NEWSOld Citizens Golfing Society 2024 update

Remarkably, 2024 represents the Centenary of the founding and inaugural playing of the Halford Hewitt Cup.

There is a degree of debate surrounding how the event came to be started but, according to the great golf writer and TV commentator, Henry Longhurst, it was dreamt up during a lunch which John Beck had with G.L. “Susie” Mellin at The Addington Club in Surrey during the summer of 1923. Mellin, an old Malvernian, and Beck, an old Carthusian who later went on to Captain the Great Britain & Ireland Walker Cup side in 1938, were outstanding golfers and both were determined to instigate an “old boys” inter Public Schools golf tournament along similar lines to an existing football tournament, the Arthur Dunn Cup. It was no surprise that they selected foursomes as the official format for the tournament being the most popular golf game in those days and the quickest, especially played off scratch with no handicaps.

According to Longhurst, Mellin and Beck had decided on the tournament details and were wondering which “fool” they could inveigle into putting up a trophy when, quite by chance, Halford Hewitt walked into the room and was promptly pounced on. The photo below shows all 3 of these fine gentlemen.

All 64 schools currently playing in this magnificent competition were invited to attend a Centenary Dinner, held on 10th January in the Ball Room of the Grosvenor Hotel, Park Lane. Twelve of us gathered (Mark Stockton, Paul Stockton, Giles Stockton, Paul Marsh, John Featherstone, Alex Tapp, Alex Bennett, Jamie Spencer, Adam Jones, Tom Ross, Alex Barnham & Neil Edwards) at 17.30hrs for the Champagne reception which even included a Halford Hewitt branded bottle (photo attached). The room was resplendent and with close to 1000 people present the atmosphere was wonderful. Our City of London table of 12 people was positioned with a good vantage point of the speaker rostrum. We enjoyed a fine meal, good wines and excellent speeches from Jamie Warman (Harrow & President of the Public Schools Golfing Society) and Andrew Reynolds, for over 40 years the professional at Royal Cinque Ports, Deal, the home course for the competition. Andrew gently teased the “Old Boys” of the 64 public schools for their eccentric behaviour and mad antics, providing several amusing tales from his perspective as a “grammar school boy”!

The 2024 competition draw was made and, we were thrilled when the first name out of the bag was City of London, maybe a propitious sign, especially when we drew Chigwell in the 1st round, a school it seemed of similar historic ability.

The team of ten players and John Featherstone as non-playing Captain gathered on the East Kent coast on Wednesday 10th April in upbeat mood. That evening a Centenary cocktail reception was held under a marquee in the car park and despite the grey skies a memorable early evening was enjoyed and old acquaintances renewed with other teams. We later had a convivial team dinner at the Lydden Bell pub close to our team hotel (photo attached).

One special feature this year was the flying of 64 individual flags representing the emblems of all individual schools and what a fine sight it was (photo attached of our flag with L-R Paul Stockton & Alex Tapp). One strange coincidence was that Chigwell’s flag was next to ours in alphabetical order!

In the match on Thursday morning, we found the Chigwell team to be rather better that their recent performance had suggested and despite an excellent win by Louis Taylor & Adam Jones, our remaining 4 pairs were well beaten. The full lineup was Alex Bennett & Alex Tapp, Terry Bridle & Tom Ross, Adam Jones & Louis Taylor, Paul Stockton & Paul Marsh, Mark Stockton & Alex Barnham (photo attached). Tom Ross is to be commended for flying in from Australia the previous day, what dedication! Chigwell lost their 2nd round match to Bedford who in turn reached the final, losing to a very good Eton side 3 ½ to 1 ½.

After the match on Thursday, we took taxis from our hotel near Dover to Sandwich, where we had booked dinner in the George & Dragon pub. You can only imagine our shock and disappointment when we found the pub closed until further notice, having been given no warning. However, we marched round the corner to the Bell hotel who kindly found room for us despite being full. We had a delicious meal and vowed that we will return there in future.

On Friday morning we drove to Princes Golf Club to play in the Plate first round against St. Pauls. Again, Louis Taylor & Adam Jones played magnificently beating an excellent opposition pair and despite Alex Barnham and Tom Ross valiantly losing the second pair match, the third pair Alex Bennett & Paul Marsh put up a terrific fight and came back from 3 down with 4 holes to play to tee off at the 18th only 1 down. After 2 excellent shots we were around 25 feet from the hole at the back of the green and duly putted up well for a conceded 4. The St. Pauls pair were short right for 2, chipped averagely to around 20 feet then holed a lucky put which leapt in the air on its way to hitting the back of the hole. The end result was the closest of defeats 2 matches to 1.

We will look back on the Centenary year with much pleasure, especially the unique atmosphere, camaraderie and special events. It is a real privilege to play in this magnificent event and we look forward to raising our strongest possible team for the 2025 tournament when we expect to have Jamie Spencer available, one of our most talented and popular players. With this goal in mind, if you are a single-figure Old Citizen golfer then please can you contact us at [email protected] in order that we can consider your potential participation at the 2025 event. Next year’s competition commences on Thursday 10th April 2025.

The Old Citizens Golfing Society still holds at least 2 meeting a year, at Woking in July and Royal Cinque Ports Deal in early October. Golfers of all abilities are most welcome and we would be happy to subsidise recent school leavers including those at university and at an early career stage. Do get in touch see if you can join us at our Autumn meeting at Royal Cinque Ports Deal on 8th October 2024.

Mark Stockton & John Featherstone

OCGS – Summer Meeting at Woking Golf Club – Monday 8th July 2024

Given the recent very rainy start to July, a selection of rain gear was packed in anticipation of similar conditions for our summer meeting at the beautiful Woking Golf Club, a course in the Top 100 worldwide.

Despite the pelting rain the previous night and the best efforts of Highways with the weekend closure of Junction 10 on the M25, a dogged party of 10 Old Citizens and 1 guest all managed to arrive by 8.45am to be welcomed by a splendid bacon bap!

We were delighted to welcome Freddie Freestone, a contemporary of Louis Taylor from the 2020 alumni to his first meeting and he was guided around the golf course expertly by Paul Stockton, including occasional visits to inspect the heather! In the morning round scratch competition playing for the Spice Bowl, Louis Taylor had a good battle with Adam Jones, a winning foursomes pair in this year’s Halford Hewitt, with Louis prevailing on this occasion with a fine gross 78.

This was also a good day for our experienced veterans and both Keith Baker and Giles Stockton scored 28 points over a tough course having negotiated fiendish pin positions and heather-clad bunkers. Keith was the winner of the John Carpenter Challenge Cup on countback and both were 2 points clear of the chasing pack.

Martin Lester had invited a guest, John Donald, a fellow member of Cowdray Park GC and in addition Martin’s canine companion who walked the course tethered to Martin’s trolley, a first for the Old Citizens Golfing Society.

John Gee-Grant joined us for lunch, having been detained by ringing the bell at the London Stock Exchange and we enjoyed roast lamb and a cheesecake desert with suitable refreshment and a light diversion of trying on sizing samples for our new OCGS blazers.

Having stayed unexpectedly dry all morning and suitably fortified, most of us decided to play 18 holes foursomes in the afternoon and Paul Stockton & Louis Taylor had a friendly but competitive match against Adam Jones and Freddie Freestone, the latter pair scoring a creditable 78 gross with some huge driving on show. Mark Stockton, Giles Stockton & John Featherstone had a most sociable game and everyone gazed out at this wonderful course with our drinks on the terrace to finish off what was a super day.

Do please get in touch if you would like to join us for one of 2024 meetings (the next one will be at Royal Cinque Ports, Deal on 8th October) at [email protected]

Mark Stockton

Hon Secretary - OCGS

Cyril Gray 2024 Report

This competition is just over 75 years old and is the over-50s equivalent of the Halford Hewitt, being the same format Scratch Foursomes match play, albeit with 3 pairs instead of 5. It is played at Worplesdon Golf Club in Surrey, a beautiful course, not as long or daunting as a championship links course but with plenty of thick heather.

The trophy is played for in late June which makes it very popular for all teams who comprise the second set of 32 schools to have historically entered and played in the Halford Hewitt.

This year the weather was fine and the course was in superb condition following the wet recent months. Our regular captain Paul Marsh was as enthusiastic as ever until, just a few days before the tournament, he ran into “unexpected” problems with French bureaucracy which prevented him from travelling. After many frantic phone calls from France, Paul finally raised a full team under the captaincy of Terry Bridle.

Four of us played a practice round on Tuesday 25th June in 29C heat to reacquaint ourselves with the course and a relaxed dinner with excellent food was held at the club that night, jackets and ties having been sensibly jettisoned by most participants. We even had our cheese and biscuits outside on the terrace overlooking the 4th green, a first for this event! (photo attached)

In the 1st round on Wednesday morning, we had drawn Canford who have won this event in the past. We recognised several current Halford Hewitt players in their ranks and so we set off more in hope than expectation. It is a tradition for all teams to be photographed by the 1st tee and this year’s photo is attached.

In all 3 pairs we lost the early holes putting us in a tough position and it proved difficult to win holes back against high calibre opposition. Despite a mini fightback our 1st pair Alex Tapp & Mark Bretton were beaten and our 2nd pair Terry Bridle & Paul Stockton encountered an unplayable Canford pair whose highlights were a birdie, an eagle 3 at the par 5 6th hole and amazingly a hole in one (also an eagle) at the par 3 10th hole. That match was unsurprisingly lost by which stage the Canford pair were 2 under par gross! Our 3rd pair, brothers Mark & Giles Stockton struggled to match their opponents particularly on the green where one of the Canford players, Ben, holed several 20ft putts and missed nothing shorter! Overall then a 3–0 defeat.

We drowned our sorrows aided by the generosity of the Canford player who had the hole in one and despite defeat we made many new friends among the charming Canford team. A team curry followed in a nearby Bangladeshi restaurant that evening and our thoughts moved on to the Plate match v Merchant Taylors the following morning.

The same pairs were put out by us other than John Featherstone replacing Giles Stockton in the 3rd pair. Our opponents were a very nice bunch but slightly too good for us. The 3rd pair lost heavily but the second pair fought back valiantly to 2 down, from 6 down, only to eventually lose 3&2. The 1st pair match was still even when the other 2 pairs lost and in line with convention a half was agreed which was the least that we deserved so overall a 2 ½ - ½ defeat.

We look forward to welcoming back Paul Marsh next year and as we arrived back home on Thursday evening and checked up over the weekend on the final results, there was some consolation in the knowledge that Merchant Taylors had won the Plate competition on Friday beating Dulwich handsomely 2 ½ - ½ in the final.

As with the Halford Hewitt, we are actively looking for good single-figure Old Citizen golfers to play in this prestigious and enjoyable event so please do make contact via [email protected]

Mark Stockton