The history of the Union is almost ready for the printers, written by John Morton with help from John Tickell and others. We hope to have some excerpts on this site through the Summer and the availability to pre-order later in the year. Meanwhile, Jim Dean is marshalling a very hard working executive for both the Centenary work and in preparing for 2005 – continuing the success of last year.

‘I would like to wish all our 20 000 members a happy, healthy and successful golfing year in 2005, to welcome our newest affiliated club the West Midlands GC to the Union.’

It’s a time of transition for the management of Warwickshire Juniors. The new Chairman of Junior golf and his management assistants will be announced late January. This will give them time to be involved with the programme of Junior Coaching set up by departing Chairman Brian Fish, ready for the defence of the 4 Counties Championship for the fifth time over the weekend of 23rd April at Moor Hall.

Both the Warwickshire Men and the Warwickshire Ladies will have held their first County squad training and pre season meets before Easter when the boy and girls juniors will then be playing for the Warwickshire Schools titles at Stoneleigh Deer Park on 30th March, as well as the boys taking part in their Trials on the 31st. Easter is also the time for the best Boys to play for the Peter McEvoy Trophy, at Copt Heath. Its been a few years since there was a Warwickshire winner but we will have some very high calibre entrants for 2005, with this start to the National season taking place, as always, at Copt Heath GC on 13th and 14th April.

The Warwickshire Ladies will finish their Winter Competitions in early Spring and April will see the final of the Warwickshire Cup for Mens golf. There will also be the Men’s Trials at Handsworth.

The Warwickshire Ladies County Championship is at Edgbaston this year in the first week in May. At the end of May, the Warwickshire Amateur Championship takes place at Robin Hood. Warwickshire Ladies Captain Pat Hale will take the County Championship as the last chance to finalise her squad to take part in County Week which has its first stage in the first week in June. If Pat’s Team can repeat last year’s success they will go the Midland Division Finals – at Copt Heath in mid July.

The Warwickshire Boys will have started the defence of their Midland title early on in the season. For the Warwickshire Men, the first weekend in every month from June through to October will see the 1sts and 2nds taking on the other Midland Counties. The 1sts start with two home matches against Staffordshire and Notts in June and July respectively.

At National level, the Boys will be trying to qualify for the England finals at St Neotts GC on June 1st, with those Juniors still at school trying to emulate the success at England level through qualifying at the Midland Schools on 3rd June, at Maxstoke Park GC.

The men wait until 18th June for their qualifying competition which will be at Worfield.

Warwickshire Ladies have their major cup competitions spread through the season, starting with the Veronica Anstey at Nuneaton (5th June), the Summer Meeting on 3rd August (Forest of Arden), the Team Championships at Stratford-on-Avon in early September and the Joyce Nichol Trophies at Olton on 26th September.

The Rene Greey will close their season on 17th October.

The Boys and U21s Championship will be at Sutton Coldfield on 25th July, with the U15s two weeks later (9th August) at North Warks. Harborne will host the Seniors Championship on 15th August.

There will be the final of the Bainbridge Shield in late October but the final Warwickshire Union Strokeplay event will be the Warwickshire Open. This will be at Edgbaston GC on the 20th of September.

This is a guide to the County Season ahead for both the Warwickshire Ladies and Warwickshire Men. Your support would be very welcome at any of the team or championship events – most strokeplay competitions have specific entry conditions for handicaps which you should make yourself aware of.

There are provision (full) fixtures lists on the means and ladies sections of this site – which will be confirmed in the next few weeks. Both organisations also produce fixture books. Please check out the confirmed dates and you will be able to find entry forms for all the Championships and Cups on this site.

Have a wonderful golfing year!