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Details of the 2009 Badgers AGM! |
 The 2009 Badger AGM was another sell out event, attended by the usual Pre-dinner and Dave Bullock admires the scenery......there's life in the old Badger yet!!
Badgers enjoy a pre-dinner drink....or 10!
Maintaining with the traditions of the society, on behalf of the committee Alec Vallintine delivered the summary of the year and took the opportunity to thank a number of Badgers. Firstly thanks went to all of our members, for your continuing support including, and expecially, those there on the day. Being a Badger isn't just about playing with your balls, it's about the social side of Badgering too, so the second toast of the day was to those giving up their time and health to attend. As we say every year at the AGM, at the end of the day it is your society and it can only exist whilst it enjoys such good support from you. The third toast went to our members and to our absent friends - to Badgers everywhere and anywhere! Thanks were also extended to those contractors who sponsored the prizes at the golf days this year. This is very much appreciated as it allows us to keep the costs of the days down for the members and allows us to fund other things such as the merchandising - so, thank-you to Ruddy Joinery, Cablecom, Commercial Stone and PIP who sponsored the days at Woldingham, Birchwood, Darenth and South Essex respectively. Next, thanks were given to Eugenio Caruso for his tenure of captaincy of the Badgers. Eugenio is well known to all of us and approached his captaincy as he does his professional life, an upstanding role model, pillar of the business community, selfless, inspiring and….hang on, he had said there were no bonuses. So in actual fact he's been a drunk, a liability, a foul mouthed letch and a two faced bastard all of which has given him the ideal tools to be our captain!!! In reality, Eugenio was a superb Captain, attending every golf day and always one of the first to the bar and the last to leave. On occasion, he was even been known to get his wallet out!! Eugenio hosted an absolutely fabulous Captains Day at Moor Park, which for those that played was one of the toughest rounds of golf some of us have played, so top Badgering to Eugenio! The Captains day was won by Alan Ruddy who was magnaminously presented with the Captains Day Trophy by Mike Healy who had only had in his hands for 5 minutes having won it at last years Captains day and never got it off Lord Smudge!! On the Subject of past Captains, best wishes were given and a toast made to two of our past Captains, Richard Maggs who is recovering from a mild heart attack about a month ago, and Simon Tuson who is still recovering from his knee operation. For Eugenios year of captain we donated to Breast Cancer Care, a subject close to many of our hearts as a number of members have been directly affected by this so it is a great charity to support and worthy of our money.
During his year of captaincy, Eugenio was also instrumental in establishing the inaugural Badgers Sur La Glace, an annual ski-ing weekend away. This year we travelled to the delightful Megeve and, even though Sharpo and Big Al were not, and are definitely still not, ski-ers, they were invited along for the ride and did their very best to boost the French economy with sales of Pastissse. Apparently the French have a saying that pastisse is like a womans breast - one is not enough, and three is too many. What a lot of rubbish, they must have meant bottles!! The Badgers Rugby Supporters Club continues to rumble along, like a good English maul, with trips to support the boys in Dublin, where Sharpo managed to pull a fine filly, all eighteen hands of her, and to our 'away' game against Argentina in Madchester at Old Trafford, the theatre of dreams!! The Badgers Vase, the yearly committee invitational match in celebration of the Badgers Birthday was hosted by defending holder Sharpie at Clive Miles delightful Kings Hill Club and won by My Harry Cutts!! The intention was to hold it at the birthplace of the badgers, Farleigh Court, but unfortunately even Badgers have standards….still with Harry hosting the cup match next year, no doubt standards will not so much be slipping, but plummeting, as we visit Basildons finest. So, 2008-09, a year to remember and one in which the bar has yet again been been raised by our captain. With the thanks over, we moved onto the golf. 2009 was another good year for the Badgers, with membership rising slightly to 42, a gain of 5, so welcome to our new members, even Marco!! In respect of the golf itself, overall 83 people have now played on our Badger days as members or guests since the first outing in May 2003 with an average playing handicap of 21, one up form last year so stop bringing such shite guests!! In terms of our ability, last year the average score was 32 off a handicap of 21, whilst this year we've dropped our average handicap to 20 but the average points scored at our golf days dropping to 30, so perhaps the handicap adjustments are getting too harsh!! But credit should go to all members for playing well and generally to your handicaps! Badger day winners this year were Steve Hook at Birchwood, Dick Watts at Woldingham, John Barnes at Darenth and Chris Knapp at South Essex, all first timers on the winners podium. Congratulations all of you in joining this elite club of winners. This year there were 2nd places for John Barnes at Birchwood, Derek Slatford at Woldingham, Alan Ruddy at Darenth and John Pye at South Essex. 3rd places went to Simon Tuson at Birchwood, Mark Smith at Woldingham, Steve Eades at Darenth and Steve Sharp at South Essex. There were Nearest the Pins for Simon Tuson at Birchwood, Derek Slatford at Woldingham, Phil Tweddle at Darenth and John Pye at South Essex. Longest drives were won by Alan Ruddy at Birchwood, Gary Evans at Woldingham and Chris Knapp at South Essex. At Darenth the attending committee members got the rules wrong and awarded the prize to a guest, so congratulations to Billy Frampton, whoever the hell he is!! Lastly, team prizes went to Alan Ruddy, Andy Bawn, John Barnes and Marco Franchi at Birchwood, Chris Knapp, John Birdseye, John Deely and Steve Sharp at Woldingham, Alan Ruddy, John Merrals, John Pye and Steve Eades at Darenth and at South Essex a couple of weeks ago we had Chris Knapp, Eugenio Caruso, Mike Stone and Nigel Smith. In summary, of our 42 members 21 have gone home with prizes this year which is a pretty good spread, especially given the number of members who have only appeared once or twice. So, when you come to a Badger day you have a 50% chance of going home with something which is not unlike one of Marcos golf days except with ours you go home with a voucher, with his you go home with a nasty rash to explain to the missus! Next season will follow the same format, commencing in September with a visit to Birchwood, followed by a welcome return in November to Woldingham, in April we return to Darenth before the seasons climax at South Essex in June. Finally, the Captaincy of the Badgers for our 2009-2010 season and the awarding of the Badger Captain Trophy. The appointment of the Badgers Captain is designed to award both performance and support of the non committee members, so we simply take the combined total of the scores across the year and divide by four for the number of appearances. This system really does give us the best all round Badger who has both played well and who has supported the society by turning up and playing. This years contest was a pretty tight one and was only decided at South Essex as there was such a high standard of golf played by the top runners. As usual, the top spaces were all filled by those who've made it to all 4 golf days so as the saying goes, you've gotta be in it to win it. The placings, in reverse order, are; Joint 39th with an average of 7 points; John Deely and Marco Franchi John Pye receiving the Badgers Head at Birchwood
Pictures from the 2009 AGM Harry holds court. Sharpie holds one in
Brewster looks on as Pete dispenses a strange clear liquid.....
Big Al cosying up to The Captain
Genty has the first of many naps.....he is getting on a bit now
MBE and Bige Nige with the Sleeping Badger
Cheers!!!
Mark Smith urinating into the toilet. Lovely. Cheers Smudge
Mark Smith still in the toilet, this time in the mirror.....
.....and from above for good measure. He plays rugby you know
Big Nige dries his underarms on the nearest Badgers
Marco shows how he manages to pull the laydeeeez. Sharpo tries desperately hard to crack one out
Shamone!!!
Knappy looking a bit flushed
A guilty looking Smudge
Brewster scatches his balls (they're between his ears)
The waitress shows us what she's got on offer
EC displays his cunning linguist technique
From here it just degenerated......
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