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Colin 'Codge' Greetham

It is with great sadness that I have to inform you of the passing of one of our greatest ever Stragglers, a legend in his own lifetime and our current President, Colin 'Codge' Greetham (pictured variously below). 

Codge passed away peacefully during the night, late on Sunday 16th November, after a short illness and a few complications, surrounded by family. Obviously, our deepest thoughts are with Jackie, David, Barbara and all their family and friends. Stick - our deepest condolences - we're all thinking of you and your extended family at this incredibly sad time.

Codge was a wonderful man, genuinely loving, caring and giving. He was full of warmth and was great company both on, and off, the sports field. He was an accomplished footballer in his day, played cricket to a decent standard and loved his golf. He was a great character, an absolute beauty, who embodied The Stragglers in its entirety. He was an original Straggler, having toured on the inaugural cricket tour, way back in the summer of 1966. And, he absolutely loved being a Straggler, right to the end, even touring with us to Folkestone to play golf in 2024. He was, arguably, the greatest Straggler of all time. 

Codge had a wonderful sense of humour and always looked for opportunities to make others around him laugh. Those of us who toured Folkestone regularly each August to play cricket will recall the many and varied fancy dress costumes that he would turn up in on the first day of tour - the Queen, a cross channel swimmer, a Tour de France cycle rider, to name but a few. Pure unadulterated theatre that had all of us, and many members of the public, in stitches. I also remember him turning up to Eastleigh FC a few years ago, dressed as the Queen, for an FA Cup third round tie that was being televised by the BBC! 

I feel sure that you'll all have your own special memories of Codge and will miss him hugely. 

Fez, Heyser and Stick completed 100 holes in a day at Ampfield GC for the Memorial Salver, raising money for Parkinsons UK. Starting at 6.20am and completing somewhere around 6.40pm they enjoyed some hot weather and some good and bad golf but made it all the way around supported by JP with some great caddying skills all the way round!

Also a big thank you to all members and those that supported the charity over the past two years. On behalf of the Hampshire Stragglers Golf Society, we presented a cheque to the charity for £3,564, representing the fund-raising for Prostate Cancer UK by our Society between November 2021 and November 2022. A tidy little sum that was warmly received by the charity, even though it's a drop in the ocean of the £30+ million raised each year!