The Old Marlburian Golfing Society

Due to the sad passing of the Queen, the OMGS Autumn Meeting, due to be held on Friday 9th September, was postponed.

The Autumn Meeting has been rescheduled to Friday 14 October.

Please register online

Old Marlburian Golfing Society - REARRANGED Autumn Meeting - Friday 14th October (omgs.org.uk)

Please contact Bernie Thomson with any queries.

We look forward to seeing you there,

Will

William Wells, Hon Secretary, OMGS

The OMGS had a successful month as follows

-          We won the Alba Trophy at Woking for the first time which was a tremendous achievement as it is a scratch event. Our team was David Niven and Elliott Matthews and their scores were 75 in the morning and 71 in the afternoon. A total of 146 and they won by 3 shots (I think).

-          We also won the Public Schools Putting for the 3^rd time under the inspiring leadership of Chris Dowling. For those of you who do not know, 32 schools participate in 4 qualifying events at Royal Wimbledon. Each school has a team of 4 and everybody plays everybody so each player has seven 18 hole matches. The top two schools go into the final day and the bottom two get relegated. It is quite scary. We topped our qualifying group and won the final with 40 points (out of a maximum of 56) pipping Charterhouse (by 2 points). Our team was Angus Murray (who came top of the points scoring with 12 points out of 14), Jim Hewer, Tom Macfarlane and Jack Naylor.

-          Finally we won the very senior Darwin (the over 75s) comprising an 18 hole stabelford competition at Woking.  Our team was our President, James Hopper and Martin Mercer who holed a huge putt from off the green at the 14^th to win.

The AGM of the OMGS took place during the spring meeting at the Royal Worlington and Newmaket GC on Friday 13th May 2022 and the minutes are attached. AGM minutes 130522.pdf

The following were elected officers of the Society:

President: James Hopper

Captain: Bernie Thomson

Hon Secretary: William Wells

Vice Captain: Alasdair Niven

Past Captain: Bob Percival

As you can see, we are still lacking an Hon Treasurer and we really need someone to volunteer for this role. If anyone is interested, would they please contact either the Captain or Hon Sec.

Sunday 8^th May 2022 was an historic day at Sunningdale. It was not only a lovely day but the youngest ever team of OMs was assembled to play the annual match against the Scottish invaders, Fettes. There were 10 OM participants with an average age of 27.

That was the good news. The bad news was that we lost 7-3. The morning foursomes were very close. We were 3-2 down at lunch but three of the 5 games went to the last hole. After dining well, we played a 4 ball better ball on the Old Course in the afternoon but unfortunately only won one of the five games.

However the course and weather were perfect and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. We now have a significant number of active members of 35 and under and as a Society we need to do all we can to encourage this group of players to participate in OMGS events.

Bob Carrick

9^th May 2022

Marlborough squeezed through 3-2 against Rossall. Wins for Blockley & Hewer and for Matthews & Murray left us 2-2. 
Foster & Greenwood were 1 down going down 18 but their opponents took 6. Halves in par up the 19th and 20th led to the long par 3 21st. Our opponents three-putted from 12’ after we’d got caught up on the bank to the right but we got our 4 and so up the 22nd we went.  A long drive from Foster and a good 9 iron from Greenwood meant we were at the back in 2 but on the correct level. Rossall then four-putted from the swale down at the front of the green and we rolled it up to 2’ for the win. 
We’re now out against Haileybury

C Foster/H Greenwood beat H Kingsbury/D Blackadder-Weinstein 1up

J Naylor/J Porter lost to C Rietschel/O Flynn 1dn

C Blockley/J Hewer beat J Durie/T Tredinnick 3/2

EMatthews/A Murray halved with J Balgarnie/A Mackay

D Niven/J Rhodes beat J Woolf/A Hofmann 8/7

The Halford Hewitt takes place next week at Royal Cinque Ports and Royal St Georges. We are playing Rossall at St Georges on Friday 8th April 2022 at 9:30am. Do come and support. Our team is:

-  Angus Murray and Elliott Matthews

-  David Niven and Justin Rhodes

-  Jack Naylor and Jamie Porter

-  Charlie Foster and Hamish Greenwood

-  Charles Blockley and Jim Hewer

There will be a memorial, celebration and light lunch in memory of Alan at 11:30am on Thursday 16th June 2022 at; Milsoms, Kesgrave Hall, Hall Road, Ipswich, Suffolk IP5 2PU. RSVP to thecatchpoles2022@gmail.com

Alan Catchpole

It is my sad duty to report that Alan Catchpole died peacefully on Wednesday 2^nd March 2022 at the age of 89.

I will leave others to comment on his successful business career.  I knew Alan as a golfer and a friend over many years.

He was a very fine golfer gaining an Oxford Blue in 1953 and 1954 and he played in his first Halford Hewitt, as a cheeky 20 year old (if his photo is anything to go by), in 1953 when Marlborough lost to Harrow in the Semi Final.  Alan played surprisingly in only 9 Hewitts but was a key part of our renaissance in the 70s where we won the tournament once and got to 4 finals. Together with Alastair Bond, he won all 6 of his matches in 1971 where we were finalists and he was a member of the winning team in 1972 when he partnered his great friend Peter Good to a famous win over Harrow in the final.  In those two years, he played in the fourth pair and I played in the 5^th pair.  It was enormously comforting to be greeted by a broad grin on the course knowing that he and Peter were at least 3 up!  He captained the Hewitt side between 1986 and 1992 during which time we reached the quarter final three times.

One of his jobs as Halford Hewitt manager was to organise accommodation and here I quote from his letter inviting me to play in the 1992 event: “Unfortunately we cannot stay at the Hotel St James this year as the hotel is closed due to flooding problems”.  What he did not mention was that these flooding problems may not have been unconnected with the long hot bath that Alan might have had during the 1991 event!

In later years he did have a slightly uneasy relationship with a selection of drivers which probably resulted in him playing in fewer Bernard Darwin trophies than he perhaps should have done as it was played at the notoriously tight Woking GC.

Alan contributed enormously to the OMGS.  He was Captain of the OMGS in 1985/86 and President from 2007 – 2010.

I chatted to Alan on a regular basis.  To me he was a huge enthusiast with a great sense of humour.  He did get me out of a hole during one of my early Hewitts.  At that time, we had a number of wine connoisseurs in the side and at one dinner a cork was being passed round for us to study.  Having had several pints of Shepherd Neame, I had not a clue what to say.  Alan, sitting next to me, saved the day when the cork arrived.  He took one look at it and said; “Never mind the colour, I’m a quantity man”!

I will miss him enormously.

Bob Carrick

catchpole 1953.jpg

The 2022 fixture card is available for download. The printed fixture card will be sent out in April to coincide with the changeover of the OMGS Committee

A fixture list without any phone numbers is available for download:

FIXTURE LIST - NO PHONE NUMBERS

For a complete fixture, please go to:

FIXTURES (restricted access)