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| Donna is presented with a gift from the County for 30 years playing in the County Team |
At the end of the dinner Captain Maureen gave a short speech in honour of Donna's Service. ---- Here is what she said ---
Ladies
It is unusual for another Captain to speak at our Dinner
but I have special permission for this special occasion.
I invite you all to join with Renfrewshire in celebration
of the contribution by one of our team members to County and Scottish Golf over
the last 3 decades.
Donna Jackson has been a part of the Renfrewshire County
Team for 30 years, this year.
To put that in perspective for some of our younger golfing
friends here tonight - and apologies to Donna for this – Donna was playing for
her County when your parents were in Primary School!!
I think that it is an achievement which should be
recognised and I am sure you will agree.
I would like to thank our Guest Carol Fell for the basis
of my synopsis of Donna’s golfing career.
This is adapted from the wonderful book Carol published for our
Centenary in 2009.
Donna started playing golf when she was 8 years old - at
the time her Mum and Dad moved to Bellshill Golf Club to work as the Club
Steward and Stewardess.
After 6 years at Bellshill, they moved to Cochrane Castle
to work and this is where Donna’s golf has been based ever since – winning
their Ladies Championship 21 times. At
the age of 17, she was invited to join Renfrewshire Ladies' County.
In 1984 she played in the team for the first time. On her way to her first match at Gourock (my
own home club), she was involved in a car accident and so she missed the
morning foursomes. She arrived in time
to play her singles match in the afternoon and won against Isobel Harvey of
D&A – who remains a good friend to Donna to this day.
That same year Donna won the West of Scotland Girls'
Championship; was beaten in the final of the Scottish Girls' under 18s and was
in the winning team in the Girls' Home Internationals in Wales.
In 1990 she played in Scotland’s winning team in the
Ladies’ Home Internationals at Hunstanton. Her tenacity on the golf course is illustrated
when Donna was four down with four to play and managed to win the last four holes
for a magnificent half – which surely must have felt like her own personal
victory.
She has represented Scotland in the Welsh and Irish
Strokeplay Championships.
Closer to home, Donna played in the Scottish Inter-County
Finals at St. Andrews when Renfrewshire won in 1987 (under the captaincy of our
President Eileen Gibb who is here this evening) and again in 2010 when we won here
at Bothwell Castle. On that occasion I
was honoured to be Vice Captain under the Captaincy of Trish Brown.
In 2005 Donna won the Renfrewshire County Championship for
a record-breaking tenth time and this year (2013) by again winning, she
increased that record to eleven.
A pretty remarkable achievement all round, I think you
will agree. A golfer who goes about her
business without any fuss and as I have said before, she lets her clubs do the
talking.
Apart from being pretty handy with a golf club, Donna’s
greatest quality is that she is friendly, approachable and an all-round decent
person.
In conclusion can I ask you all to charge your glasses and
join with me in a toast to Donna Jackson, Golfer and friend. Donna
Can I ask Donna to come up now and receive this small
token of our appreciation.
At the end of he dinner Donna, Eileen and Carol were presented with beautiful table presentations kindly given by Lanarkshire Captain Fiona Scott. The floral presentations were beautifully made by Lanarkshire's Joanna Harvey
Click on the small thumbnail below and the slideshow to see some photos from the dinner
At the end of he dinner Donna, Eileen and Carol were presented with beautiful table presentations kindly given by Lanarkshire Captain Fiona Scott. The floral presentations were beautifully made by Lanarkshire's Joanna Harvey
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| Eileen, Donna and Carol |
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| 2013 County Jamboree Dinner |
Video to follow --- hopefully
