OB Golf - 2009
Old Bedfordian Golfing Society - 2009 AGM & Review of the Year
Minutes of the Annual General Meeting held during lunch at Sheringham Golf Club on Saturday 19th September 2009
ATTENDEES: Anthony Ormerod (President), Adam Wilkinson (Captain), Brian Gillett (Vice-Captain), Iain Pratt (Secretary), Nick Wade, Chris Johnson, Mike Bevan, Simon Bevan, Robin Grant, James Lawson, Robin Maris, John Parrish, Budge Rogers, Andrew Rudkin.
Anthony Ormerod opened proceedings between the prawn cocktail course and the shepherd’s pie and began by thanking Adam Wilkinson for his 2 years as captain. Adam reported on a successful Hewitt campaign but a disappointing Grafton qualifying with an emphasis on putting out our best 6 players in 2010 (Tom Langley-Poole & Daniel Mules take note!). Mike Bevan provided an overview of a frustrating Mellin for the seniors and called for Messer’s Coker and Paterson to be available in the coming years. The President then toasted Bevan on his 5 years as Mellin organizer and revealed that Martin Murray would take over the helm.
Elections followed with Brian Gillett and Chris Johnson elected as captain and vice-captain for the following two years. Gillett then announced that he would be unable to captain the Hewitt team in 2010 as it coincided with his 10th wedding anniversary and his wife’s 50th birthday. With a number of frowns and murmurs of disapproval coming from the floor Gillett announced that his beloved had offered him the choice of the Hewitt or divorce which was met with considerable understanding. With the newly elected vice-captain also announcing his unavailability to step in at the Hewitt, Wilkinson was re-elected for a 3rd term as Hewitt captain for 2010. The secretary then confirmed that the society was in good financial health and that most members now had email. A conversation then started about the possibility of an OB website but talk of such technical advances confused many of the honourable gentlemen present so James Lawson took it upon himself to provide some entertainment by telling a terrible joke about Vijay Singh marrying Fanny Sunesson at a volume that was clearly inappropriate and offended the female waitresses. We therefore promptly adjourned the meeting and descended into some fruit crumble before heading out to play foursomes.
OBs v The School June 2009 – Woburn Golf Club
The OBs for the second year running the match against the schoolboys was superbly organized and hosted by Henry Brown at Woburn on a beautiful, sunny day. This annual match is very popular which meant that in addition to the 5 matches that mattered, 6 additional players had a money game at the back of the field. Anyway battle commenced following lunch on the Dukes Course.
The schoolboys ran out the victors by 4 games to 1 with the OB point going to Dan Mules and Tim Henderson. Mules was reputed to have gone under par which is a rarity in OB golf. The victory for the schoolboys bodes well for the future Hewitt side and the message to the current team is to improve or develop a taste for kummel and familiarize yourself with the hut next to the 12th at Deal & Georges! The next crop of talent from the school will be available for the 2011 Hewitt.
OB Golfers : Halford Hewitt 2009
For the second year running the OB team was drawn on the Friday. Whilst this guarantees that you are playing on the second day of the tournament, a victory in the first round means a 36 hole Friday. With that in mind the team warmed up with a 5-0 victory in a practice match against Chigwell at Rye on the Thursday and then enjoyed a relaxing evening of home cooking at the team cottages before retiring to an early night which is far from the norm for a touring Bedford outfit!
The first round at Royal St Georges had a local derby atmosphere as Bedford took on the mighty Oundle who are ranked some 30 places higher on the Anderson Scale which measures performance over the years – a comparable derby fixture would be Tranmere vs. Liverpool. In the first match, Tom Langley-Poole and Mark Orchart battled tirelessly to bring home the first point 2&1 and behind them Colin Beesley and Tim Henderson cruised to a 3&2 victory. Anchor pair Brian Gillett and Iain Pratt took an early bath so the match was poised at 2 to 1 overall, but both Dan Mules and Simon Blundell in Match 3 and Adam Wilkinson and Max Thomas in Match 4 managed to dig out victories on the 17th, clinching an impressive 4 to 1 victory for the OBs. Afterwards in the locker room a few Oundle players were heard grumbling that they ‘couldn’t believe they had lost to bloody Bedford!’ – Tranmere had caused an unlikely upset.
In the second round we were pitted against another strong team from Wellington. Tim and Colin got a hard fought point to remain unbeaten for this year, but we suffered a 4-1 defeat. We are getting closer to that elusive Saturday appearance so we look forward to 2010.
OB Spring Meeting, Royal Worlington & Newmarket, April 25th 2009
A far more social event than the Halford, but no less keenly contested, the Spring Meeting is held every year at the worlds pre-eminent 9 hole course.
In addition to the 18 runners and riders we were joined by Simon James (Master in charge of golf at the school) and George Wilson (captain of golf at the school). The morning of the spring meeting has 4 singles prizes up for grabs so that all players have a chance to win regardless of age and ability. The Scratch Cup was won by Dan Mules who shot a fine gross 75, and the Captains Prize by Chris Bushell who shot an impressive net 70. The Lawson family also put in commendable performances so that both Roger and James took home the Junior and Senior Cups, while Tim Henderson also deserves an honourable mention for piloting his trolley straight into a river!
Simon and George joined us for lunch and took part in the afternoon foursomes. A new format was introduced for this – an eclectic stableford which, with 9 holes being played twice, gives an interesting twist to the afternoon and proved very entertaining. It is proposed that this becomes an annual fixture. The inaugural winners were Iain Pratt and Robin Bligh. Tea and cake in the sun brought a close to the day’s proceedings.
The Grafton Morrish
The Grafton Morrish qualifying competition was again held at the tiresome Leicestershire Golf Course which is essentially a big circle with 18 holes that dogleg left to right requiring a fade of every tee. There are no par 5’s which makes the experience a bit of a grind when playing scratch foursomes. A late injury to captain Wilkinson on a stag weekend meant that the evergreen Robin Maris was drafted in to play with William Coker. Unfortunately Maris was suffering with the shanks which resulted in 12 points for the pairing. Despite a super 31 points from Colin Beesley and Simon Blundell and a respectable 25 points from Brian Gillett and Iain Pratt, the OBs came up short of qualifying by 6 points.
Mallin Salver
The Mellin week is held at West Hill golf club in early July and is made up of 3 sections – The Bunny Millard for over 75’s; the Peter Burles for the over 65’s and the Mellin for over 55’s. Tony Marshall and Richard Thomas contested the Bunny Millard which was held over 16 holes due to the searing heat. The top 4 teams qualified and our pair didn’t quite make it with 7 stableford points. This wasn’t the lowest score of the day! In the Peter Burles, the OBs recorded a victory against Lorreto but fell to Cranleigh in the next round. Simon Bevan and Robin Maris won both their foursomes matches. In the Mellin the OBs recorded a convincing win against Lorreto with big wins for the Chris Bushell/Jerry Mytton pair and the Peter Pettigrew/Mike Bevan pair. Bushell and Mytton repeated their victory in the next round against Haileybury but losses for Pettigrew/Bevan and Murray/Kimber brought the 2009 Mellin campaign to an end
Autumn Meeting
There is an apparent theme to 2009 and again the OBs were again blessed with sunshine for the autumn meeting at Sheringham. The benign conditions suggested low scoring but the players staying at Brian Gillett’s house in Hunstanton on the Friday evening were handicapped by an evening of cards, several bottles of claret and 4 hours sleep! Captain Adam Wilkinson managed to perform least badly and won the scratch cup with 79 blows. Anthony Ormerod won the handicap trophy and a bottle of malt whilst Robin Maris took the senior trophy. The junior trophy was won by Nick Wade which was a surprise to many. 4 years ago Wade walked off the 17thgreen at Royal St Georges having held the putt to win his first Halford Hewitt point but has since had a dip in form comparable with the likes of David Duval and Ian Baker-Finch which saw him lose over 100 golf balls in a week on the OB Tour to Gullane and Muirfield in 2007! This was a remarkable return to form especially since he was sat at Brian’s card table the night before. The morning’s golf was followed by the AGM and lunch and 11 holes of foursomes in the afternoon which was won by Andrew Rudkin and Robin Maris in a closely fought contest.
Matches v Oundle, Wllingborough, Highate & Wrekin
James Lawson and his team of 5 pairs kicked off the OB Calendar with a whopping 5-0 victory against Oundle at Royal Worlington in March – clearly this was a good omen for the subsequent events at the Hewitt. Andrew Rudkin hosted June’s midweek match against Wellingborough but the OBs went down by 3 matches to 1. The match against Highgate was played on the Marquess course at Woburn on another sunny day in August. Anthony Ormerod’s side lost 2-1 but a good day was had by all. October saw a new fixture in the diary against Wrekin College which was superbly supported. In his first match as captain, Brian Gillett captained his team to a 3-2 victory on the Dukes course at Woburn.
OB Tour 2009
The fifth OB Tour went to Northern Ireland in 2009. The OB tourists were William Coker, Charles Coker, Iain Pratt, Dan Mules, Lee Dinmore, Piers Constable, Adam Wilkinson, Chris Johnson, Rob Mason, Simon Blundell and Brian Gillett. Apart from consuming vast amounts of Guinness the itinery included some golf and we were lucky enough to play Royal Portrush, Castlerock, Portstewart, Ballyliffin, Ardglass, Royal County Down and Royal Belfast. Adam was the tour champion after opening up an unassailable lead with a brilliant round at Portrush. The 2010 Tour goes to North Devon and North Cornwall.