East Vets Fixtures & update June 2020 

All members should now be in receipt of this latest update following our committee meeting held on 3rd June. 

If any member did not receive this email please send a note to me at esvlgasecretary@gmail.com.



Whilst the SVLGA made the early decision to cancel all their competitive golf events this year, we were reluctant to cancel all the ESVLGA events at that time. 

Phase 1 of COVID-19 Operational Guidelines are now operating across all our golf clubs and I hope most of you have managed to get onto your home course and enjoy some casual games of golf!

Our Committee met at the end of last week to discuss the recent return to golf and the Phase 1 restrictions. We have also looked at what other divisions are doing and we have made the decision to cancel the remaining matches against the West and the Borders due to be held in August and September.

We are still optimistic that we may be able to have some form of competitive golf before the end of the season and with this in mind, will hold off making a decision for the next few weeks regarding the Autumn Meeting due to be held at Liberton in September.

As per their recent letter, the SVLGA has now refunded the affiliation fees for 2020 which have been credited to our bank account now. We have decided that since we have not been able to hold any events thus far, that it is only fair to carry forward your subscription payments into 2021. We hope this meets with your approval.

Committee Roles - as you are all aware we have still not been able to find someone willing to take on the Hon. Secretary role. This role is still vacant.  Is there really no one out there who is willing to take this role on? 

The activities within this role have been greatly reduced by the change to collection of fees and green fees. Both Trudy and Hazel have taken on more with Hazel managing the Ramsden Cup & Friendship Foursomes knock-outs. (albeith these were all cancelled!).

Both Trudy and Hazel were due to come off the Committee this year,however, as a result of the issues we have faced with the pandemic they have very kindly agreed to remain in situ for another year. This is a great result and on behalf of everyone I would like to thank both of them for their ongoing commitment.

Spring Meeting 2020 - we collected nearly 70 entries and fees for  the Spring Meeting at Dunbar.
The process of collecting bank account details and processing this amount of refunds would be extremely time consuming and fraught with error. I would like to propose that these fees are retained and used in the first competition to be played. This may be the Autumn Meeting in September or the first event in 2021.  Obviously, by exception we will undertake to make refunds where requested.

These are certainly unprecedented and extraordinary times.  
I hope to see you all at a competition soon.
Keep Safe & Best Regards
Anne

Copy of letter received from SVLGA in May 

As you all know, we are in the midst of a coronavirus epidemic and the SVLGA Committee has been trying to find the best way forward for 2020.  We have held a virtual committee meeting, and, taking into account recent government advice on the length of time it may take to find our way out of the lockdown, we have decided to cancel all our events for 2020.    Playing any kind of competitive golf event appears to be quite a long way off. Our events involve an older age group, travel across Scotland and England, overnight stays, catering, not to speak of methods of playing golf at a social distance.  We hope that all Divisions agree with these decisions.

 

The first event to be cancelled is the Jamboree at Glenbervie.  We were looking forward to hosting the English Divisions in Scotland.  However, the Divisions have agreed to postpone the event to 2021, and we have booked to play at Glenbervie from Monday 2nd - Thursday 5th August 2021.

 

We have also decided to cancel the SVLGA Championship.  Many Divisions have cancelled their qualifying competitions which are usually played over the year leading up to the finals at Blairgowrie.  The Scottish Championship will not be contested this year.   In 2021 the SVLGA Championship Finals will be contested on Sunday 19th September and Monday 20th September at Blairgowrie as usual. 

 

We have also cancelled the Blairgowrie event.  We were hoping that we might be able to hold a golf event in September as it is still a few months away, but it is looking increasingly unlikely that we would be able to hold the event in the normal format, and the sensible decision is to cancel it.  We have booked at Blairgowrie for 2021 on Monday 20th September and Tuesday 21st September.  Thank you to everyone who intimated that they would like to play this year.  Most Divisions had taken up their quota, and will be allocated the same number of places for 2021.

 

Our AGM is scheduled for Sunday 20th September 2020 at Blairgowrie at 7.30pm.  As the Blairgowrie event is not going ahead, we will find another method of holding the AGM which is likely to be on the same date at the same time.  We will let you know details as soon as we can.

 

We would like to thank all Divisions for paying their Affiliation Fees for 2020, especially with so much uncertainty.  We have decided that SVLGA will refund the Fees to the Divisions for 2020 as no events are taking place. . SVLGA do have some ongoing costs - administration, software, insurance, coaching and Blairgowrie payments (eg vouchers awarded in 2019) and we are hoping to cover these costs from our reserves. The refunds will of course also apply to the £30 that most divisions have paid towards the prizes for Blairgowrie

 

It is a very difficult time for everyone.  We hope you are all keeping safe and positive.  We may be able to play social golf before too long, which should help a little.

 

Take care.

On behalf of the SVLGA Committee

Alison Houston

SVLGA Secretary