The Salopian no. 157 - Winter 2015

66
OLD SALOPIAN NEWS
Old Salopian Golfing Society
“Let us now praise famous men…” At
the AGM on 2nd October, the following
were elected Vice-Presidents of OSGS:
Sandy Bell, Robert Lanyon, William
Painter and Anthony Parsons. This
foursome join the celebrated company
of Tony Duerr, former President of the
Society, who has just presented the
Duerr Tankard, for the winners of the
annual match that is played against
Malvern at Blackwell.
It is with enormous disappointment
that I report a defeat by one point in
the match on 11th October. The pain
is all the more excruciating, as after
15 years of fierce rivalry, Shrewsbury
lead the series 12-3. With silverware at
stake, we were defeated 4.5 to 5.5. The
tankard is beautifully engraved with the
names of the two Societies and Tony’s
initials – and to which we should add
OBE, awarded for services for eating
for England.
The OSGS team, with points won in
brackets, was as follows:
Angus Pollock (2): Harry Lewis (1.5):
Charles Hill (1.5): Bill Russell (1.5):
Tom Price (1): Martin Cars (1): Andy
Pollock (0.5): James Skelton (0):
Rupert Haines (0):
Charlie Stockbridge (0)
Battle will be resumed on Sunday,
9th October 2016.
Our photo shows OSGS Captain Angus
Pollock smiling through gritted teeth at
the winning Malvern Captain.
On 11th September, Charles Tustain
snatched the Tony Duerr Silver Salver
(presented in 1997) from the grasp of
Nicky Renton, on a count back on the
last 3 holes at Worplesdon. The course
and the weather gods were smiling,
as well they might at the venerable
company that assembled: three scions
of the incomparable Shaw dynasty,
aided and abetted by Nick Oldham and
Julian Sterck, Mellin winner in 2014 but
NFI for the winning team in 2015: Nick
Renton and his father Tony from Royal
Mid-Surrey.
Our photo of John Parker sandwiched
between Charles Shaw and James Shaw
is an indication of the revelry enjoyed
after lunch.
The main Senior team event in our
Fasti is the G L ‘Susie’ Mellin Salver,
where Shrewsbury has an excellent
recent record.
We have won the Salver six times
in the last 13 years as well as being
losing finalists on two other occasions,
mostly under the captaincy of Peter
Worth’s redoubtable predecessor,
Christopher Wallace.
Peter Worth reports: ”I thought you
would like to know we won the
Mellin, lost in the second round of the
Burles (for over 65s) losing a play off
on the 19th and Tim Lewis and John
Parker qualified in the Bunny Millard
(for over 75s) but lost on the 19th after
a great tussle against Downside who
were holders.
We played well to get through to the
Mellin final against Loretto where
James Shaw and Will Painter, who were
unbeaten having played superbly, won
yet again in the country. Allan Wright
and I ran out of steam and shook
hands on the 16th. This left Pollock and
Smith who had won all their matches
so far, to recover from 1 down with 2
to play. They halved the 17th in par
and won the 18th when the opponents
tugged their second shot into the
rhododendrons on the left. Down the
19th they went - 2 good drives but both
second shots were short of the green
leaving a chipping and putting contest.
Our President played a wonderful shot
to 4 feet. Loretto were a little further
away with a very makeable uphill
putt. Loretto missed and Andy Pollock
sunk a brilliant putt for the win. West
Hill looked after us extremely well
as always but we did miss Anthony
Parsons who was paying a short visit to
hospital. We look forward to his return
next year”.
The 4th Annual Triangular Challenge
took place at Tandridge GC on
24th April.
OSGS side came an illustrious third, by
a narrowing margin.
The actual aggregate scores for the four
pairs in each team were:-
Old Alleynians 163 pts
Old Tonbridgians 162 pts
OSGS 158 pts (this would have merited
a win in the last two years)
The OSGS side was Peter Renshaw,
Donald Shaw, Michael Smart,
Stephen Shaw, James Shaw, Peter
Jeffrey, Ian Falconer and Adrian Cooper
(the OT non playing Captain who
stepped in for us in view of an OS
withdrawal that morning).
In the Schools Putting competition
on 3rd June at Royal Wimbledon, a
tiger team of Will Hawksley, Simon
Shepherd, Jonathan Howse and James
Pollock (Captain) came 3rd on our
qualifying day with 30 pts. This is our
best ever performance and marked
a fitting swansong for James Pollock,
who has assembled our teams in recent
years, with a marked blend of patience
and competence, intrinsic to the
Pollock clan.
Manfully, David Warmington raised
a team of 8 Salopians to play in the
Public Schools Meeting at Little Aston
on 24th June. Although we were the
lowest handicapped team, we came in
on 11th place with a score of 83 points
against Uppingham’s winning 110 (3
pairs counting).
Our President, Anthony Smith and Mark
Ferguson won the best gross score
prize with a magnificent 78. A case of
class will out for our President even