Hi everybody,

My name's David Ryley and I'm very proud to be your Club Captain for the 2023 / 2024 season, at Normanton Golf Club, Hatfeild Hall in Wakefield. 

I started playing golf at Bingley St. Ives Golf club over 50 years ago with a 21 handicap. My lowest handicap has been 5 when playing in Newcastle upon Tyne back in the late 80's. When my job brought me back to Yorkshire and especially Wakefield, I started playing at our course in 1995 in it's infancy of a parkland course, which has now grown up to be one of the best and challenging courses in the area and wider afield in the county of Yorkshire. 
Praise has been given by visitors when they've played our course, but also from our own members when you hear " I didn't realise how good our course is until you play away from home!!. Praise must go to Dave Crampton and his team, plus our voluntary directors who commit the annual funds to improve our excellent facility. Thanks for all your efforts and I look forward to the next chapter in the course development. 

2023 sees a double celebration for  Normanton Golf Club. We are not just celebrating the 120th year of the club's formation but also the 25th anniversary of the move from our ancestral home in Normanton to our current location here at Hatfeild Hall. 
During the forthcoming weeks and months, we'll be holding a series of golf and social anniversary occasions which I hope you'll support and be part of a thriving social community scene that we have here at the club.

Talking of the club, all our sections are making great strides in developing their own golfing abilities, from our academy with Richard Law, our head teaching professional, having a major input into the youngsters development. We've a thriving junior section under the guidance of Kay Allsop, through to the speedily improving ladies section with Anita Fox as their section Ambassador. Andy Bell, our Scratch / Nett teams organiser with Roy Smith leading the Tigers, Paul Simms and Ady Tattersley inspiring the Rabbits into potential Tigers. Finally, but certainly not the least, our Seniors section with Emlyn Pickup as their Captain and Steve Swales as Vice Captain, continue to make a valuable contribution, supporting all our sections in their open events and team games. I will carry on the valuable contribution that my predecessor John and previous captains have successfully done, supporting all our sections when possible with their respective league games and open events.

My nominated charity for my Captaincy year is the MND Association, inspired by the Rob Burrow foundation. I know a lot of our members follow both codes of Rugby plus football and with Kevin Sinfield being such an inspiration to the charity and his fundraising efforts, such as the Ultra 7 in 7 to aid development to find a cure to such an awful disease, my decision to choose this charity was quite an easy one to make. 
I have made a personal commitment to try and raise in my Captaincy year, £7,777, including a 77 hole charity challenge on the 7th day of the 7th month ( Friday, 7th July), with 4 golfers playing 18 holes and then all 5 of us playing the final 5 holes together, culminating in a charity raffle in the Jack Fox Lounge. If any members wish to play a round or even ALL 77 holes, please get in touch with me at the club or email your interest to please enable javascript to view .

To complete my BIO, I would like to wish every member 12 months of friendly, social and competitive golf here at Normanton Golf Club. Please be proud, as I am, of the club and it's facilities. Have respect for your fellow players, both on and off the course, be civil to one another and all of us continue to make this a better place to play, work and socialise.

With best regards,
David Ryley. 
Captain , 2023/2024

 

Captain's Charity.