The Old Marlburian Golfing Society

Grafton Morrish 2021 - Report

For the first time (I think) since 1990 we reached the semi-final of the Grafton Morrish. This was as enjoyable as it was surprising bearing in mind that the Grafton Morrish is a high quality competition. It is different from the Halford Hewitt in that it is not limited to the same 64 schools but is open to all schools which are members of the Headmasters’ conference. 104 schools entered this year and 48 qualified from 9 different venues throughout England and Scotland. The event is always held at Hunstanton and Royal West Norfolk; two exceptional links courses on, strangely enough, the North West coast of Norfolk!

Our team consisted of the somewhat “senior” first pair of Bob Carrick and David Niven (combined age of 136 – mostly due to the former); the slightly more youthful second pair of Matt Mockridge and Jack Naylor (but not by much!) and the dynamic young third pair of Elliott Matthews and the sparkling debutant James Porter.

Having received a bye in the first round, we won a very tight second round 2-1 against Whitgift with 2 matches ending with the last putt on the last green. We won the third and fourth rounds both by 2-1 against Sedbergh and Reeds respectively but these matches were quite relaxed as in both we won 2 matches out in the country.

The semi-final was a slight anti-climax (as it was in 1990) as we were well beaten by a very strong Millfield side who leapt out of the blocks and none of our pairs was able to peg them back and exert any pressure. Millfield went on to win the tournament (for the first time since 1974) by beating Malvern (the 2019 runners up) in an incredibly tight and dare I say pulsating final. All matches went to the 18^th green; there were two halves and the Millfield third pair holed a 15 footer to lift the trophy.

Anyway the whole 3 days were great fun and although all pairs contributed, the stars were the third pair who won 3 out of their 4 matches.

The aim next year is to qualify (never straightforward) and then perhaps attract some more youthful participants to supplement this year’s third pair. Matt Mockridge, the Halford Hewitt Captain, will be doing his best to unearth suitable candidates.

Bob Carrick

Photos from the Hewitt, day 1 are on the OMGS News page

Thanks to Robin Swann

In the first round, Marlborough overcame Cranleigh in a thrilling first round match

Matthews/Murray L3/2; Foster/Mockridge L2/1; Niven/Rhodes W2/1; Macfarlane/Naylor W2/1; Blockley/Hewer W 19th

A high standard of golf throughout but pride of place goes to Chas B & Jim H after coming back from 1dn going down 18th to secure a 4 to opponents' 5, and then holing from 10' on the 19th for another 4 to opponents' 5!

The winning putt

On Friday we lost to the holders, Malvern so missed our chance for revenge after losing to them in 2019, when they went on to win.  The score was 3.5 to 1.5

For details see:

The team did well to overcome Malvern, the holders of the Bernard Darwin Trophy, in the first round, but came up against Highgate, who beat us in the Senior Darwin two weeks earlier, and who were again victorious

Results were as follows:

For the full draw and all individual results, please refer to the Bernard Darwin web site

30 members of the OMGS had a very enjoyable day in the sunshine at Woking GC on Wednesday 23rd June. The winners were as follows:

Penruddock Trophy for the best stableford score; Mike Roden 38pts:  

Catchpole Scratch Salver; Bob Carrick - Gross 76 

Van Gelder Vets Trophy;  Jamie Hawksfield 31pts 

Robinson Trophies; Jamie Hawksfield and Simon Hall 36pts: 

May thanks to Will Wells for his splendid organisation:  

Finally - 4 young OMs!

The OMGS were runners up in the Public Schools Putting competition played at Royal Wimbledon GC on Thursday 17^th June on their lightning fast putting green losing to St Pauls by one measly point. This is a great effort as it is a very difficult competition to do well in.

The competition is normally 4 players per side but only 3 this year due to COVID restrictions.  8 schools participate on 4 successive days playing all against all and the top two schools on each day qualify for the final. To add additional pressure to an already nerve wracking occasion, the bottom two teams on each qualifying day get excluded from the following year’s competition. In addition there is a playoff to decide ties to establish who goes forward to the final or who gets excluded. It is very good for your pressure putting.

Anyway we won the qualifier with 35 points, 4 better than the next school. Those who participated for the OMGS were; Elliot Matthews, Jim Hewer and Jack Naylor (who was second in the overall list of points scorers with 11 points).

In the final our team was; Elliot Matthews, Angus Murray and Tom Macfarlane

The chap on the left is the RWGC captain who presented the prizes. We scored 35 points (coincidentally the same as in the qualifying) and Tom won all his games to score a maximum of 14 points which is a very rare achievement. Unfortunately, St Pauls scored 36 points to pip us by 1 point on the last round.

A good evening was had by all and thanks to Chris Dowling for organising the OMGS side and supporters; OMGS Captain Bob Percival and coach and proud Dad, Charlie Macfarlane.

Bob Carrick

Hon Sec

I am afraid we lost a tight game to Highgate in the first round of the Senior Darwin (for those 65 and over). The results were as follows:

Bob Carrick and Malcolm Cornish  W3/2

Henry Robinson and Mike Roden  L 2/1

Tim Martin Jenkins and Jeremy Cornish  L 20th

The event was won by Tonbridge who beat Clifton 2/1 in the final

Senior Darwin

Unfortunately we have had to move the date of this match from Saturday 18th September as the Club cannot accommodate us. The new date is now Thursday 21st October. Apologies for any inconvenience.

Members will be delighted to hear that we have qualified for the 2021 Grafton Morrish. The qualifying event took place at Worplesden and we were 4th qualifier with a combined scratch stableford score of 79 points. Well done team and good luck at Hunstanton and Brancaster later in the year.

The AGM of the OMGS was held by Zoom on Friday 14th May 2021 and was attended by 32 members. The new Captain is Bob Percival and the new Vice Captain is Bernie Thompson. James Hopper now enters the last year of this presidency. A copy of the draft minutes is attached.

  AGM minutes 140521 2.docx