A Rather Special Autumn Meeting

 

Once the early mist had cleared, an impressive turn-out of 75 Captains enjoyed some wonderful weather for the Autumn Meeting last Thursday (2nd October). All summer long, through drought and all, the word has been that Maidenhead’s course was in superb condition – and so, indeed, it was for our final meeting of 2025.

 

Maidenhead Captains are justifiably proud of their Course, Clubhouse and Catering.

Special congratulations must go to the 16 of them who attended and, as usual, took pleasure in hosting their fellow Berkshire Captains and, guess what, featured strongly among the prize-winners!

 

As usual, good golf and warm hospitality were all it took to set off that unique Berkshire Captains buzz of conversation and periodic laughter as old friends were reunited and new ones made – surely the most endearing, and enduring, quality of our Society – whether on the Clubhouse terrace, around the bar or at the dining tables, as evidenced by several photos. After lunch, there was the genuinely warm applause, and the equally inevitable banter, of the Captain’s prize-giving that followed, as the ‘same old faces’ and in some cases, ‘new ones’ went up to receive their prizes.

 

On this particular day, there was bound to be a feeling of sadness among those who were almost certainly playing, or had played, a much-loved course for the last time and found themselves reliving all kinds of memories from anything up to fifty years ago. On the eighteenth hole, I found a certain irony viewing the green some 200 yards away, the iconic Clubhouse behind and one of the giant building cranes breaking the skyline as a reminder of the not-too-distant future for an old friend.

 

Thank you, Maidenhead Golf Club in Maidenhead for our own personal memories as Berkshire Golf Captains, and here’s to creating many new ones, when we visit The Maidenhead Golf Club in North Ascot and can meet old friends, or new, once again.

 

John Quinby