the pin and longest drive mini competitions, began to arrive back to a hearty lunch. Even with a little rain during some of the later rounds, teams were arriving back in good spirits, looking forward to what was to follow.  

The Raffle was held first which generated a tidy sum.  Next followed the Memorabilia Auction with a selection of items primarily from across the sporting  world, which proved to be really popular. With John Conteh (Light Heavyweight Boxing Champ) in attendance it, it would have been a real opportunity missed to not invite John to host the Auction, which he very graciously agreed to do.  It’s fair to say he had done this before, and put on a real show, which added to the entertainment of the whole affair, it’s also fair to say the expert selection of items and Jonah Conte’s expert execution definitely led to creating that perfect balance between competition and generous giving. 

The Prize Giving followed, with last place going to a very gracious team called Tinos, and first place overall competition winners being Danny's Banditos.

Other notable guests in addition to our very own Deputy Provincial Grand Master in Charge - Peter Hollingsworth and Provincial Grand Communications Officer Peter Low, were Tony Cottee of West Ham fame, the entertainer Roger De Courcey from Chelsea Lodge and Ian Watson who donated a pair of signed Anthony Joshua boxing gloves for the Auction and who was also responsible for inviting along along Roger De Courcey and John Conteh.  

Thanks also to our Sponsors, IT Positive Ltd, Belmont Security Systems Ltd and MDG Ltd, organised by WB Dan Broyd.  Also the larger team organisers such as Chris Lee for organising the teams from Lodge of IV along with Richard ‘Juggler’ Austin and Kevin Vance who organised the teams from All England.  

Thanks to our team of Amazing Stewards of Danny Gearing, Paul Bates, Roland Carpenter, Gary Soars and of course our resident provincial Photographer Mike Barrett. 

All in all a really successful day, with all the participants support and generosity generating over £5,200 for the Festival 2022. 

Written by WB Jeff Palmer