The much travelled wife of a retired former mariner is to be the next Vice Captain of the Ladies section of Leighton Buzzard golf club.
Barbara Rickard, who accompanied husband Phil for many years on voyages around the world when he was chief engineer of an ocean liner, will take up her new role in November when current Vice Captain Oonagh Russell succeeds Lesley Bednarek as Ladies Captain of the 600-member club.
Barbara, a mother-of-two and who has four grandchildren, is a native of the East Riding of Yorkshire and after years on tankers with husband Phil, moved to Aberdeen where he worked in the oil and gas industry. Moving to Leighton Buzzard in 2009, Barbara and Phil joined the Leighton Buzzard golf club where she has a playing handicap of 26.
One of the first jobs for retired hairdresser Barbara will be to organise the “drive-in” of new Captain Oonagh, a Liverpool-born former nurse, on November 19.
* Leighton Ladies champion Rosalind Miles and Olive Wood trophy winner Michelle Payne teamed up to win the Plantation Road club’s ladies Daily Mail foursomes. They carded 37 points to beat Val Brown and Gill McDougall by a shot with Sandra Bellis and Jan Harries, and Norma Stevens-Hack and Jackie Stimpson sharing third place with 35 points, and will now represent Leighton in the regional finals of the nationwide competition.
*A Welsh team captained by David Evans won Leighton’s annual “international” with a score of 294, with Ireland runners-up with 286, the Rest of the World third with 285 and Scotland fourth with 283, a shot clear of bottom placed England.
*Seniors Captain Andy Mcdonald celebrated a 5-1 win over the Leighton club team to win the Mashie Cup….and then whitewashed Stowe 6-0 in their inter-club encounter.
Andy and Denis Leitch, Robbie John and William Hawkes, Graham Pellow and Paul Ahmet, John Preston and Phil Rickard and Paul Bishop and Harry Adam won against the Club for whom only Colin McLeod and Paul Verney secured a win.
Vice Captain Paul Bishop and David Bishop, Keith Griffiths and Roy Virgee, Harry Adam and Martin Broadley, Paul Johnson and Derek Browning, Graham Avery and Duncan Smith and Derek Read and George Bashford secured the clean-sweep against Stowe.
*Phil Rickard won the Leighton Sandhouse Society Connemarra trophy match at John O’ Gaunt with 35 points, three clear of Alan Philpott with George Sadowski, Jeff Beasley and Steve Light all carding 30 points, a shot clear of Mark Vincent. Tony Russell hit the longest drive and the team prize with John Smith and Andy Walton, and there were nearest the pin prizes for Martin Read, Steve Light, Colin Vowles and David Buckingham.
PICTURE CAPTION:
Incoming Leighton Ladies Captain Oonagh Russell (left) and her “vice” Barbara Rickard.