It has been wonderful to read the email replies following the sending out of the famed AGW hampers in the lead-up to the 2021 Christmas Festive season.
The hampers are sent out each year to our ’80 & over’ senior members, those members who may be struggling, and also importantly to the partners/families of our departed friends and colleagues .
And it not just the kindness of replying to say ‘thank you’ but it is the news and stories from those members that is good to read.
Our Treasurer, Peter Higgs does all the hard work in arranging the ordering and despatch of the hampers, so a thank you also to Peter.
If I could point out, the thank you’ notes are received in order of arrival.
- Please – If anyone has been missed out apologies and let me know and I will add to the list below
Alan Heron
Thanks to the AGW’s generosity I have just received a superb hamper filled with all the right foodstuffs ideal for an old hack with a sweet tooth. Many thanks to you, Peter Higgs and the members. I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a healthy and stimulating 2022.
Donald Steel
Very best Christmas wishes and hope that 2022 will be back to normal.
Grateful thanks, too, to you and Peter Higgs for my parcel of joy.
Donald
Sally Ingam
Many thanks for the generosity and welcome Christmas hamper sent recently. Visiting family have enjoyed delving in.
John has vascular dementia but still reads the bulletins from you and keeps up with news and enjoys life even though covid has restricted family staying with us. His sense of humour is as active as ever and he uses his ‘short term memory’ as a way of getting exactly what he wants!
Thank you again and best wishes to all for a very happy new year!!
Sally Ingham
Tony Garnett
Please convey my thanks to AGW for the superb hamper which arrived in the post today. As an 82-year-old with a bad hip this was tremendously welcome. I still write a golf page for East Anglian Daily Times without being able to get out and about. Many of the Suffolk professionals call round to keep in touch while Suffolk Golf Union keep me up to date with all that is going on. I hope you have a lovely Christmas and keep well in the New Year. Very best wishes, Tony Garnett.
Bill Robertson
I just wanted to say a big thank you for the hamper full of lovely treats that arrived yesterday and to wish you and all the Golf Writers a Very Merry Christmas as I know that Bill would also have done.
Many thanks and best wishes to all. Carolyn Robertson
Peter Haslam
Season greetings. I write to ask you to pass on my heartfelt thanks to the to the officers and members of the agw for yet another lovely Christmas hamper. It has brought joy to my wife, Valerie and myself. I remain pleasntly surprised that at the age of 87 (88 on th 28th)I am still remembered and thought of by the members. There are many new names on the list of members but I fondly remember those with whom I regularly worked. My best wishes for a happy time, a good New Year, and a successful golfing season come with my thanks for their kind gift and thoughts.–Peter Haslam
Michael McDonnell
I was so delighted to receive the traditional AGW hamper which prompted memories of times past with valued colleagues and served as a reminder that we old timers are not forgotten. It tasted good too! Thanks to all involved in this kind gesture. All the best. Michael McDonnell.
Pat Oakley
My mother, Pat Oakley, received a lovely Christmas hamper from the Golf Writers today. She really does appreciate it. Thanks so much – and best wishes to everyone at the association. Best wishes, David.
Jennifer Laidlaw
I would like to thank all the members of the AGW for sending me a Christmas hamper. It was a lovely gesture which I much appreciated.
It is going to be a difficult Christmas without Renton but getting these nice surprises has certainly raised my spirits.
Thank you all. A Merry Christmas and all best wishes for 2022. Kindest regards, Jennifer.
Colin Farquharson
Many thanks once again for the lovely hamper. It is greatly appreciated.
It is also nice to hear all about what is happening with the AGW and I feel I am not forgotten altogether. Bernie you do a wonderful job and it is very much appreciated. You must spend hours keeping everyone up to date with all the news.
All being well I hope to be at Renton’s Memorial Service in St Andrews on 25 April 2022. Ethel and I send our thanks and Christmas Greetings.
John Bowles
Have just received a lovely hamper from the AGW. Have left a message thanking Peter Higgs as he was on the package but I suspect you were behind it. It was much appreciate such a great thought Bernie. I will raise a glass to you and all my friends in the association.
Happy Christmas! Kindest Regards, John
Mike Blair
Santa has come early this year! As usual a stirring surprise so very much appreciated — especially that lovely bottle what with the pubs being in the mess they are. A great big thank you.
Mike Blair
John Whitbread
At the end of a very tough year, with my brother Robin in hospital for a long time and now in a nursing home, it was such a wonderful treat to receive a gorgeous Christmas hamper full of festive goodies.
This generous gesture, taken together with the kind friendship and assistance I received when covering The Open and the BMW PGA provided reminders, if I needed any, why I am so proud to be a Life member of the AGW.
Ron Skelton
Georgie and I were so surprised and delighted to receive the wonderful Christmas Hamper and send our warmest thanks to all our AGW friends. We really were quite taken aback by this generous Christmas gift.
Our best wishes to all for 2022 and our hopes that all goes well for the big one at St Andrews.
Good Golfing, Ron and Georgie Skelton.
Trevor Peake
Just a line to thank you and Bernie for the Christmas hamper, although I don’t know how I qualified as I’m not 80 until next November. And that’s too soon.
Hope you’re ell and enjoy the festive season.
Cheers – Trev Peake
Tony Adamson
On behalf of my wife, Jill, and myself, I want to thank the Association of Golf Writers sincerely for the wonderfully generous gift of a Christmas Hamper. It was received with boundless joy and appreciation, and, for precious moments, instantly relieved the gloom caused by the current foreign intrusion into our everyday lives.
At the same time, our deepest condolences went to the families of those members we sadly lost in 2021, many of whom I was privileged to work with and call my friends and who left me with indelible memories.
It will be an honour to continue as a retired member of the AGW in 2022, I look forward hopefully to encountering old familiar faces along the way, and thank you again for your great kindness.
Tony Adamson
James Mossop
Good afternoon Bernie, I trust and hope you are remaining safe and well.
Just a short but deeply thankful and appreciative note as I savour the contents and flavours of the AGW Christmas Hamper. It brings happiness and comfort to this old git oop North.
May I wish you, all officers and members a happy, healthy and rewarding 2022.
Thanks again, James Mossop.
Bryan Potter
Peter, Bernie thanks so much again for the lovely box of goodies received last week. It is always a warm reminder of the good times spent with the oldies back in the eighties and nineties.
I wish you all a happy and successful 2022.
Bryan Potter.
Jeremy Chapman
Huge thanks to the AGW for the magnificent Christmas hamper. You spoil me again when I don’t deserve it. I’m still an active golf writer (see Golf Monthly Online every Tuesday and the Fitzdares Times every Wednesday) so I don’t see how I qualify for such generosity.
It stretches 80-year-old me to research and produce two long pieces but it’s good for self-discipline. Both clients seem pleased with me and have asked me to carry on in 2022.
That’s very flattering to a man in his ninth decade and it’s great to be wanted. It won’t be for too many moons because my short-term memory, my vocabulary and my spelling (once upon a time first-rate) are all on their way out, deteriorating year on year.
Played my first game of golf as an 80-year-old last week and, you know what, I am not getting better. But I still made two pars, which is two more than the last time I played with the AGW at Walton Heath and two more than I made at the AGW day at RMS. So there’s still a bit of life in this old dog!
Christa joins me in wishing all AGW members a more ‘normal’ 2022 – whatever normal means these days – but I’m not betting on it!
Jeremy
Gordon Richardson
Bonjour Bernie…… No news by Christmas, no news by New Years Day…a suicidal Tour Eiffel leap was looming large. Had President Macron put a Brexit/covid block on prezzies for Les Anglais? Pas de tout. On January 5, a mere 21 days after it was punctually despatched, a bumper hamper landed safely on the doorstep of a forlorn but not forgotten AGW oldie. Oh ye of little faith….get thee behind me Satan!
Merci beaucoup to one and all (gobble,gobble)from Louisette and me deep down in the Dordogne(munch,munch)….a happy and healthy 2022 to you all back in Blighty.
Gordon.
Patricia Davies
Oh no, so sad, hadn’t realised Tim was so ill. Also see that Bob Shearer has died. Have you up to date contact details for Kathie please Bernie? Also I’ve been very remiss in not thanking the AGW for my lovely Christmas hamper, very much appreciated. And all the best for 2022 to all members and their families and friends, Patricia.
Cathy Sturmer (David Hamilton)
Just like to thank you for the lovely hamper which I received at Christmas.
Cathy
Jane Morgan
Dear Peter, Thank you so much for the lovely Christmas hamper, very tasty! I wish you and the Association of Golf Writers a peaceful 2022, please send my regards and love to you all, With All Best Wishes, Jane Morgan XX
PS: As I write this my parakeet , Keats, is perched on my head, preening himself !
John used to come home at Christmas time with a packet of sage and onion and put it on the cage.
PPS: We are not all locked up yet ! xx
Liz Kahn
Happy New Year and hope it’s a better one.
Please can you pass on my thanks to the AGW for a delicious Christmas hamper, which I greatly appreciated and enjoyed. It is a lovely gesture bestowed on the oldies and a constant surprise to have got there. The goodies were great, Peter Higgs as ever making excellent choices. Happy New Year to all. Liz
Judy Williams
I am not sure to whom I should be thanking for once again sending me an AGW Christmas hamper, so please forward this on to the appropriate person. As always, I very much welcome the lovely hamper of goodies that arrives just before Christmas, as it has done since Michael sadly died in 1997.
For the Association to remember him in this way is a wonderful gesture, and I and my family appreciate your kindness. he AGW meant a lot to him, and also to myself and family, as we made so many friends and were always welcomed at events.
We were particularly saddened in 2021 that you lost Goran Zachrisson, Renton Laidlaw, Dave Hamilton and Ben Wright. All good friends.
Of course, the last two years have been difficult and challenging for everyone. And my wish is that all members of the AGW find conditions easier and Stay Safe and Well in this coming year.
Very best wishes to you all
Judy Williams
Pat Ruddy
Greetings for 2022. Hopefully the world will get back on its axis this year.
Thank you very much to the AGW for the gift of a hamper. The fact is lovely and the impact is great. I keep the box in my den and look at it everyday, like an old dog admiring a bone, and think of such kindness and how lucky I am to know such wonderful people.
Life goes on at the links. There was one moment when the country was in lockdown and I stood alone on the 15th tee and looked out over the fairways and the Irish Sea. I had it to myself. A dream realised. But in such a strange way. I had always wanted a golf course of my own but now that I had it in such a pure form it was time for revision.
Things are best shared and it gives me pleasure to invite any AGW members who visit for the Irish Open Championship this Summer to come for a game as my guests. Just email me a day of choice at email hidden; JavaScript is required and a plan shall be agreed.
Stay safe everyone.
Pat Ruddy
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