The Old Marlburian Golfing Society

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)

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