Wayne Richardson was handed his 40-year tie at the Brisbane Nomads February match. Here is an edited text of his acceptance speech.
Mr National President Kel Hirini, members of the National Executive, Captain Andrew McGlone and his committee, fellow Nomads and guests.
Andy has asked me to say a few words about my Nomad journey over these past 40 years and to enlighten our newer members as to the depth of this Nomad organisation.
My personal mantra is that I believe that any person should have as part of their make-up a notion to support those less fortunate and assist charities in any endeavour they wish to follow.
Mine just happens to be Nomads.
Not only has it helped achieve my goal on the charity front, but I have had the most incredible journey meeting hundreds of like-minded people from all over the Nomad world and creating a camaraderie with them like no other organisation and all this through the medium of golf – a game of a lifetime.
Take Clive Hill as an example. We met at Nomads and so far we have had a 40-year friendship!!
I was inducted as a Founder Member into Southern Natal Nomads on the February 4, 1984. My father Gillie Richardson was the Founder Member of Northerns and then became Captain of Southern Natal. He was a member of Nomads for 49 years until his passing some 8 years ago.
In 1990 I helped Gillie to coordinate the 25th National tournament at Port Shepstone hosting 320 golfers from around the country. This was also my first National Tournament in South Africa.
I served on the SN Committee for 8 years in various roles. I captained Southern Natal in 1994 and went on to being appointed the National Coordinator for the 2000 Nationals to be hosted by Southern Natal. With Nomads being so strong and everyone wanting to attend a National tournament, we decided to host 544 players on 2 golf courses at Southbroom and Margate over 6 days. This was the biggest Nationals ever in Nomads history. To say the least it was a logistical nightmare, but yet a very successful tournament.
I made the decision to leave South Africa rather suddenly with my family in May of 1999, and so handed over the reins to Matt Posthumus who coordinated this tournament to its finality. I flew back to South Africa to attend what I started, and it was a blast!
To date I have played in 21 South African Nationals and 1 Zimbo National.
In 2003, Jo Landsberg, Mark Thompson and I were having a braai at my home in Sydney and the prospect of starting Nomads in Australia was brought up yet again. It was always an ambition of mine to start Nomads in Australia and spread the Nomad ethos. Long story short, I undertook to do this having 18 years of Nomads experience under my belt in South Africa, and after many sleepless nights and lots of organising and with a very capable handful of committee members, we inaugurated Nomads Australia on the December 7, 2003 with 47 members at Bayview Golf club. We have just celebrated our 20th Anniversary!
Nomads grew exponentially in those early years, and we had waitlists of those that wanted to play. This led to us starting a second Sydney Club called Sydney Hills in June 2005 to take up the overburden of members. Very unfortunately we closed this club down 19 months later through a drop in participation and unviability. The members were reincorporated back into Sydney North.
To really bed the Nomads ethos and operating systems into place, I was appointed as the Founding National President from 2003 to 2008. All this was done with amazing help of my Executive committee Jo Landsberg, Mark Thompson, Piet Bezuidenhout, Brad Forman, Derrick Jones, Milton Drever and Mark Breytenbach.
I moved up to the Gold Coast at the back end of 2006. Once settled in I bullied Paul McIlroy – an ex-Transvaal and South African Nomad – to assist me in starting Brisbane Nomads which we inaugurated in July of 2008 with 46 members. I was the Founder Captain and Paul took over as Captain in 2009. This was our 2nd Nomads club in Australia. We now have 5 clubs all up including Sydney South, Perth and Sunshine Coast with a combined total membership of 339 players.
I initiated and coordinated our first Nomads Australia National Golf Tournament at Noosa Springs in 2009. We had 94 players attending from New Zealand, Botswana, Zimbabwe and Australia. To this day, Nationals is always a highlight of the Nomads year and I encourage all Nomads to go to a nationals. It is always a bunch of fun! I have attended 12 Australian Nationals.
I was conferred the honour at this Noosa National tournament of being inducted as the first Honorary Life Members of Nomads Australia.
As Nomads we have achieved over the years from 2005 giving away close to 1.1 million dollars to various charities and supporting Furtherance of Golf to the tune of $ 333,000 with the help of the Jack Newton Golf Foundation. All this stems from the great work of Past and Present National Executive members, Captains and Committees. These gents are the drivers of Nomads and its ethos and our success would not have been possible without the massive involvement, participation and commitment of all the members who play their monthly game, go on the away trips and attend Nationals.
This has grown this organisation to what we have today.
It is also gratifying to have created a golfing forum for many Aussie locals and also for those that have arrived in Australia from other countries. The other plus for those new arrivals has been to join an affordable golf organisation, getting an Aussie handicap and playing golf on great golf courses with likeminded fellows.
Thank you all for your contribution to our Club and long may we grow in strength.
And finally, hopefully I will still be able to swing a club and achieve my 50-year tie in 10 years.