OB Golf - 2008

Halford Hewitt

The Old Bedfordians Golf Society compete each year in the world's largest amateur golf competition - the Halford Hewitt. This is hosted every spring by the Royal Cinque Ports and Royal St Georges Golf Clubs in Kent, two of the finest links courses in the country. The competition format is five foursomes pairs playing scratch matchplay, and many of the 64 schools competing field very strong teams - a total handicap of the 10 players combined may often be in single figures.

This year the Old Bedfordians had the strongest squad that we have had for many years, certainly beyond the powers of recollection of some of the older members of the squad. This strength in depth was due to three new players - Tom Langley-Poole (96-06), Edward Kent (98-07) and Maxwell Thomas (96-06) -who are all recent leavers from the school. Many of the squad met before the competition began and played and practiced together for a few days before the final team of ten was selected. We were drawn on Royal Cinque Ports against Blundell's old boys, a school with a record largely similar to our own, and so hopes of progressing were high, but sadly were to be cruelly dashed on the 18th green in dramatic fashion. During the course of the round, all 5 matches were at one stage in Bedfords favour, but Blundell's fought back and took 4 matches to the 18th tee all square. Bedford had already secured one point, courtesy of Iain Pratt (83-93) and Charles Coker (67-71) in the fourth game who continued their remarkable record in this competition, and then secured a second point from the first game down the 18th, thanks to Colin Beesley and Tim Henderson (64-71). However, Blundells secured the second game after an unfortunate 3 putt by Bedford, and then proceeded to clinch the third game by dramatically sinking a putt of around 20 feet in length. With the match poised at 2 points each, the fifth game set off down 18 and Bedford were terribly unlucky to lose their ball in the whins down the left hand rough and this handed the advantage to Blundell's who completed the hole safely to progress to the second round.

While it was sad to lose so narrowly to a team who were our equal, as captain, I am confident that we will return stronger and wiser next year and that we will soon make a breakthrough into the final stages of the competition. I am also aware of the strength of the young players at the school and am hopeful that they will, in time, wish to join the ranks of the Old Bedfordian golfers to share in this success. Similarly any Old Bedfordian golfers are welcome and encouraged to participate in our many OB golfer events, such as our Spring Meeting which was held at Royal Worlington on a beautiful, warm, sunny day amidst the monsoon that was the end of April. There was a good turnout of 24 and the society welcomed 3 new members in Jim Smith, Alex Boddington (84-95) and Adam Foster (83-88). The players headed out in pairs and enjoyed perfect conditions for the morning singles. The scratch winner was Dan Mules (86-96) with a fine score of 75. Adam Wilkinson (87-92) had provided some prizes worth playing for with the Captain's prize for best nett score winning a bottle of Laphroaig and crystal decanter. With that on offer Roger Dalzell (48-57) roared round in a nett score of 70 beating Mules to the Scottish malt and was more than delighted with his prize! Chris Bushell (50-55) won the Senior cup while Patrick Duke (66-70) won the Junior cup. Robin Maris (48-60) was handed the responsibility of buying the wine and we emerged an hour later and a bit heavier for some afternoon foursomes which was very social and great fun. Tea and cake were taken as the prizes were presented and the aftersun was applied. A great day was had by all and the majority signed up for the Autumn Meeting at Sheringham on the 20th September.

OB's who wish to get involved should contact Adam Wilkinson (Captain) on 07885 571993 or sword2005@mac.com or Iain Pratt (Secretary) on 07971 825496 or iain.pratt@ogilvy.com