Taunton were invited back to this competition for 2022. The last time OTGS played was 1938, the inaugural year of the competition. The competition was disrupted with the outbreak of world war two in 1939 and didn’t restart until 1988. The format is 4 ball better ball handicap stableford with 4 pairs per team and the best 3 scores counting per team.

Despite weather conditions which can only be described as less than favourable, the EHC 2022 proved to be an exciting and successful competition.

Porthcawl were particularly pleased to welcome the Old Cliftonians for the first time and to welcome back the Old Tauntonians who last played in the inaugural EHC in 1938. 

Unfortunately, due to one of the players experiencing a medical episode during the course of the lunch, it was deemed inappropriate to proceed with a formal prize giving, so prizes were discreetly given to the winners.

The results were as follows:
1.       Old Cliftonians             107
2.       Old Decanians              101
3.       Old Breconians*           97
4.       Old Malvernians           97
5.       Old Wycliffians*           93
6.       Old Bromsgrovians      93
7.       Old Tauntonians*        91
8.       Old Cheltonians            91   

*Placed on countback

The winners of the top Pairs score were Harry Hood and Tom Atkinson of the Old Cliftonians with a score of 39 points.

The 2023 Edward Harris Cup will be held at Royal Porthcawl on Thursday 5^th October.

The annual Rose Bowl competition was played on Sunday 25 September at Oake Manor GC.

Conditions were good for golf and the 20 entrants enjoyed the afternoon in Somerset. Amongst those 20 were a good number of the OT golf team which was pleasing to see as well as 4 younger members of the School ( an event for the 175th anniversary celebration prevented some staff and senior pupils playing).

The better ball competition was won by our OTGS President, Terry Davidge, and Matthew Pyke with second place going to Mike Cook and Andrew Maynard and third place to Iain Westwater and Clive Large.

This was the second year we held the meeting at glorious Reigate Heath GC on a very hot Friday afternoon. The day started with the formalities of a quick AGM, minutes can be found on the OTGS website, followed by lunch and golf. Ten OT’s had lunch and nine went out to play in the afternoon. It was decided that given the heat of day +30C we would compete for the prizes over 9 holes except for the Scratch Cup which was played over 18 holes for those that persevered! Prizes on offer were Nearest to the Pin, Longest Drive, Vets Cup, Scratch Cup and Team Prize.

Results:
Nearest to the Pin: Richard Willacy
Longest Drive: Simon Hobbs
Vets Cup: Richard Norris
Scratch Cup: David Higginson
Team Prizes: David Higginson/Mark Banham/Rob Mazur

This year competition took place as usual towards the end of June. Due to Covid the 50 years celebration of the CG (2021) was delayed until this year where we enjoyed a dinner (inside and out) at Worplesdon GC the evening before the competition started. It was such a success there are rumours this might be a regular event.

Taunton’s team for the 1st round against Liverpool consisted of: Pyke, Jenkins, Blood, Willacy, Westwater and Morgan (reserve Neil Robertson). Unfortunately we lost to Liverpool 2-1 by 1 hole! The draw was such that we were out again late afternoon and the team remained the same except Horne replaced Morgan. We were up against Brighton in the ‘Plate’ but never got off the starting blocks and lost 3-0.

Alas we soon drowned our disappoint with a last minute decision to return to Captain David M’s house that evening for a B-B-Q and a huge thanks to Anne and David for hosting and feeding us so well.

Extract from Captain’s messaging:
Dear Team, well another CG tournament comes (disappointingly prematurely) to an end. We lost narrowly ( by 1 hole!) to Liverpool in the Cup and rather more easily to Brighton in the plate, dispelling our reputation as “plate specialists”. Thank you to Richard for flying in from Menorca, thank you to Pykey for finding time to join us in amongst your whirl of summer social events, thank you to Tim both for your verbosity in messaging and for nearly setting a new fashion trend on the golf course yesterday afternnoon, thank you Jenks for partnering me yesterday morning, not losing my golf ball and for scoring our only point of the tournament(!), Horne for showing up and playing yesterday pm (albeit with a slightly antique trolley), and Robbo for being on standby for Thursday, Friday and Saturday ( you can stand down now!). And finally Westy for being a total star and inspiration to us all, 36 holes (well probably closer to 26!). Thank you all for another memorable 36 hours even if we didn’t get the results we were hoping for. Looking forward to CG 2023 already…DM

Stableford:
Richard Willacy (30), David Morgan (28), Simon Hobbs (25), Iain Westwater (30), Greg Whalley (26), David Higginson (34), Gary Hector (32), Phil Stickler (34), Pete Whalley (32).

Winner of Fairwater Cup – Phil Sticker (count back)
Second place – Dave Higginson
Third place – Gary Hector (count back)

Team Stableford (Best two scores on each hole)
Iain Westwater/Greg Whalley/Dave Higginson 75 points