Author: rwillacy

Once again we were blessed with another wonderful day despite the  lack of numbers for various reasons (5 Attendees), however, this certainly didn’t dampen the day.

The day started at noon with lunch and the AGM for the OTGS which updated those attending with what had happened within the society over the past year and golf at the school.  The minutes can be read on the OTGS website.  Given there were so few of us we ended playing a five ball for 18 holes.   Prizes played for were non-vet stableford, vet’s Cup, nearest to the pin x2 and longest drive.  Fortunately for Mark Banham he was the only non-vet so was a one horse race!  Nearest to the pin was won by Mark and Andrew Horne, Longest drive and vets Cup was won by Richard Willacy.

Great day was had by all and look forward to 2026.

Attendees:  Richard Willacy, Mark Banham, Andrew Horne, Terry Davidge, David Morgan

This year’s Cyril Gray took place again at the end of June 25 – 27.
Once again the weather was kind and, as ever, the course was in great condition.  Our first round was against Framlingham which  Taunton succeeded in winning 2-1.  This was a relief as the 1st round of the Plate was due to be played at 16:20 that afternoon which would have put David & Anne’s kind B-B-Q invitation in jeopardy and it was good last year!  Second round was against King’s Canterbury which sadly we lost 2-1 this time.

Once again a huge thank you to David for hosting members of the team at his home for a team B-B-Q and more importantly for captaining the Cyril Gray team for the many years past (too many to remember) and congratulations, with great expectations, to our new Captain Matthew Pyke.   This year another Hewitt member crossed the line at 50 to join the team, welcome Gary Hector.

Team:
David Morgan, Richard Willacy, Tim Blood,  Gary Hector, John Groombridge, Martin Knight.

Reserves: Neil Robertson

Results-sheet-2025-Day-3-pm

Once again on a beautiful Sunday afternoon OTGS gathered to qualify for the Grafton Morrish Finals in Norfolk beginning of October.

Under the wonderful leadership of Pete W the team pairings were,
Richard Willacy & Mark Banham
Gary Hector & Greg Whalley
Tim Blood & Pete Whalley

After a slow start on the front nine we pulled our socks up and improved on the back nine such that the team scored 85 points in total and came third out of the field of eleven schools.  The top five qualify for the finals…….we did it again!!

Finals are due to take place at Hunstanton and Brancaster on 3-5 Oct 2025.

GM Qual Results 2025

GM Finals Draw 2025

  AND SO IT BEGINS.

Once again the troops head down to sunny Kent, RCPGC, to compete in one of the most prestigious golf tournaments organised by the Public Schools Golfing Society.  This is hot off the heals of having played at the Brent Knoll Bowl over the previous weekend!

This year’s team consisted of:  Pete Whalley (C), Richard Willacy, Andrew Ford, Dave Higginson, Ed Bradnock, Gary Hector, Phil Stickler, Greg Whalley, Henry Lee and Patrick Lee (welcome back).

The draw took place at the East India Sports Club and Taunton were drawn to play Felsted in the 1st round.  According to the statistics the match was looking to be close one.

However, before the main competition started we had two fabulous practice days at Deal on both the Tuesday and Wednesday.  Unbelievably the rain stayed away although the wind and cold surprised us on the Wednesday and Thursday.

Other than that we could not have wished for glorious sunny weather, normally a rare occurrence.

So 1st round against Felsted, pairings were:  Richard W & Greg W, Pete W & Dave H, Phil S & G Hector, Ed B & Andy F, Patrick L & Henry L.  Unfortunately Felsted had the upper hand and beat us 3 1/2 – 1 1/2, Gary & Phil won, Pete & Dave agreed a half and the other three pairs all lost their games.  Next stop the plate on Friday.

Unfortunately, for the plate we have to reduce the team from 5 pairs to 3 pairs.  Tough decision for the Captain.  So first round of the plate was to be Gary & Phil, Richard & Greg and Pete & Dave against Downside in the morning.  Taunton won 2 1/2 – 1/2.  Second round that afternoon against Highgate saw the Lee twins with Andy replacing Richard, Pete and Dave.  Taunton won 3 – 0.  Excellent!

Saturday we only had one game to play and it was against our old friends Ampleforth whom we knocked out in the 1st round of the main competition in 2022.  The team this time was Gary & Phil, Richard & Pete and Greg & Andy.  What a game!  Taunton capture the win again 2 – 1 to proceed to the Semi-Finals against Eton and back to Deal on Sunday morning.

Another glorious day on Sunday.

Pairings slightly juggled again with Gary & Phil, Richard & Pete and Greg & Ed to do battle with Eton.  Unfortunately, when you get to Sunday you’ve played a lot of golf and the body gets weary!  Alas we didn’t perform as well on Sunday as the previous days and lost 2 – 1 to Eton.  However, what a great run for the team and Taunton.

A huge thank you goes to our team captain, Pete W, who organised all the accommodation and team selection.  Also to the purveyors of take-away food over the week!  To the whole team for sticking around for the whole week, it’s a tough call not to be selected when numbers have to be culled but the support and encouragement goes a long way.   Well played Gary and Phil who retained a 100% win record over the two competitions, BNB and HH!

ROLL-ON NEXT YEAR!!

We have been blessed with some wonderful golfing weather this April 2025.  It was once again a glorious day at T&P Golf Club where the OTGS, pupils from TS and masters gathered to play for cups and the annual match against the school.

The results were as follows: Thone Cup 1st Simon Nicholson 34pts, 2nd Lee Corfield 30pts (on back 9), 3rd Terry Davidge 30 pts (on back 6) .

The OTs won the match versus the School for the second year in a row with an average of 27.8 pts against the Schools average of 25.3 pts.

Bertie Bilson (Yr9, old 3rd Form) won the GB Salver for the pupils competition with 27 pts.

This year’s BNB was looking promising with some excellent weather.   The team this year under Pete’s captaincy was:

Pete Whalley, Tim Blood, Phil Stickler, Gary Hector, Mark Banham and Richard Willacy.

Pete, Tim, Richard and Mark went down for the practice round on Friday only to be joined by Andy Ford (for practice only) and Gary (because the weather was soooo good).

1st round was drawn against the Warwickshire Bears (tough ex county players).   Unfortunately Taunton lost a close 1st round by 2-1.  Pairings were:  Richard W & Mark B (Lost), Gary H & Phil S (Won), Pete W & Tim Blood (Lost)

1st round (Plate competition) we were up against the Royal Navy, same team pairings, which we won 2-1.  A great win.  Gary & Phil won, Tim & Pete won, Richard & Mark lost.

Semi-Finals (Plate competition) we were up against Epsom.  Same team pairings as Saturday but unfortunately Epsom beat us 2-1.  Once again Phil and Gary won their match to retain a 100% win record over the weekend.

Fantastic weekend, well organised and captained Pete.  As per last year the BNB proceeded the Halford Hewitt leaving only Monday to re-group before heading down to sunny Kent!