Golf Society News – Mar/Apr 2019

The anticipation builds! A new season for the society starts in earnest in April, and already preparations are under way for the Halford Hewitt, the major competition entered by Whitgift. This famous competition, contested by the same 64 schools each year, is played as scratch foursomes by five pairs from each school, in a knockout format. This year Whitgift has been drawn to play the first round at Royal Cinque Ports GC, Deal, against Shrewsbury, whom we have played three times over the 83 years since we started playing in the Hewitt – two wins and one loss so far. The match will start at 8.55am on Thursday 11^th April; readers might be interested enough to come down to Deal and support our team.

Competition for places in our Hewitt side is keen. One important preparation event is the second holding of the Scratch Cup (donated by our President, Dudley Thompson), on Sunday 3^rd March, also at Deal. Over twenty of our very best golfers have entered. Apart from hoping to win the cup itself, they will try to finish in the top six, who will earn automatic places in the 2019 Hewitt squad; the highest entrant amongst the over-50s will win the Silver Medal, donated by Matt Webster, who is still too young to compete for his own prize!

The society’s AGM and annual dinner are scheduled for 11^th March 2019, with the AGM taking place in the Founder’s Room and dinner in the Old Library. This year we will welcome as our special guests Gordon Garment and Andrew Stracey, two of only four Whitgift players to complete 100 matches in the Halford Hewitt; we will celebrate their outstanding contribution to the society.

At the dinner we will hold the draw for the 2019 Challenge Cup, a knockout competition open to all members. This represents a great opportunity to play other members’ courses; the player drawn first has the choice of venue (often of course his own club), and the loser pays the green fee (hence everyone pays one green fee, apart from the ultimate competition winner!). Within an overall timescale for each round, you can play matches whenever convenient to yourself and your opponent; so even those whose time for golf is normally limited to weekends are able to participate.

As for the rest of the season, our Open meetings are scheduled as below –

Finally, back to the Halford Hewitt. In the same week, there is also the opportunity for spectators to play themselves. At Littlestone, also on the Kent coast, the Peter Kenyon Bowl (9^th-11^th April) is open to any society member of any of the 64 participating Hewitt schools. This is also a foursomes event, played off a maximum individual handicap of 18, so if you are interested, contact the secretary (see below) to express interest and he will endeavour to find you a partner.

If you wish to participate in any of the above, and/or join the society, you should contact the secretary at peterbgale@sky.com.

Peter Gale (Hon Sec)