Outgoing Captain John Quinn, watched by wife Sheena, bids farewell – Patrick Eagar

IN WITH THE NEW…

New Captain, Tony Smith, obviously unaware what he’s let himself in for, and Caroline Lawrence – Ian McIlgorm

The Captain’s Dinner saw outgoing skipper John Quinn’s last act of his official year: removing the society’s double chain of office from around his scrawny neck and eagerly placing over the elegant head of incoming Captain Tony Smith.

Breathing a heavy sigh of relief, John was heard to say, ‘Blagged those 12 months then!’ No one disagreed…

The swanky surroundings of the Sloane Club in London’s Chelsea were graced with many of the current and past ‘great and good’ of the PGS.  After an excellent meal, President Peter Dazeley spoke of the society’s previous presidents and Liz Kahn told the diners about her successful battle to allow women members to join the society, resulting in Liz becoming its first female Captain in 1994.

The annual awards ceremony followed, with Nick Jones trying hard, but failing, to look embarrassed following his domination of the society’s season and needing extra transport to get all his trophies home!

All images curtesy of Ian McIlgorm and Patrick Eager.

The names of the winners of the PGS’ two major competitions in 2023 have been revealed:

Andrew Porter series of great results meant he is crowned the society’s Golfer of the Year and wins the Sir John Gordon Golden Putter;

Nick Jones beat all comers to be named as the PGS’ knockout champion, winning the Sir Emsley Carr trophy.

Congratulations to them both!

The event might have been running for 30 years but the Great British press had somehow eluded an invitation to the European Nations Cup for golfing journalists. That all changed this year when Jonny ‘Bubbles’ Bramley led the first PGS team to compete in the Cup at Chervò Golf San Vigilio near Verona – alongside those from Italy, France, Germany, Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Austria, Denmark and the Czech Republic. 

It’s quite a considerable undertaking to host eleven teams of 10 players, with partners and additional golfers playing alongside in a ‘Friends’ tournament but the resort, situated close to Lake Garda, was more than up to the task. As you would expect in Italy the food and hospitality were superb and there was a seemingly endless supply of the excellent local wine. 

With only 8 PGS members (Neale Adams, Nev Appleton, Cornelius Bohane, Nick Buckley, Colin Hancock, Keith Malone, Neil White and Jonny) signed up to play we were delighted to be joined by Jane Malone and Andi White to make up a full team. Also a pleasure to have Colin and Jonny’s partners Lisa and Suzi along for the trip too.

And it was Andi who made a big impact on the first practice round with her first ever hole in one. Fortunately local tradition dictated that Andi received a bottle of Prosecco rather than having to buy an extremely large round of drinks!

The 2nd practice round was a bit of a washout but did allow some of the team to visit the beautiful local town of Sirmione on the shores of Lake Garda – or just enjoy the hotel’s extensive leisure facilities and spa.

So to the competition itself, which was one round of a 2-ball ‘Louisana’ Scramble followed by a better-ball format. After a 2-hour delay for fog play finally started in warm autumn sunshine. The PGS performed well on Day 1, ending it in 5th place and ahead of our old adversaries the APG of France. Nev and Jonny, hot off victories at the Wryter Cup and the Berkshire continued their fine form with a 63 to finish in 2nd place out of 55 pairs.

Standard evening fare consisted of a 4 course meal with Prosecco, red and white wine plus some fine local grappa, and the entertainment stepped up a notch after the first round with a local singer belting out Italian Europop alongside standard favourites. It became clear that he was working his way through the Nationalities to perform a well-known song from their country. We all had a go at guessing ‘our’ song but no-one managed to come up with ‘Yellow Submarine’. And certainly no-one could have predicted some of the dance moves that ended up accompanying it…

Day 2 of competition saw the PGS festooned in Irish green to the delight of Cornelius. Maybe it was the collective hangovers, but the luck wasn’t quite with us and we were overtaken by our playing partners the Danes.

But nevertheless a very respectable mid-table placing in our first foray into Europe.

The winners Germany were a long way in front – perhaps explained by rumours they have 200 players competing for 10 places. And this is supposed to be the ‘friendlier’ tournament!

It was universally agreed though that it had been a magnificent event and the mix of male and female golfers created a wonderfully convivial atmosphere. 

Next year we have the more competitive European Team Championships for golfing journalists at Royal Obidos in Portugal from 11-15 November. It would be great to see more PGS support and perhaps challenge those podium places!

 

According to Keats, autumn may be the time of mellow fruitfulness, but it’s a time of winning golf competitions for the unstoppable Bramley and Appleton, both together and apart!

Jonny Bramley’s 36 points picked up the Sun Challenge Trophy and Division 2 winner’s prize at a windswept and rain-battered Berkshire Golf Club. And pal Nev Appleton took the Div 1 title with 33 points. If that wasn’t enough the dynamic duo then went out in the afternoon gusts to claim the Sir George Sutton Salver!

The salver has never been so hotly contested: the Bramley & Appleton pair (pear?); Jono Baker & Colin Hancock; and Paul Kelso & Ian Woods all scored 41 points, with countback required to separate the teams.

In Div 1, Nev was followed home by Olly McCormack with 31 and Paolo Minoli came in third with a very respectable 30 points. Div 2 saw the Bramley boy only one point ahead of Hugh Whittow’s 35 points, just better on countback than Jono Baker.

 

 

Embarrassing stockings pulled up over trousers, Peaky Blinder hats pulled down over bald spots and £20s paid to borrow small sets of clubs mostly called niblicks – it must be the PGS’ annual pilgrimage to the oldest golf club in the world (controversial, Ed) for our three-way joust with the British Golf Collectors Society and Royal Blackheath Golf Club.

It was an enchanting day for everyone involved, using clubs that reach back towards the very earliest days of golf, their hickory shafts and wooden drive heads lovingly tended by Tony Hunt from the BGCS – ‘soft’ balls needed so not to damage the face of the irons. As usual Royal Blackheath was at its elegant best and the kitchen lived up to its high reputation, its fine work washed down with wonderful wine generously provided by RBGC captain Tim Pearson (the wine was enjoyed by some more than others, as the following video will show).

Special thanks to Nic Brook for again organising the event at his home club. The Collectors made excellent use of their knowledge and experience of the old golf clubs and ran out easy winners, with the PGS just pipping Blackheath for second spot.

Click here to see the ‘Blackheath Window Challenge’

The above link is a short video (50MB is the maximum allowed on the website) of Nev Appleton winning the post dinner shot-out-of-the-window Blackheath Challenge. Notice how Ian McIllgorm saves Nev’s life first – the sound has been removed on the grounds of good taste…

And here’s a gallery of photos from the day: