Another great day at the Heath.  The weather was looking dubious as it rained whilst we were have lunch and the AGM before the golf in the afternoon.  However, 17 players (13 OT’s and 4 guests) played for various prizes on offer including the Fairwater Cup and Vets Cup.

In the end there was no rain when we started playing golf but just the tricky condition of a fairly strong wind.  The Vets cup was again played over 9 holes.  Our (Reigate Heath GC) greenskeeper, Matt, has done a fantastic job bringing back the greens and fairways after such a hard season last summer and a particularly wet winter.  The condition of the course was superb, although I’m sure by the time we get to summer the greens will be even quicker!

Results of the day:

Fairwater Cup:   Rob Mazur  (32 Points)
Vets Cup:   Richard Willacy  (19 Points – Front 9)
Longest Drive:  Ed Bradnock
Nearest to the Pin:  Richard Willacy
Guest Prize:  Charlie Westwater
Team Prize:  Ed Bradnock, Andrew Emmett, Chris Emmett

The Thone Cup and annual match against the School were played on Sunday 30th April at Taunton & Pickeridge GC.

The weather forecast was certainly not very promising but in fact it was only the last two groups out who had to contend too much with the elements.  The match between the OTs and the School was very close but ultimately the OTs came out on top.

The Silver Salver, presented for the best score by a School pupil, was won for the second successive year by Finlay Pyke.

The Thone Cup was won by OT golfing stalwart Matthew Pyke with 35 points with Hugh Todd just beating Clive Large to 2nd place.

All the prizes were presented by OTGS President, Terry Davidge, and a highly coveted OTGS tie was presented to Liam Dempster, who is in charge of Golf at TS, for his work supporting golf at the School.

Straight off the back of Brent Knoll Bowl and here we are again at the Halford Hewitt.  This year we are playing at Royal St George’s and we have a team plus reserves!  At one point we had 14 players down but eventually settled on 12.  Welcome to the Lee brothers for the first time to this wonderful competition.

Overall the weather was unpredictable with Tuesday and Wednesday being the best of the week with 40-50 mph winds expected Thursday and Friday.  Willacy, Stickler, Hector, Ford, Greg/Pete Whalley and Bradnock played on the Tuesday with the rest arriving either that evening or for the Wednesday practice day.

Our first round match was against Chigwell, who according to the Anderson scale are ranked similar to Taunton, so we felt we had a chance.  However, we then knew the 2nd round would be tough with a match against either Eton or Ampleforth (who we did beat last year).

So in preparation for Thursday’s match we tasked Chef Greg to cook something special to warm us up and what a meal it was with scallops prepared by sous chef Higgy followed by rack of lamb for main course.  Well done team.

Results:
1st Round v Chigwell   Won 3-2
1) G Hector/P Stickler (W) 4-3
2) J Malden/H Lee (L) 6-5
3) G Whalley/A Ford (L) 7-6
4) P Whalley/D Higginson (W) 5-4
5) M Pyke/R Willacy (W) 5-4

2nd Round v Eton Lost 4.5 – 0.5
1) M Pyke/R Willacy (L) 1 Down
2) G Hector/P Stickler (L) 3-2
3) J Malden/H Lee (H) Halved on 17th
4) E Bradnock/PLee (L) 7-6
4) P Whalley/A Ford (L) 4-3

Despite the final score against Eton it’s worth noting 3 of the games were up at the 12th Halfway Hut.  Eton went on to lose in the Semi-Finals.

Another fantastic week was had by all and I hope the Lee twins enjoyed it as much as us old timers do and we hope to see them back again next year.

This year’s BKB kicked off as usual with a practice round on the Friday with Richard Willacy, Andy Ford, Gary Hector, Mark Banham and Phil Stickler.  Pete Whalley (Captain) joined us in the evening for the draw and team auction!

Unfortunately Burnham’s fairways suffered severely with last year’s very dry weather and lost their fairways, so much so that the club insisted we all played off mats throughout the competition.  As you can see Gary was not happy!  However, it was good to experience the new 9th tee and re-designed 12th hole.

Well on Friday evening Taunton were drawn against the RAF in the first round of the BKB followed by either the Army or Epsom.  A tough draw!

1st Round (Main Competition) against RAF Lost 3-0,
1st Round (Plate Competition) against Epsom Lost 2-1
Sunday Stableford – team scored not good enough!

Round 1 team: 1st Pair G Hector/ P Stickler (Lost 4-3), 2nd Pair R Willacy/G Whalley (Lost 6-5), 3rd Pair A Ford/P Whalley (Lost 2-1)
Round 2 team: 1st Pair R Willacy/G Whalley (Lost 5-4), 2nd Pair G Hector/P Stickler (Won 2-1), 3rd Pair A Ford/P Whalley (Lost 3-2)

In the Sunday Stableford Phil couldn’t play so Tim Blood kindly stepped in.  2023 is another year where the BKB and Halford Hewitt follow on from each other immediately, so Tuesday we were playing again at the HH Tuesday practice day!

It was another excellent day not equalled by many other golfing events and once again sponsored by David Murrell who has been organising this event for many years.  Last year we had a record 46 players but unfortunately Swinley asked us to limit numbers to 38 players which was easily achieved for such a popular event.

The OT singles winner in the morning was D Higginson with 43 points off a handicap of 9, a great score given how he seemed to be struggling with his game, with Richard Parsons second on 36 points off 12.  There were a lot of scores over 30 which indicates how high the standard of golf was.  Nearest to the pin on the 17th was won by Kevin Siveter (OT Gary Hector’s guest).

The winner in the afternoon was Mark Banham and Nick Lewis with 41 points, second was George Hallas and Ed Bishop with 40 points and third was Ben Hunt and Mark Wilkinson with 39 points.

Once again thanks to David.  Looking forward to next year already!