This year’s BKB kicked off as usual with a practice round on the Friday with Richard Willacy, Andy Ford, Gary Hector, Mark Banham and Phil Stickler.  Pete Whalley (Captain) joined us in the evening for the draw and team auction!

Unfortunately Burnham’s fairways suffered severely with last year’s very dry weather and lost their fairways, so much so that the club insisted we all played off mats throughout the competition.  As you can see Gary was not happy!  However, it was good to experience the new 9th tee and re-designed 12th hole.

Well on Friday evening Taunton were drawn against the RAF in the first round of the BKB followed by either the Army or Epsom.  A tough draw!

1st Round (Main Competition) against RAF Lost 3-0,
1st Round (Plate Competition) against Epsom Lost 2-1
Sunday Stableford – team scored not good enough!

Round 1 team: 1st Pair G Hector/ P Stickler (Lost 4-3), 2nd Pair R Willacy/G Whalley (Lost 6-5), 3rd Pair A Ford/P Whalley (Lost 2-1)
Round 2 team: 1st Pair R Willacy/G Whalley (Lost 5-4), 2nd Pair G Hector/P Stickler (Won 2-1), 3rd Pair A Ford/P Whalley (Lost 3-2)

In the Sunday Stableford Phil couldn’t play so Tim Blood kindly stepped in.  2023 is another year where the BKB and Halford Hewitt follow on from each other immediately, so Tuesday we were playing again at the HH Tuesday practice day!

It was another excellent day not equalled by many other golfing events and once again sponsored by David Murrell who has been organising this event for many years.  Last year we had a record 46 players but unfortunately Swinley asked us to limit numbers to 38 players which was easily achieved for such a popular event.

The OT singles winner in the morning was D Higginson with 43 points off a handicap of 9, a great score given how he seemed to be struggling with his game, with Richard Parsons second on 36 points off 12.  There were a lot of scores over 30 which indicates how high the standard of golf was.  Nearest to the pin on the 17th was won by Kevin Siveter (OT Gary Hector’s guest).

The winner in the afternoon was Mark Banham and Nick Lewis with 41 points, second was George Hallas and Ed Bishop with 40 points and third was Ben Hunt and Mark Wilkinson with 39 points.

Once again thanks to David.  Looking forward to next year already!

Taunton were invited back to this competition for 2022. The last time OTGS played was 1938, the inaugural year of the competition. The competition was disrupted with the outbreak of world war two in 1939 and didn’t restart until 1988. The format is 4 ball better ball handicap stableford with 4 pairs per team and the best 3 scores counting per team.

Despite weather conditions which can only be described as less than favourable, the EHC 2022 proved to be an exciting and successful competition.

Porthcawl were particularly pleased to welcome the Old Cliftonians for the first time and to welcome back the Old Tauntonians who last played in the inaugural EHC in 1938. 

Unfortunately, due to one of the players experiencing a medical episode during the course of the lunch, it was deemed inappropriate to proceed with a formal prize giving, so prizes were discreetly given to the winners.

The results were as follows:
1.       Old Cliftonians             107
2.       Old Decanians              101
3.       Old Breconians*           97
4.       Old Malvernians           97
5.       Old Wycliffians*           93
6.       Old Bromsgrovians      93
7.       Old Tauntonians*        91
8.       Old Cheltonians            91   

*Placed on countback

The winners of the top Pairs score were Harry Hood and Tom Atkinson of the Old Cliftonians with a score of 39 points.

The 2023 Edward Harris Cup will be held at Royal Porthcawl on Thursday 5^th October.

The annual Rose Bowl competition was played on Sunday 25 September at Oake Manor GC.

Conditions were good for golf and the 20 entrants enjoyed the afternoon in Somerset. Amongst those 20 were a good number of the OT golf team which was pleasing to see as well as 4 younger members of the School ( an event for the 175th anniversary celebration prevented some staff and senior pupils playing).

The better ball competition was won by our OTGS President, Terry Davidge, and Matthew Pyke with second place going to Mike Cook and Andrew Maynard and third place to Iain Westwater and Clive Large.

This was the second year we held the meeting at glorious Reigate Heath GC on a very hot Friday afternoon. The day started with the formalities of a quick AGM, minutes can be found on the OTGS website, followed by lunch and golf. Ten OT’s had lunch and nine went out to play in the afternoon. It was decided that given the heat of day +30C we would compete for the prizes over 9 holes except for the Scratch Cup which was played over 18 holes for those that persevered! Prizes on offer were Nearest to the Pin, Longest Drive, Vets Cup, Scratch Cup and Team Prize.

Results:
Nearest to the Pin: Richard Willacy
Longest Drive: Simon Hobbs
Vets Cup: Richard Norris
Scratch Cup: David Higginson
Team Prizes: David Higginson/Mark Banham/Rob Mazur