OM Golfing Society

Founded in 1924 The Halford Hewitt Championship is competed for today by the old boys of 64 English and Scottish public schools who each field five foursome pairs, making 640 competitors in all. The competition’s home is The Royal Cinque Ports Golf Club, Deal where the teams compete in a knock out event for the glory of winning the Halford Hewitt Trophy, which Marlborough last won in 1972.

The OM team were a mix of young and mature golfers. Playing for the first time were Elliot Matthews and Jamie Amor, who was the first recipient of the Christopher Martin-Jenkins Scholarship. David Niven, now 60 years old, was our eldest player. Marlborough had performed relatively poorly in recent years so it was time for a resurgence.

Our first round opponents were Blundells whom we defeated 4/1. Then we played Eton who are always a strong side. After a wonderful match we were victorious 3 1/2 matches to 1 1/2, revenge for our narrow defeat against Eton five years ago. For the third round our opposition were Loretto who, typical of Scottish schools, always perform very well and we defeated them 3/2 to reach the quarter-finals. We then beat Berkhamsted 3/2 to reach the semi-final.

The team were very optimistic going into the semi-final against Epsom, although they are one of the very strongest participating schools whose team include a Walker Cup golfer as well as players with scratch handicaps or better. It would have been a glorious victory to have defeated them and we very nearly did so. Two matches went into extra holes but Epsom won both of them with birdie threes on the 19th. We lost the match 3/2. Epsom went on to take the Trophy with a convincing win against Ampleforth.

Marlborough can take a lot of heart from their performance and we hope ultimate victory may be ours next year!  It is always tricky to single out team members for special mention because there were so many fine performances. But Jamie Amor, who only left Marlborough last year, won all his matches playing with Jim Hewer. Jamie hit a perfect wedge shot stone dead at the 18th hole against Eton to turn that match around from a possible loss to a win. Jamie had a marvellous first experience at the Hewitt. So too did Elliot Matthews, who partnering Callum McCall, had a commendable first Hewitt. They are a couple of young strong golfers who have many more years ahead of them. The player though that deserves the final special mention is David Niven. David completed his 100th match at the Hewitt playing in the quarter-final. He was applauded onto the tee and then won his game playing alongside Justin Rhodes. Following this match The Public Schools Golfing Society presented David with a special award for this great achievement. He follows John Uzielli as only the second Marlborough golfer to have played over 100 matches.
Many thanks indeed to all the OMs that ventured down to watch us play and the vast numbers of OMs that sent messages of support and goodwill that came from as far away as Melbourne, Dubai, Cape Town, and even Augusta from OMs watching the Masters.

The Marlborough team were:

Angus Murray (BH 1983-88), Richard Graham (B1 1981-85), Jamie Amor (C3 2014-16), Jim Hewer (CO 1988-90), David Niven (C3 1970-73), Justin Rhodes (C1 1884-89), Elliot Matthews (C2 2005-10), Callum McCall (C2 2002-07), Charles Blockley (C1 1996-2001) and Tom Macfarlane (TU 1996-2001).

James Hopper (C1 1957-62) [non-playing Captain].

Thursday 12th May 2016

The quinquennial formal dinner of the Old Marlburian Golfing Society was held at The East India Club, 16 St James's Square, London. The Dinner was hosted by the President of the Society, Tony Hill (CO 1949-53), and the Captain, Iain Macdonald-Smith (B1 1959-63).

In all 110 attendees sat down to a superb dinner which was preceded by a champagne reception. 76 of the attendees were members of the Society and 34, which included a few OMs not Society members, were there as guests. The principal guest was Olivia Timbs (C1 1970-72), President of The Marlburian Club. Other guests included the Captains and Secretaries of the various Golf Clubs that very kindly allow the Society to hold matches on their courses. The Society enjoys excellent relations with many Golf Clubs throughout the UK and this dinner gives the Society the ability to reciprocate hospitality and express gratitude for letting us play their courses and thank opposing match managers.

Attending from the College were the Chaplain, Reverend Dr David Campbell, who gave the Grace Prayer. Also present were Martin Evans (CR 1968 -), President of the 1843 Society, and Jon Copp, Director of Development. From Common Room were two youthful keen golfers, Joe Lane and Hannah Meehan, the former being Master in charge of Marlborough golf.

The President said a few words of welcome before dinner commenced. Once dinner had been served there were two excellent but contrasting speeches. Firstly, the Captain talked about the current health of the Society, including a few targeted anecdotes about certain members, before proposing the health of the guests. The reply on behalf of the guests came from Philip Truett, President of the Old Cranleighian Golfing Society, who delivered a very polished and amusing speech before proposing the continued health of the Society.

There seemed no doubt the dinner was greatly enjoyed by all and many lingered on afterwards quite late to catch up on all the news, recounting old stories –  all this being so much part of this occasion. The next formal Society dinner will be sometime in 2021 – in the meantime there will be lots of golfing fun and hopefully many new members joining the Society.

James Hopper (C1 1957-62)

The Old Marlburian Golfing Society has recently introduced a new category of membership for leavers.  Subject to approval by the Beak in charge of golf, Marlborough College, leavers may apply for 10 years' free membership of the OMGS.  Please note that applications should be made within 6 months of leaving Marlborough. Contact James Hobby on jdh@marlboroughcollege.org for more details more...

The OMGS Spring Meeting takes place on Friday, May 17, 2013 and Saturday, May 18, 2013 at the Royal Worlington and Newmarket Golf Club.

If you would like to play, please register on-line or contact the organiser by email or phone (see the Members' Directory on the OMGS website http://omgs.memberlodge.com/). If you don't know, or have forgotten, your password, click on the link 'Forgot password' to be sent instructions on how to reset it.

Golf Links Road, Worlington, Bury St Edmunds
Suffolk IP28 8SD
Tel: 01638 712216 (Members' Area)
01638 717787 (Secretary)
More information and online registration: Spring Meeting 2013 (http://omgs.memberlodge.com/ViewEvent.ashx?eventId=629256)
Meeting organizer: Charles Terry

5^th & 6^th October 2012

Royal Cinque Ports Golf Club, Deal.
More information and online registration: OMGS Autumn Meeting

26^th October 2011
Every fifth year the Old Marlburian Golfing Society [OMGS] have by tradition held a formal dinner. On the 26^th October 2011, 80 OMGS members sat down with 35 guests for an excellent dinner at The East India Club, St James’s Square, London. The OMGS hosts were its President , John Uzielli [CO 1950-55], a past Captain of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews, and its Captain , Tim Martin-Jenkins [B3 1961-65]. Our guests were various Captains and Secretaries of host golf clubs on whose excellent golf courses the Society are privileged to play their meetings  as well as many of our opposing school match managers . Geoff Clay, President of the Public Schools Golfing Society , was present. The occasion though is primarily a reunion for many of our Society members.

The Master was unable to attend due to absence in Malaysia and sent his sincere apologies. We were though pleased that Steven Bishop [PR 1969-73], and Martin Evans, respectively President and Secretary of The Marlburian Club attended along with John Crawley and Jane Pendry.

Sadly our principal guest and speaker, Ian Campion, a very distinguished and ebullient member of the amateur golfing community , died suddenly four days prior to the dinner. We were thus indebted to Nick Owen, Secretary of the Public Schools Golfing Society, who gave a speech with very little prior warning –something he accomplished splendidly. The President and Captain also spoke with aplomb and a very good evening was shared by all.

There were two presentations made at the dinner worthy of mention. After a lean spell of over 20 years, Marlborough won the Bernard Darwin Trophy at Woking Golf Club in July. This competition among  16 leading public schools is a foursome match play event for golfers aged 55 yrs and older. It is a most agreeable inter-school competition but extremely keenly fought. The Captain of our victorious 6 man team, who was presented with the Bernard Darwin Trophy by the President, was Nick Denny (SU 1965-69) who introduced the other five members of OMGS team namely Tim Parry (PR 1965-69), Malcolm Cornish (C2 1966-70), Robert Wace (PR 1956-60), Tim Martin-Jenkins (B3 1961-65), and James Hopper (C1 1957-62).

A special presentation for distinguished service was made to Peter Cornish , now aged 98 yrs, who for each of the past 25 years has managed a team from The Senior Golfers’ Society to play the OMGS at Woking Golf Club. Peter is the father of two past Captains of the OMGS , Jeremy Cornish (C2 1964-69) and Malcolm Cornish (C2 1966-70), and also Oliver Cornish (C2 1971-76).  Peter was additionally accorded the very rare privilege of being proposed for Honorary Membership of the Society.

Our next formal dinner will be sometime in 2016 – hopefully it will be equally successful and we can all meet up again.