John then highlighted the individual successes of the 2006 Boys Captain Orory Kirwan in winning the Boys, the Boys Matchplay, the Men's Matchplay, reaching the Open Championship final qualifying and being selected for the Mens County Finals team.

Kenilworth won the Boys team competition, Robert Bardsley the U16s, Sam Teather the U14s and Maxwell Martin the U12s.

The late entry into Championships of a fair percentage of juniors was a problem and would be detailed by County Secretary Graham Hayes later in the meeting.

Finally John thanked all the clubs whose courses were used and Boys Team manager John Simpson, and the U16s and U14s team mangers Dick Ferry and Antony Gascoigne. After retaining the 4 counties in April 2006 (for the sixth consecutive year), Shropshire & Herefordshire proved Warwickshire's 'bete noir'. Firstly we lost to them by a shot (755-754) in the County Junior qualifier, then 807 in the final Midland League match of the season to lose the league on that result.

The support of President John Stubbings and immediate Past President Jim Dean for all the Junior events was also recorded

John then moved to plans for 2007 and the slight changes to be made. To fall in line with the EGU running the County Club team championship as a nett competition, the Boys team championship at the Boys Championship will be nett from 2007 onwards. This will give the Warwickshire Club team a much better chance of competing in the English Finals.

The Boys matchplay will be played for by the Top 8 qualifiers, rather than the Top 16, to bring this Championship into line with the Mens Matchplay and to allow the final to be played over 36 holes.

The new Midland U14s Team Championship will be played over a par three course on 24th March and will feature a very young Warwickshire team of Nathan Ray (Capt), Daanyal Spalding, Maxwell Martin, George Allen, Rhys Lawrence and Harry Jones. John said that there is a gap in the talent pool for the U14s, so Junior Organisers can report on any promising players.

Sam Dodds will be the proposed 2007 Boys Captain, with Adam Ferraro being Captain of the U16s.

'I expect a reasonable year', said John, 'but with a small reversal of fortune, I expect us to do very well.'

Dick Ferry then spoke about past and present coaching plans, highlighting again how the EGU will provide help with funding for new and junior players (Clubs should see the EGU web site for more info). He included thanks to Neil McEwan (County Coach for 13 years), Andrew Dunbar (7 Years) and now Stuart Bottrill (pictured with John Jewsbury) who has started on the new project to work with the youngest juniors, the U12s.

Dick said that County coaching does not take away from Club Coaches in any way. It simply tries to enhance it through (in 2006) 26 days of six hours of coaching and 88 private lessons. With competition being very tough and standards always improving, Dick remarked how to stay in the Top 6-8 counties of England (as he believes Warwickshire to be), from a total of 34, that every effort needs to be made.

County Secretary Graham Hayes then talked briefly about entering competitions. All the County Championships are organised around a schedule of entry forms being available well in advance of the competitions and closing dates two weeks before the competition so that draw sheets re issued at least a week before the day of the event. He asked Junior Organisers to encourage their Juniors (and their parents) to enter competitions well in advance of the closing date.

Graham then said that this will be last year that any paper entry forms will be sent out to clubs. From 2008, entry forms will only be distributed by e-mail and placed on this web site.

David Morgan then talked about the Schools. 2007 is the 25th schools and last year was very successful with our Boys taking the Midland Team title and Rory Kirwan the Midland Boys. Rory also won another England cap. Warwickshire also won the last McPartlin Trophy (in its original form) when in a competition organised superbly by Dean Guy at Shirley, our six mid-handicappers had a total score 11 better than any other County.

This year, the McPartlin format will change and the Warwickshire efforts will be origanised with the help of Gareth Jenkins of the Golf Foundation.

David moved on to deal with the JOM for 2007.Entry will be exactly the same as in 2006 but Clubs registered in 2006 do not need to send in a full list for 2007. They will be supplied with a copy of their 2006 entrants from which they can identify those who have left the Junior ranks and include new members.

The schedule of Junior Opens has been reduced to sixteen, with only one outside of Warwickshire (Kings Norton). This has been published separately to this review of the meeting, with full details of additional points that are available for these events. The Union sees Junior Opens as being one of the very best ways of identifying how good a junior has become, especially when they perform well away from their home club.

The last speaker at the meeting was Graham Taylor, Junior Organiser at Ladbrook Park. He developed on the subject of a Junior League across Warwickshire, a question from the floor which had been raised at the 2006 Annual delegates meeting. This new League, with an initial meeting for interested clubs, will be featured in an article on this site in the next few days. The first new League is almost certain to start in 2008.

The meeting closed at 8.40 with those attending ready to brave the cold and ice to make their way home. 2007 promises the chance for a younger brigade to try and emulate the successes of the past five years.