Call Sign November 2006 - Page 14 - RAY SCOTT – ALMOST BUT NOT QUITE! - MARTEN HOUSE OPENS FOR BUSINESS AFTER 3 DAYS

RAY SCOTT – ALMOST BUT NOT QUITE!

Dial-a-Cab driver and keen golfer, Ray Scott (T34) became the first DaC driver that Call Sign has heard of to make it through to the Volvo Masters Amateur UK Final, held at Wentworth on the 10 – 11 October.
   To get to play on that majestic course – home to so many famous championships including the World Matchplay and the PGA Masters - Ray had to win at his local golf course in the Volvo Masters Amateur Member’s Competition that was played at different golf clubs around the country and then finish in the top three at the regional Final at Woburn. In actual fact, the Volvo Masters Amateur competition as a whole is played in 22 countries with in excess of 75,000 golfers all with one hope – to get to the Grand Final, held in Andalucia, Spain.
   "There were 90 entrants at my home club," Ray told us, "so it wasn’t too easy."
   But Ray won that to get into the regional final at Woburn Golf Club and needed to finish in the top three places to qualify for a dream championship appearance at Wentworth - where the green fees
are usually an astronomical Ł280
   "I didn’t think I’d made it," continued Ray, "I worked it out quickly that I had missed out by one point and had come fourth. I was rather disappointed because I had played well, but I miscalculated and actually took that third place. I was so chuffed!"
   Before the Final at Wentworth, Ray got some good practise in by winning a local tournament and more importantly, playing really well.
   "But when the big day arrived, the lovely

Ray tees of at Woburn on his way to qualifying for the Wentworth final

weather we’d had up until then vanished and
was replaced by thunder, lightning and heavy rain. I was nervous anyway and that just made
it so much worse. Then the organisers told us that so much time had been lost through the bad weather that we would only be playing over 9 holes instead of 18, so there was no real chance to get accustomed to the Wentworth course. Sadly, I didn’t do myself justice and stood no real chance of being among the three men who would qualify for Andalucia. But with the way we were treated, including being put up in a magnificent hotel and a great awards dinner afterwards, it was still a day to remember."
Ray ended by telling Call Sign: "Many tell me that getting to the regional final is a real success, but I wanted to get further and one day I hope I will…"
Ray was also in the Call Sign team that won the DaC Open Gold last year…

MARTEN HOUSE OPENS FOR BUSINESS AFTER 3 DAYS

Within days of Dial-a-Cab taking over our new premises at East Road - still named Marten House - DaC Trainer Daren Morley became the first person to go into the building to work when taking a staff training session just 3 days after DaC had signed the paperwork to buy the 5-storey building.
   "It was certainly different from working at Brunswick House," Daren told Call Sign, "but having that much room for training purposes bodes well for the future when we move over there full time."
   Daren’s trip to Marten House was as much of a test as anything and he asked Call Sign to thank DaC’s IT department in the shape of John Bankes, Jonathen Winterburn and Joe Mensah, whose joint expertise allowed the whole exercise to go ahead after such a short period.
   When will we be moving across the road en bloc? Early-2007 seems

This is what Marten House will soon look like!

to be the favourite date. And what will we be doing with Brunswick House? Well no one really knows yet, but the company that started from an idea in the back of Founder-Chairman’s taxi parked on the Grosvenor Gardens rank on Sunday 29 March 1953 and had to have a "whip round" at their first driver meeting on Sunday 7 June 1953 to get the Ł200 they needed in order to look for premises, now own two multi-million pound buildings in the City!
Exciting days and more as we get it…

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