Rotary (RGBI) Club Number 1576 – District 1070
Meetings are held on Tuesday evenings (except following a Bank Holiday) – 7.00pm for dinner at 7.30pm at:
St Neots Golf Club
Crosshall Road
St.Neots,
Cambridgeshire
PE19 7GE
Tel No: (01480) 472363
Donate to our causes and help us help local Charities
If you are interested in attending a meeting, please contact the Club Secretary:
Mike Matthews -Tel No: 01480 472183 E-mail: The Secretary
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The club were pleased, with the help of a Rotary District Grant, to fund the refurbishment of a classroom at Longsands Academy for the benefit of RISE Youth Coaching. This followed a presentation given to the club by David Duker which greatly impressed our members. Click this link to see the Video
Further information can be found on www.riseyouthcoaching.co.uk
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ST NEOTS MAYOR’S CHARITY GOLF DAY
The club was pleased once again to organise the St Neots Mayor’s Charity Golf Day in partnership with the Mayor. The 26th event was held recently at St Neots Golf Club with a good entry of 22 teams of four competing for prizes as well as raising money for the Mayor’s Charity fund and the charity account of the Rotary Club of St Neots St Marys.
The event first started in July 1998 and has been held annually apart from the ‘Covid’ years and has raised more than £100,000 since inception. This year’s event raised a further amount of just under £3000 which will be shared by the Mayor’s fund and the Rotary Club.
On a blustery day, but fortunately with no rain, there was keen competition on the course with competitors having the ability to keep track of their own team score and individual scores, as well as all the other teams via the real time scoring system provided by Competition Golf a system we have used for the past four years and which adds to the excitement of the competition.
This year’s winners were a team from Black Cat Radio, the St Neots community radio station, with a score of 125 points, followed by local companies Finaids with 119 points and Suction Excavator Solutions a close third with 118 points.
Another very successful event for the club and the town, monies raised will go via the Mayor’s Fund to St Neots Hockey Club, St Neots Cyclin Club and New Saints Boxing Club and the Rotary Club’s nominated Charity East Anglian Air Ambulance.
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ANOTHER SUCCESSFUL CHARITY DRAGON BOAT EVENT
The club was pleased to support St Neots Town Council and the St Neots Dragon Boat Team once again at this year’s Charity Dragon Boat Event. On a slightly overcast summer’s day, 17 crews did battle on the River Ouse at Regatta Meadow.
A large crowd was once again in attendance, enjoying the keenly contested races over the 200-metre course. The eventual winners were local company Coveris, with DHL finishing in second place and Young Guns 3 taking third in a fiercely fought and very close final race.
In a departure from previous years the club’s involvement was passed on the the next generation of paddlers as this year the club was represented by Club President Malcolm Watkins and long standing club member Bob Silverthorne’s families with sons, daughters and grandchildren paddling to keep the club’s connection with the event. 
Paddling under the name of the Silvawats they have taken over from the Last of the Summer Whine who finally had to accept that anno domini had caught up with them after 10 successful years representing the club, so over to the new kids on the block.
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CLUB SUPPORTS FOREST SCHOOL IN BARFORD ROAD POCKET PARK
The club’s help at the Forest School in Barford Road Pocket Park has recently been acknowledged by the siting of a sign shown in the photo, thanks to the help of Steve McCallion, Etch Tech Ltd and Paxton Sheet Metal and organised by Rotarian Craig Edwards.
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CLUB SUPPORTS ST NEOTS TENNIS CLUB WITH NEW VIEWING AND ACCESS RAMP
Vice President Mike Truswell, Richard and Sue Shaw and Peter Hodge attended St Neots Tennis Club on Saturday to witness the official opening of the new access ramp recently built to accommodate disabled people who wish to visit the club and to play tennis as well as acting as a viewing deck for spectators who were able to enjoy some excellent tennis on the Club’s finals day.
Our Club was part of a group of sponsors including long standing Tennis Club members Ivan Twigden, Don Brace, Tony Ekins and Peter Hodge, as well as St Neots Mayor Richard Slade on behalf of St Neots Town Council and Bruce Elam on behalf of the Rotary Club of St Neots.
The Club is pleased to be able to support the club which is flourishing and has a full and active membership
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LIFE EDUCATION QUIZ RAISES JUST OVER £1600
FLEC (Friends of Life Education Cambridgeshire) organised a quiz night in conjunction with our club on Friday evening at St Neots Golf Club to raise funds to support the mobile classrooms which are in so much demand by primary schools in the county. Fourteen tables of 6 quizzers keenly contested the evening with the winners in doubt until the very last round.
Thanks to the generosity of those present supporting the raffle, all prizes were donated to the event by individuals and local businesses and organised by members of the FLEC committee, plus some other generous donations the profit made on the evening amounted to £1615.
The Rotary Clubs of St Neots St Marys, St Ives and Huntingdon have supported Life Education for many years and each club was represented at the quiz.
The committee members worked very hard to make the evening a success and thanks go to them, the golf club staff, Louise and Richard the question masters and to everyone who supported the event.
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MAYOR’S GOLF DAY 2024
This year’s St Neots Mayor’s Charity Golf Day was held at St Neots Golf Club on Tuesday 12th September, for the first time and a good entry of 21 teams of four enjoyed good weather, a course in excellent condition and the result was keenly contested.
The winning team from Brampton Park Golf Club scored 119 points closely followed by the Black Cat Radio team and a team led by local jeweller Paul Goldstraw who both scored 118 points with Black Cat narrowly taking second place on count back.
Thanks go to the six local businesses for their sponsorship and to all the competitors for their generous contributions to the raffle which enabled the day to generate almost £4000 to the charity funds of the Mayor and our Rotary Club. Thanks also go to St Neots Golf Club staff for their hard work on the day providing excellent catering and manning the ’19th hole’ so efficiently.
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ANOTHER HUGELY SUCCESSFUL DRAGON BOAT EVENT
Our club were once again proud to be the co-organisers with St Neots Town Council and St Neots Dragon Boat Team of the 10th Annual Charity Dragon Boat Event. Once again huge crowds turned out to watch the 22 participating crews including one from our club, one of only two teams that have featured in all 10 events, the other being Pool Sharks.
Our valiant crew, a mixture of ageing Rotarians, sons, daughters and grandchildren put up an amazing show winning one race and finishing with two second places to finish 11th out of the 22 crews, just over one second behind the nine semi-finalists.
Once again the main winners will be the local charities nominated by our club and the Mayor of St Neots Richard Slade who will share the charitable proceeds raised from crew sponsors, programme advertisers and the public whose car park fees are generously donated to the charities by the Council together with the proceeds of the programme sales. Thanks to MAST, President Ian’s chosen charity for selling so many programmes and to the members of the club for overseeing the car parking so efficiently.
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OUR PRESIDENT FOR ROTARY YEAR 2024/25 IS IAN PAYNE
Our new President is Ian Payne, retiring president Sue Shaw presented Ian with his chain of office at a recent meeting.
In accepting the position Ian said that his main objective is to continue the good work and standing that the club has in our town and the wider Rotary family and to work alongside all members in their endeavours to spread ‘The Magic of Rotary’.
Also to encourage new members to join our amazing club and worldwide organization
Ian’s charity for this coming Rotary year is ‘Money Advice St Neots (MAST)’, who recently gave a presentation to the club about the amazing work their volunteers do for those in St Neots that are struggling to manage finances & debt.
One of Ian’s passions is Mental Health, financial troubles and mental health are very interlinked, the work MAST does improves the lives of many that they encounter. With the support my Rotary Club can give them over the coming year, this will help improve the services they provide.
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PRESIDENT PRESENTS DONATION TO PROPERTY ANGELS
At the last meeting President Sue Shaw was delighted to present Caroline Deeprose, CEO of Property Angels with a cheque for £4433 being her contribution from the President’s fund for her presidential year. Caroline said that she was delighted to receive the donation and thanked Sue and all club members for the tremendous support given during the last 12 months
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PRESIDENT SUE PRESENTS THREE PAUL HARRIS FELLOWSHIPS
President Sue was delighted to present three club members with a Paul Harris Fellowship at a recent meeting. The recipients were William Waters who has been a member for many years and is a past President, Secretary and committee chair on a number of occasions, David March, past President and chairman of various committees and Glynn Osborne, past President and our current hard working Secretary for the past three years having been brilliantly mentored by his predecessor. All have worked tirelessly for the club in recent years.
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