2023 Review

Match against The Aularians at Huntercombe, Thursday 23rd March 

As always for this fixture a 10-a-side match was played in great spirit. The weather was mostly good and fortunately the worst of the rain held off until we were back in the clubhouse, enjoying an excellent Huntercombe lunch. The best 7 stableford scores counted, resulting in a narrow (245 to 240 win) for the Johnians. It is noted that had the best 8 scores counted, the result would have been a tie.

The enjoyment of excellent company is of course more important than the scores, but for the record these were:

Cambridge Inter-College Alumni Golf Competition, Tuesday 18th April

The competion was held at Gog Magog Golf Club in slightly blustery spring conditions. The club generously allowed some players to play the Wandelbury course as further increase in the number of colleges participating meant that not all players could be accommodated on one course in a single day. The result could not have been closer, with the St John's just failing to achieve a hat-trick of victories, losing by just one point to Fitzwilliam. 

As last year's winners, we had the honour of hosting the dinner in Hall. Due to the slightly chilly conditions, the pre-dinner drinks were held in Hall rather than the New Court Cloisters but this did not detract too much from a very enjoyable evening.

Match against Christ's for the Lady Margaret Beaufort Trophy, Thursday 18th May

The Johnian and Christ's golfers again met at Huntercombe for two rounds for the match for the Lady Margaret Beaufort Trophy played over two rounds of foursomes. Christ's held a narrow 2 1/2 to 1 1/2 lead at lunchtime. Unfortunately the Johnian golfers just failed to pull back the deficit with the afternoon matches being tied 2 all, meaning that Christ's retained the trophy by the narrow margin of 4 1/2 to 3 1/2. 

The result might have been worse but for Mike Sweeney who holed a long putt on the 18th in the morning to gain a half with partner Anthony Williams, and repeated the feat in the afternoon to achieve a 1 up victory with his partner Guy McDonnell. 

Cambridge Meeting - 27/28th July

As in previous years, the meeting kicked off with a friendly match against the College staff at The Cambridgeshire. The College Staff were victorious this year with the prize for the best individual player going to Ed Darling. As usual, we dined in The Wordsworth Room and enjoyed an interesting after dinner presentation by Robert Ross on the great work being done by The Himalayan Trust UK. 

On the Friday we returned to John O'Gaunt Golf Club. In slightly difficult conditions owing to a blustery wind, Simon Adelman won the Marshall Hall Cup with 35 points followed by Peter Baird with 32 points. John Loosley won the Posnett Salver with a score of 112 as well as achieving a hole in one on the 4th hole. For this achievement John was also awarded the tile. Nearest the pin and longest drive were won by Ian Sanders and Paul Baker respectively. 

In the afternoon Greensomes, Dimitri Hatzis / Bill Blyth and Stephen Munday / Nigel Snaith both finished with 21 points and could not be separated on countback, necessitation a "putt-off" in The Wordsworth Room. Dimitri and Bill prevailed 

After dinner, Mark Wells entertained us an excellent history of the Johnian Society on our 100th anniversary before presenting the prizes.

Stephen Munday, Peter Taylor, James Fox, Dimitri Hatzis, John Loosley, Nick Shaw, Nigel Snaith, Carl Olsson, Peter Baird, George Clark, John Parker, Ian Sanders, David Cairns, Bill Blyth, Roger Scarlett-Smith, Simon Adelman, Paul Baker, Mark Wells, Guy Freeman, Robert Ross

Johnian Golf Society vs Sunningdale GC, Saturday 21st October

We enjoyed a splendid game of golf in somewhat unexpectedly good weather Sunningdale’s New Course (which is celebrating it’s centenary this year, having been founded in the same year as the Johnian Society). Having played the Old Course for the previous 2 years, this led to the inevitable discussion as to which is the better of the 2 magnificent courses (for what it is worth, and somewhat to my surprise, I would slightly favour the New). The result was a 4-2 victory to Sunningdale, which is actually not a bad result for us as the standard of golf at Sunningdale is particularly high. 

The Johnian Golfers hosted Sunningdale to a match at Royal Worlington this year. Royal Worlington is known for a drink called “The Pink Jug”, named after the jug that it is served in. Unknown to us, one of the Sunningdale members purchased a pink jug and this has been put in to service as the trophy for our match; we were pleased and honoured to hear that this will be displayed in their display cabinet. Rather wittily, Sunningdale have put a plaque entitled “The Tenants” on one side of the plinth with a plaque entitled “The Alumni” on the other. The plinth will be displayed with the plaque corresponding to the most recent winners to the fore; most likely this will be “The Tenants” for some years to come!