Centenary year of the Halford Hewitt and many celebrations had been organised.  In January we had the Centenary Dinner and Draw at the Grosvenor Ballroom where I believe between 700-800 members of the PSGS attended and Taunton were honoured to host on our table Jonny Ovenden, who is a great nephew of Halford Hewitt.  Guest speaker for the evening was Andrew Reynolds Head Pro at Deal for 45 years who told some stories of his experiences during the HH week.  In the actual HH week a celebratory reception was being held for schools at Deal on the Wednesday evening and a further reception on Friday evening to thank the host clubs Royal St George’s, Royal Cinque Ports (Deal) and Prince’s.  Included in this report I have attached photos of the scene at Deal celebrating the schools that take part with their flags lining the 1st fairway at Deal.

Taunton this year were drawn against Gresham’s in the 1st round.  However, we didn’t actually start until Friday morning so we had 3 days to practice before hand.  The weather was forecasted to get better following what was endured at Burnham in the BNB but we still had the tail end of high winds on Tuesday and Wednesday but thankfully dry.   R Willacy, P Whalley and P Stickler came down on the Tuesday and played that afternoon.  The rest of the team followed down for the Wednesday and Thursday practice.  On Thursday we decided to play North Foreland as it was a course not played before and it was close to where we were staying as a team.  Fortunately Phil was returning the Scratch Trophy from about three years ago so given most of the scratch golfers in the OTGS were down for the week we decided to play for the cup that afternoon.  We played handicap stableford for the money and scratch stableford for the cup.  Gary Hector won the Scratch Cup with 31 points and Matthew Pyke came second with 29 points.  David Higginson won the handicap stableford with 36 points.  Well done Gary for winning the cup and bad luck for having to clean and engraving it!

So early start Friday 7:45 at Deal against Gresham’s.   OTGS Team, 1st Pair GHector & PStickler, 2nd Pair RWillacy & MPyke, 3rd Pair GWhalley & AFord, 4th Pair PWhalley & DHigginson, 5th Pair EBradnock & MBanham.

In the end Taunton lost 3.5-1.5.  However, we were once again close with Gary H & Phil S still going down the 21st hole until a halve was declared following other results.  Pete W & David H lost on the 18th, Greg W & Andy F lost on the 18th, Richard W & Matthew P won 4-2 and Mark B & Ed B lost 5-4.  Great company Gresham’s who in the end made it to the 3rd round.

Because we started Friday morning we now had to play Friday afternoon in the Plate at Prince’s and our opponents were Berkhamsted.  The team for this match, 1st Pair Gary H & Phil S, 2nd Pair Andy F & Mark B and 3rd Pair Richard W & Greg W.  Taunton lost 2-1 overall, 1st Pair Won 3-2, 2nd Pair Lost 3-2 and 3rd Pair Lost 5-4.  At the time of writing Berkhamsted have reached the Semi-finals of the Plate.

Another fantastic, if not exhausting week especially following on from the BNB, and thoroughly enjoyable week as always.  Big thanks to skip for organising and keeping us in order, Ed for mostly organising the food takeaways with Fordy, who did order the biggest meat fest on Thursday evening following a power cut at our chosen restaurant!  Look forward to seeing everybody again at the next event if not HH 2025.

Another great day organised by David Murrell who once again sponsored the event.  Despite the terrible weather the whole of the UK has had to endure Swinley was soggy but playable.  As requested by Swinley numbers had to be limited and 34 players turned up on the day, 23 OT’s and 11 Guests.

The OT singles winner in the morning was Mark Banham with 38 points, runner up was Tom Chedzoy with 37.

The afternoon greensome winners were Eddie Bradnock (OT) and a guest Murray Dron with 41 points.  Runners up with 38 points were Richard Parsons (OT) and Robert Mazur (OT).

Again many thanks to David for organising this event.

This year’s Cyril Gray took place again at the end of June 20 – 23.  After much re-arranging of diaries a team was assembled to battle the first round against Merchiston.  Unfortunately Merchiston proved too good and Taunton went down 2.5 – 0.5.  In the Plate we were drawn against St Paul’s, who in the Halford Hewitt we would consider our equal so felt we had a chance.  However, we were not on form and lost to St. Paul’s 2.5 – 0.5 as well.

Captain’s closing message:
Well, as ever an eventful few days.  Many thanks to all, to Richard for battling through car challenges, to Matthew for modifying his Ascot plans, welcome back Geoff having rediscovered his love of golf and a warm welcome to John, a welcome addition to the team. We came up short against a couple of strong teams but we were missing some of our talent.

Team:
David Morgan, Richard Willacy, Tim Blood, Geoff Boyce, John Groombridge, Matthew Pyke, Neil Robertson, Martin Knight.

Draw_Sheet_Results_2023-final

The OT Rose Bowl 2023

The OT Rose Bowl was played at Oake Manor GC on Sunday 1st October.  Although numbers were rather down this year- possibly the Ryder Cup was a better attraction! – all who attended enjoyed the event in the fine weather.

Three TS pupils played and Jack Blackwell won that “mini” competition with 34 Stableford points.
The Rose Bowl was won,  not for the first time, by our revered OTGS President, Terry Davidge, who was partnered by David Taylor. Their score of 44 points  was just a bit too good for Richard Willacy and Clive Large who came second with 42 points.

Hugh Todd