By John Winter

Many thanks to all members for their help and support. Jim McGuckin spent a whole morning up at the club during The Club Championship and took some amazing photographs. He has also promised to help me bolster up the Seniors section which I am keen to do. Have you read the Neil Coles story? My thanks to Alan Batley for sharing this with us all. Thanks too to Alison Hayward and Jill Latch for spending time taking all of the photographs down from the Ladies lounge which I know was not a five minute job.

Photographs & Conatct Us
My thanks to Derek Whitehouse and Ray Wilde for letting me know that The Contacts Page wasn't working. This has now been fixed. So if you sent the club a message and did not get a reply please send again.

James Braid
In the book “James Braid and his four hundred courses”, authors John F Moreton & Iain Cummings say, “The course was opened without ceremony on 26th September 1931, its yardage being 6579, longer than today." Do you have an old score card from 1931 through to 1936 or an old photograph from this time? Please let me know if you have anything that adds to the heritage of the club.

Cameron Sinclair
Kevin Carleton, Mike Hayward and I met Cameron Sinclair last week to discuss his involvement at the club. I was naturally hoping that this might prove to be really helpful in our quest for more information but alas it hasn't proven to be the case. If any member has a copy of his report please let me know so we can add to the course history.

J B Batley
We know that James B Batley was responsible for remodelling the course in 1919 / 20. We have now discovered that he had laid out a nine hole course for the L. & N.W. Railway at Wembley in 1911 More information to follow.

Dunstable West Downs Golf Club?
I have been speaking with the editor of 'Missing Golf Links' who has advised me that he has a reference to a golf club called "Dunstable West Downs Golf Club" that appeared in the 1890s. I have asked him to validate this information so lets see what this brings

Neolithic and Saxon history
To the left of the path from the 12th tee are three round depressions, which are the remains of Neolithic Bronze Age huts. Between the 6th tee and the 7th green is an old Saxon well. And the green on the 11th was built over an old British Villa. None of this can actually be substantiated unless you know differently of course. If you have any evidence to share with me just let me know. Covid-19 has prevented us to go to the library to look through all of the reference books so if you have any information please share with me.

The Clubhouse
Where are the plans of the original 1936 clubhouse? Who designed it? We know that it was ahead of its time when it was built. Does anybody still hold information on the aborted clubhouse redevelopment?

Photographs
If you have any old photographs hidden away in the attic then please share them with the club. During my research I managed to find a good quality picture taken from around 1920 on the old course. I will scan and return the original to you. We are working closely with The Dunstable History Society to ensure that this information is archived correctly and shared for future generations.

The site has a number of bugs that Club Systems are working on. In their defense they have all been flat out with getting the software right for the launch of the new world handicapping system.

If you see a full stop under some of the pictures this is a bug which Club Systems have said will be fixed.

The old web site had a running news page. This is essential for the new site and again I have been promised that this will be incorporated in the new site. You can still find news on the top level menu but its hidden away and not what we really want

The new web site does not display portrait photographs?!? Club Systems have said that they will be looking at this when they release v2.1.

If you cannot see a photograph on the web site or it looks cropped please let me know so that I can see if it can be changed?

The new site does not have a spell checker on it!?!. So, if you see any spelling errors...please let me know so that I can amend.

I am also not able to publish a single picture with some text. Its either three photos in a mini carousel with text or text only. Club Systems are looking into this for us.

If you are experiencing any problems with accessing the site then please let me know. Club Systems will need to be able to replicate it so please let me know how you got access to the site: smart phone, tablet or PC?