Golf

The 2022 KCS Old Boys scratch team will soon head up to the Norfolk-based Grafton Finals for the 39th time since 1975. 48 teams play (having qualified from over 100 school entries) in the knock-out finals over the weekend.

A tough Grafton Morrish draw awaits, against Loughborough, then Canford or Malvern (2021 runners-up, winners 2005-2006) in the ‘round of 32’, at Hunstanton GC on Friday 7th October.

The ‘Oxbridge’ Blue-based OKC team is Alex Gems (OK 2009) Captain, Matt Reynolds (OK 2010), Tim Jukes (OK 2016), Alex Nielsen (OK 2018), Mike Choong (2004), Ajay Patel (OK 1996) and Peter Crowther (OK 1972). The average KCS player’s handicap is two, and our thanks go to the OKC for their support.

We have 205 KCSOB games between five of us (won 123, halved 21) in Norfolk, with Alex Nielsen and Tim Jukes making 2022 debuts. The OKC team had 4 finals (winners 2001 & 04) in the Noughties decade but sadly none since.

Uppingham (winners 2012), Millfield (2021 – Holders) and Sedbergh (1984) are in our quarter. Any Sunday morning semi-final might optimistically involve Charterhouse (winners 2015), Epsom College (winners 2017) or maybe Dollar Academy from over the Border.

The full draw can be seen at the new GMGA website: graftonmorrish.org.uk

The 32 losing Friday teams play in the Plate on Saturday morning, at which point the four best qualifiers play in Sunday’s Plate knockout, alongside the main event.

/ Peter Crowther

The Grafton Morrish competition (KCS winners 2001; 2004) held on 5/6/7 October 2018 involved a re-draw following Loretto’s absence.  KCS Wimbledon were selected, by lot, to re-balance the draw, playing against Canford at Brancaster, instead of Seaford College.   

KCS top foursome of Alex Gems and Matt Reynolds endured a tough Friday, a 2&1 loss against Canford, played in a light breeze.   Then a splendid 3,4,4 finish by Peter Crowther and Mike Choong enabled a win by two holes. Fate dealt the third pair of Rory Codd and Paul Mortlock a cruel finish. Two up with two holes to play, having eagled both the 7^th(490 yards) and the 14^th(430 yards) holes, the latter with a Codd three-wood, the Canford duo cruelly holed a 55-foot putt from the very front of the 17^th, with KCS well-placed 30 feet from the hole.   A KCS-car-crash followed down the 18^th– despite a fine drive.   The deciding 19^thhole was not well-contested.   This lost KCS the match and placed us into the Plate competition. Four leading Saturday qualifiers would contest the Committee Bowl (KCS winners 1984; 2006) at 6,900-yards long Hunstanton on Sunday. Whitgift lead the way on Saturday, with just 70 scratch points (i.e. 23 points each).

Qualifying on Saturday morning, enduring continuous Brancaster northerly force-7 rain squalls (e.g. the 129-yard 4^thhole played a firm 5-iron) that had many schools withdrawing, the Matt Reynolds (2010)/Alex Gems (2008) ex-Oxford Univ. vanguard pair thereafter came out swinging.  In Sunday’s Whitgift semi-final, and the Committee Bowl final, they had two victories on the 16^thhole. The sunny morning saw a solid 4&2 victory off the Blue ‘tiger’ tees (two birdies, 4 bogies, 10 pars).

Peter Crowther (1972)/Mike Choong (2004) turned back the clock in their Whitgift semi-final, against a foursome pair including a two-time English Mid-Amateur Champion. Crowther played his 114^thKCS match in Norfolk, and Choong was competing in his 4th final in 5 years’ appearances. A Hunstanton back-nine of 4,5,4,4,2,4,3,4,4 in light winds brought a 2-up semi-final victory, winning the 14^th, 15^th, 17^thand 18^th, and 2-1 match win overall.

Rear-gunners Rory Codd (1997)/Paul Mortlock (1996) had lost their semi-final anchor match 4&3 to two Old Whitgiftian Royal St. George’s members. They fell behind, early, and failed to hole any putts at crucial times.

In the final, after lunch against 2017 Committee Bowl holders Loughborough, the Reynolds/Gems top pair reeled off 3 birdies and 7 pars in the first 10 holes, for a 4-up lead against a 1 and +1 handicap combination. They held on, after that, for a fine 4&2 win.

Codd and Mortlock, again at the rear, turned on the gas for the final, thrashing the Loughborough captain & his partner by 7&5, grinding out 10 pars in their 13 holes.  This victory made up for their rather sad Friday!  Crowther and Choong finished in some style 444434264, but lost to Loughborough by one hole in the dead rubber.  This capped a very pleasing week, with everyone playing well, all contributing points in a KCS team including two debutants.

I’m pleased to report that we managed to retain the Old King’s Club v. Old Kingstonians trophy on 18 September by a score of 3-2. Quite an exciting day, as we were level until the end of the last match.

As the OKs remarked, this was the closest they have come to winning the trophy. It now has OKC as the winner for every year we have played for it since ints inception in 2013. In fact we have won the match with/without the trophy since we first met in 2010.

Individual results were:

Druckman and Phillips – Won 4 and 3

Taylor and Gregory – Lost 6 and 5 to a very fine performance by their captain, Richard Wickerson – no shame here!

Gems and Damon – Lost 2 and 1

Grover and Messent – Won by 2 holes

McGinn and Lovett – Won 4 and 2

/ Peter Taylor (OK 1961)

This year’s competition was played at Bramley GC with a shot-gun start for the 72 players. The weather was beautiful being hot with a light breeze and the course was in fine condition despite not having seen any rain for ages. The star of our team was Lance Condon with 37 points, which made him runner up to the best score on the day of 42 – well played Lance. Jonathan Poole had a good round scoring 32 points but the other three, myself included, failed to get into the thirties.

The winning team was from the Old Tiffinians with 175 points from five players, which is a remarkable average of 35 points. Bramley provided an excellent lunch for us all and one of the organising team, Brian Collison, set up a bar tab for every player’s first drink -thank you very much Brian and Martin. The competition will be organised by the O T’s next year and the year after at a venue to be decided by them.

Graham Cox   July 2018

The Triangular Match between OKC, Kingston Grammar School OB’s and Raynes Park OB’s was played at Surrey Downs GC on 24^th April. The course is relatively new and was the venue for last year’s match, receiving good reports from the players. The weather was excellent for golf but we were outplayed by the KGS team. For the 18-hole stableford match we scored myself 36, Graham Morris 34, Lance Condon 30 and Micky King and Andrew Copeman both 29 – total 158. The winners were the KGS team with 38, 36, 34, 33 and 30 – total 171. The star on the day was Brian Vennard of the Raynes Park OB team with a magnificent 42 points and he walked away with the Martin Fielding cup. Oddly enough he happened to have with him his handicap certificate – I wonder why?

The Spring Meeting was at Malden GC on 24^th May with 15 OB’s teeing off. I played with Michael Choong whose handicap is 3. Playing with someone of this level of skill is a new experience for me and it was rather humbling, since I have played quite well recently with mid 30 scores on several occasions off my 18 handicap. Michael’s saw every stroke of less then 200 yds as a possibility to get close to the pin for a birdie. This he achieved four times in the first nine holes but he also got three bogeys thus scoring one under par for his round with 70. Naturally he won the Blades Cup.

The stableford Bill Cox Cup was a very closely fought matter. M. C. got 40 points but was not eligible, since he had already won a cup. The scores were very close with Peter Messent 36, Neil Price and Lance Condon both on 35, Graham Morris and Peter Taylor both on 34 and John Oliver on 33. Next came Chris Diacon on 32 and Fred Grover and David Cross were both on 31.

The Blades Cup was initiated by George Rowland Blades (1868-1953), who lived in Sydenham, Kent and was a pupil at KCS (in the Strand at that time) leaving in 1886 to join his family printing business, rising to become its chairman. In 1913 he was elected to the Corporation of London, he served as Sheriff of London from 1917-1918 and was Knighted during his term of office. In 1918 he was elected to Parliament for Epsom until 1928, he was created Baronet of Ebbisham, which is the old name of Epsom, in 1922. He was Lord Mayor of London from 1926 to 1927 and was appointed Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire (GBE) in 1927.

The Blades Cup is actually ‘The Old Kings Golf Society Challenge Cup Presented by G R Blades Esq. 1910’ and has a Birmingham hallmark made in in 1910. He won the cup in 1911. George R. Blades was a founder member of the KCS Lodge in 1921 and presented the Lodge with a Bible dated 1622. The first “King James” Bible was published in 1611. The first Bible in modern English was published in the reign of Henry VIII (1509-1547).

Graham Cox May 2018

The Old King’s Club won its annual friendly golf match on 19 September by 3 1/2 to 1 1/2 on a cool but sunny day, with the greens and fairways looking as ever in excellent condition at Royal Wimbledon GC. This means the OKC has won this match every year since the fixture was inaugurated and our name appears on the Claret jug for every year since 2013, when the trophy was first presented.

Individual results were as follows:

Peter Taylor and Giles Fallowfield v Richard Major and Adrian Koertzen – Won by 1 hole
– after 14 holes we were 3 down, but an excellent last four holes by Giles saw us nick the result on the 18th.

Ian Hay and Lance Condon v Andrew Lodge and Richard Wickerson – Won 4 and 3.

Jonathan Howitt and Jonathan Poole v Gordon House and AN Other – Lost 4 and 3.

Andrew Copeman and Peter Messent v Paul Healey and John Elvidge – Halved.

Fred Grover and Will Starrit v Roy Bray and Graham Cox (KGS, not KCS!) – Won 2 and 1.

Captain Richard Major duly presented us with the trophy, and Peter Taylor will engrave it for next year. We also invited OKs to be our guests at a similar time in 2018.

A moment’s silence was held for for Roy Haslehurst, the previous Old Kingstonians captain, who sadly died from a heart attack last week.