ABERDEENSHIRE LCGA 100 YEARS OLD - IT'S A PIECE OF CAKE!

CUTTING THE BIRTHDAY CAKE AT ABERDEENSHIRE LADIES COUNTY

GOLF ASSOCIATION'S LUNCH TO CELEBRATE ITS CENTENARY.

Left to right: Morag Clapperton (Banchory), county president, Anna Rae (Murcar Links), 90-year-old former county captain/president, Shannon McWilliam (Aboyne), 11-year-old county junior, Samantha Leslie (Westhill), current county champion.
Image by Cal Carson Golf Agency at The Marcliffe Hotel and Spa, Pitfodels, near Aberdeen

Just some of the 240+ Aberdeenshire Ladies County Golf Association members who attended the luncheon today.

 ETHEL'S GIRLS - The Aberdeenshire junior girls at the Centenary luncheon. Ethel Farquharson, former SLGA chairman, has run the Shire girls competitions for the past 20 years.

Helen Faulds (Douglas Park), captain of Scotland's team for this season's Senior Women's Home Internationals - guest speaker at today's Aberdeenshire Ladies County Golf Association Centenary Lunch. A trick of light puts Helen in an all-yellow setting. Perhaps blue would have been a more appropriate colour.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Only joking - as was Helen all the time in a brilliant after-lunch speech - the best stand-up comedienne I have ever heard, bar none.

  Muriel Thomson, Portlethen GC professional and a former Aberdeenshire champion and past Curtis Cup player, was also one of the speakers. Muriel's tip, given to her by former Scottish champion and Curtis Cup player Joan Rennie (Aberdeen Ladies) on her county debut as teenager: "Never look at your opponent's swing, good or bad," Joan told me and I remembered that advice for the rest of my playing career," said Muriel who did her speech off the cuff without a single note. Incidentally, Muriel recalled that she played cack-handed as a youngster until Aberdeenshire officials said they would pay for her to be coach - but only if she adopted a conventional  grip.

Former Curtis Cup player and Scottish women's county champion four times, Janette Wright (Aboyne) was also one of the speakers. She recalled crossing the Atlantic on a liner for her first Curtis Cup match in America.



Ellie Whyte (Aberdeen Ladies), county captain and head of the organising committee for the Centenary Luncheon. She also had more than a few words to say as did county treasurer Laura McLardy (Murcar Links), who traced the development of Aberdeenshire Ladies CGA from the days when women did not have the vote,

Sheena Wood (Aberdeen Ladies), pictured right at the top table, looked back on 27 consecutive years of playing for Abedeenshire since her county jamboree debut in 1984 and playing for Scotland in the 1999-2000-2001 Women's Home Internationals.
County vice-captain Marta Moody (Murcar Links) had earlier converted the Selkirk Grace to an entertaining golfing version.

County president Morag Clapperton (Aboyne) had the final say, ringing down the curtain on a excellent occasion by proposing the Toast to ALCGA - and the next 100 years!