The McLintocks Golf League 2014 - Winners!

Each year our friends over at McLintocks Chartered Accountants organise a golf league for the local professionals of Chester and the surrounding area. 

The league takes place at Chester Golf Club, over three separate rounds of golf between professionals from Banking, Wealth Management, Accounting and Solicitors.

Last year, the title was won by Jonathan Seddon of Seddon Wealth Management and he was keen to retain his crown this year. 

Here is a brilliant little piece written by McLintocks to sum up the final day of competition:

The final round of the McLintocks golf league took place on Thursday 17th July at Chester Golf Club in sweltering heat on the same day as the first day of the Open Championship at Royal Liverpool. Talk around the practice putting green was all about Rory McIroy’s impressive first round score of 66 in the morning as everyone was trying not to think too much about their own game and the 27oC temperature!

Lots of friendly banter was exchanged on the first tee as the competitors were all trying to gain a mental edge. Louie Middlehurst from Allington Hughes, the leaders hit his tee shot out of bounds on the first so some of it must have worked!!. Jonathan Seddon from Seddon Wealth Management and Neil Chaddock from McLintocks had a great front 9 and carded an impressive 22 points. This put Seddon Wealth Management into the overall lead going into the back 9 by 2 points. When Jonathan Seddon chipped in on the stroke index 1 13th hole for 4 points Allington Hughes were rattled and thought their chance was gone. Could the defending champions win for a second year?. Then Louie Middlehurst rose to the challenge and even though he was behind a tree on the 16th hole he managed to hook his second shot around the trees and onto the green to 10 feet, shot of the day!!. He duly rolled his putt in for birdie and four points to regain the overall lead.

By the 18th everyone was gasping for a cold pint and we were all hoping that the power was back on in the clubhouse. Fortunately it was and the presentation was made by Mike Caputo and Neil Chaddock from McLintocks to the champion Louie Middlehurst from Allington Hughes who finished with an impressive combined score of 120 points 1 ahead of last years champions Seddon Wealth Management.

Allington Hughes would like to thank McLintocks for all of the effort that goes into organising the league, it truly is a fantastic event. There must also be thanks to all of the competitors who support the league on each occasion and make playing in it so much fun, there really are some great friends and associates made. 

Bring on Next year!

Mike Caputo of McLintocks presenting Louie Middlehurst of Allington Hughes with the trophy alongside organiser Neil Chaddock also of McLintocks.

The Allington Hughes Captains Golf Day 2014

July 11th saw the return of the Allington Hughes and North Wales Crusaders captains golf day.

The Nicklaus course at Carden Park was again the venue, with a field of over 40 taking to the course to battle it out and be crowned champion for 2014.

Yet again we were very fortunate with the weather, with the sun blazing all day and barely a breath of wind to be felt. 11 teams entered the competition, with many including one of the players from the North Wales Crusaders.

There were some very competent scores within the first groups, however it was when the 2nd to last group of David Walker and his team handed in their card, that the truly outstanding score of the day was found. Playing a stableford format, with the best 2 scores out of the 4 players on each hole to count, a total of 99 points was enough to secure a 7 point victory for David and his team.

One of the members in David's team, Steve Platt, also won the individual prize with a very impressive solo score of 43 points.

Second place was secured by the Urban Developments team, who carded 92 points.

There is a photo album of the day on our facebook page.

We would like to thank everyone who was involved with the day, it was a superb event and we look forward to welcoming you all again next year. 

The fantastic Carden Park was the setting for the Allington Hughes Captains Golf Day

David Gregory - Commonwealth Games Fencer

This month, Allington Hughes has added another highly talented athlete to the ever growing list of local sporting talent that we are sponsoring.

David Gregory is the reigning British Epee Champion and currently ranked 6th in the UK. David is a certain pick for team GB at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow starting later this month and has been hard in training over the last few weeks.

David is another athlete who goes under the radar in terms of funding by his national sporting body. With the Epee division of Fencing gaining very low levels of television coverage, the athletes involved find it very difficult to make a living from performing the sport due to lack of sponsorship opportunities. 

David has been juggling his training with a number of jobs in order to try and fund his goal of winning a medal at the Glasgow games.

Allington Hughes are delighted to give David a helping hand in his mission, and we are also thrilled that another of our projects, the D2R Foundation, are working with David in order to ensure he gets the best possible support to compete at the highest level when in Glasgow.

We wish David the best of luck and will be sure to keep everyone updated on his progress and how he gets on in Glasgow towards the start of August.

Marketing Consultant Louie Middlehurst with British Epee Fencing champion David Gregory

The D2R (Dreams to Reality) Foundation - Allington Hughes Performance Grant

The D2R Foundation and Allington Hughes Ltd have signed a strategic agreement to assist with the development of athlete performance. 

The partnership sees the North Wales based law-firm, join forces with the newly established sports foundation, which aims to empower youth athletes by giving them the tools and access to services and support they need to achieve their goals. 

The D2R Foundation was launched last month, and the signing of such a partnership is to be expected given the high-profile athletes already on its roster.

 The announcement reaffirms Allington Hughes’ commitment to supporting the local community; and builds upon its already impressive portfolio of activities and athletes, which includes Olympic-level Sailor Chris Russell, the Chester Food& Drink Festival, The North Wales Crusaders Rugby League team, Commonwealth Games fencer David Gregory, Snowdonia’s Charity Cyclists plus agricultural shows such as the Flint and Denbigh show and The Royal Welsh Agricultural Show. 

The Foundation said earlier: 

“Having Allington Hughes support the D2R Foundation is extremely exciting”, said Chris Russell, Founder of D2R.  “A lot of the hidden costs of professional sport are the non glamorous things – to some extent its easier to cover the bigger, more publicly visible costs, however the travel, event entry fees, small amounts of new gear at critical times…those are the things which make a big difference to an athlete.  By removing the obstacle these athletes face having to focus on finding financial support, we can enable them to focus on what they do best”. 

Louie Middlehurst, Marketing Manager for Allington Hughes added, “Having supported many local athletes and teams in the past with their mission to perform at an elite level, we understand how important a strong support network can be. It is with great pride we are now involved with the D2R foundation, and hope that we can provide as much help as possible to turn the young talent of our generation into the home grown world class athletes of the future.”   

This partnership has enabled both the D2R Foundation and Allington Hughes to create a unique offering for local athletes.

The Allington Hughes Performance Grant will be administered through the Foundation, and will target the key essentials for performance enablement.  

 “The grant system is a great idea we've come up with not only to help administer support in a structured and fair way, but to ensure that the right athlete has access to funds at the right time.  It adds a lot of sustainability to our funding program, and more importantly, it adds an extra layer of financial security and stability for our athletes”, Chris adds. 

 “By creating a grant with the Foundation, we hope to enable a select group of elite youth athletes who have been overlooked for funding by their respective sporting bodies. Allington Hughes believes very strongly in grass roots development and hope to be a major facilitator in the development of these young people both in and out of their sporting lives. Once again it is truly a pleasure to be involved with a project that can help so many people, and really give them the best chance at achieving their goals.”  added Louie. 

The D2R Foundation and Allington Hughes begin their exciting partnership effective immediately, and look forward to publishing regular updates of how the athletes are getting on in training and competition. 

There will be regular updates of the D2R foundation athletes in the photo album on our Facebook page. 

Louie Middlehurst of Allington Hughes Ltd, Chris Russell - Founder of D2R Foundation, Georgina Outten - D2R athlete, Jade Povey - D2R Athlete

For more information on the D2R Foundation please visit www.d2rfoundation.com

For more information on Allington Hughes please visit www.allingtonhughes.com

Sporting and Shooting Rights, Do you know the Law?

Sporting rights generally include the right to shoot, fish and hunt. The rights to hunt and shoot and sporting rights together with other associated rights such as the right to rear, preserve or keep game can exist in various ways. For example, the landowner may own the land and the right to hunt, shoot etc. This does not cause any problems. However, problems can and do arise in the following situations:

1. When the rights to shoot are held by the landowner and the land is farmed or occupied by a tenant; or

2. The land is owned by one person but the sporting rights are held by a previous owner of the land who retained the rights when the land was sold off.

The owner of the shooting rights can take reasonable steps to preserve that right, steps which would otherwise be a trespass. The emphasis here being on "reasonable steps" as a right to shoot for example does not in the absence of express additional words imply the right to bring game onto the land or rear game on the land.

It is essential that both parties are familiar with the wording of the original grant. More often than not, the owner of the sporting rights assumes that the right to shoot gives them an automatic right to rear game on the land. This may be as a result of not knowing the difference between the right to shoot and the right to rear game etc. Or, it may well be that the person wishing to retain the rights intended that the associated rights of rearing game should be reserved but the advisor at the time failed to include the correct wording in the original grant. It is therefore essential that the advice of a suitably qualified person is obtained when drafting clauses relating to shooting rights etc.

If the wording does include both a right to shoot and rear game, overstocking of land with game may justify a claim for damages by person affected by the overstocking. If the original grant reserved only a right to shoot the owner of the right will have no protection against such a claim. If the wording in the deed allows for the rearing or preserving game this could result in protection from what would otherwise be a nuisance.

These issues can be avoided if the correct advice is sought ideally when the grant is made but failing that before any rights are exercised.

For more information on this or any other Agricultural Matter please contact Edward H. Nutting, Director  at Allington Hughes Limited t/a Cyfraith JRL Law on: 01492 641 222 or email edward@jrl-law.co.uk.