Pic by Paolo Minoli

Mirror snapper Phil Harri stormed his way round West Hill to claim the Peggy White Vase in our final regular meeting of the season.

Harris, playing only his second event of the season, made light of having to walk after taking a buggy at The Berkshire.

As he said: “I was playing with two much older gents there and they were walking, so I was kind of shamed into it…but if this is what does for my golf, I’ll do a lot more walking.”

West Hill was in superb condition, with tightly mown fairways, plenty of gnarly heather and greens recovering well from recent hollow tining. Sometime in the shadows of its fellow ‘Three Ws’ members, Worplesdon and Woking, West Hill proved more than a match for them as an autumn course.

An impressive field of 34 members turned out for our only one-round singles stableford meeting and they were rewarded with a warm and calm day.

The lunch was up there with the best of them, and the wonderful surroundings of the clubhouse and the terrace right on the 18th green were enjoyed by all.

Phil’s 36 points took the honours, with Jono Baker second in Division Two on 35 and Mike ‘Harry’ Waker third on countback with 34.

In Division One, Jim Murray claimed first place with 34 points, just ahead of Dave Reading, also 34, and Andy Porter on 33.

Now all eyes turn to the Christmas Scramble at Worplesdon on Monday, November 18 and Captain Tony’s dinner on Friday, November 22. Email me (pgssecretary@gmail.com) to book your place at either or both!

Report by Tim Allan

Photos courtesy of Neil White, Jonny Bramley, Paolo Minoli and Tony Smith.

Pic by Jonny Bramley

The 120th anniversary of the Press Golf Society was marked in fine style, appropriately at a pub both older than the society and just yards away from where it was founded.

That grand dame of press watering holes, Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese in Fleet Street, hosted 31 PGS members to an excellent lunch in the old style, the whole event being imaginatively conceived and curated by Nic Brook.

Chester in full flow – pic by Evan Samuel

The Captain of Royal Liverpool Golf Club, Alastair Machray, regaled the hacks in attendance brilliantly with tale tales and one-liners; he has a new career waiting as a stand-up, should he wish.

So, the journalists present were a little concerned when one of their own, Chester Stern, took the floor as the day’s final speaker.

There was no need to worry; Chester was both funny and charming, recalling the excesses of Fleet Street’s golden era and explaining ‘what a proper lunch was like back in the day.’

After the event, Nic said: ‘It was just lovely to celebrate 120 years of the golfing society that we all love, just yards from where it all began, Thank you to Alastair and Chester for their brilliant speeches and to everyone for getting along. It really was great fun! Happy Birthday PGS.’

Nic has already marked his diary for five years time and promises and even bigger event for the Society’s 125th birthday!

Apparently, even our friends from the APG in France were impressed:

And some pics from the day:

Pics by Jonny, Evan & Nic

Words by Tim Allan, Pictures by Jonny Bramley

Tony Smith’s claret and blue army fell agonisingly short of victory against their French rivals in the 33^rd Wryter Cup.

The PGS, superbly led by an inspirational Smith, went down 17½-14½ to their powerful APG rivals on the wonderful Granville Dunes course.

West Ham fan Smithy, whose team wore sky blue on day one and claret on day two, said: “I could not be prouder of my team. They played their hearts out and tried as hard as they could against a team with lots of low handicappers.

“I’ve had one of the greatest weekends of my life. It was wonderful! The match was played in a great spirit and there is true friendship between the teams, which was lovely to see.”

The PGS stormed into a strong position after day one, which was played in truly atrocious conditions. The winds were gusting to more than 40 miles an hour and the rain came down in horizontal sheets, making even connecting with the ball a very challenging prospect.

Smith’s team took the morning foursomes 5-3, with wins for Nev Appleton and rookie Neil White, Smithy and Khalid Javed, Felix Duckworth and Colin Hancock, and a huge 6&5 win for Evan Samuel and Ollie McCormack. Tim Allan and rookie Mike Waker battled heroically to claim a half after being five down at the turn!

It is a quirk of Granville that the stroke indexes mean higher handicap players get all their shots on the back nine, so fightbacks were always on against a French team with a lot of low handicappers.

In the afternoon fourballs, the PGS won 4½-3½, with wins for Jonny Bramley and Nev, Steve Lewis and Mike, Smithy and Tim, and Paolo and Colin. Ollie McCormack and Khalid played superbly to claim a half against a strong French pairing.

Sadly, the more benign conditions on Tuesday seemed to favour the French, who won the singles 11-5 to seal victory. Incredibly, nine of the matches went to the last hole, but the PGS were only able to win two of those.

The singles wins came courtesy of Smithy, who won all his matches; Tim, Paolo and Mike, who all scored 2½ points; and Andy Glen.

Mike had a Wryter Cup debut to remember, as he struck up a very promising bromance with the APG’s Edouard Combette and also claimed the Vic Woodman Trophy, awarded to the PGS player who best exemplifies the spirit of the Wryter Cup. He also has a new nickname, after his new friend Edouard noticed his resemblance to Harry Potter!

The course, town, nightlife and food were all top-notch. It’s always good when we stay in a seafront hotel next door to a casino on one side and an English pub that stays open till 2am on the other.

The French now lead the Wryter Cup overall standings 17-16….but we’ll have the chance to get it back to all square at Royal Dornoch next year.

Click here to see the full results from Granville

And the winners:

Nick Toksvig enjoys the skipper’s hospitality.

Words by Tim Allan, pics by Tony Smith

Skipper Tony Smith did us proud, the team for the Wryter Cup was settled and new boy Adam Piggott claimed the Billennium Bowl; quite a Captain’s Day for Smudge!

Adam, playing his first PGS event after joining the society in June, took the Division One honours at Mannings Heath, where he and Tony are both members.

An allegedly embarrassed Adam, said: “Local knowledge definitely helped me!’ He pushed Andy Porter, with 30 points, into second place in Division One, with Steve Lewis’s 28 good enough to take third on countback. In Division Two, Ian Woods came out on top with 28 points, ahead of Paolo Minoli on 27 and Jeff Randall on 25.

In between dishing out sustenance, advice and bonhomie on the 10^th tee with girlfriend Caroline, Captain Tony admitted: “I was a little nervous about the day but I’m delighted everyone enjoyed themselves.”

He also laid on nearest the pin prizes on all the par threes, a long drive prize on the tricky 11^th, and a nearest the pin in two prize on the 15^th. Our generous sponsors, Golfbreaks, made a very handsome payment into the PGS coffers and also provided plenty of golf balls!

The Harold Lewis Weight for Age Trophy, open to all members aged 65 and over, was won by the evergreen photography doyen Patrick Eagar.

Captain Smith presents ‘evergreen’ Patrick Eagar with his prize for winning the ‘Harold Lewis Weight for Age Trophy’.                             Photo by Paolo Minoli

The day was also the the final qualifier for The Wryter Cup, and after the game Tony announced his team to travel to France:

Tony Smith, Captain

Jonny Bramley

Khalid Javed

Ian Woods

Mike Waker

Nev Appleton

Ollie McCormack

Ben Todd

Paolo Minoli

Colin Hancock

Evan Samuel

Felix Duckworth

Steve Lewis

Neil White

Andy Glen

Tim Allan

The reserves are Mike Allen and Kevin Price.

These pics by Patrick Eagar:

And these were supplied by our skipper: