History of the Johnian Golf Society by David Roberts

The creation of the Johnian Society in 1923, for which all members of the College are eligible for membership, was the inspiration of Sir Edward Marshall Hall KC,

a Johnian who had enjoyed an illustrious career at the criminal Bar. Unfortunately the minutes of the Johnian Society in its earlier years cannot now be traced, but accounts of the various activities of the Johnian Society were regularly published in The Eagle. However, these reports depended upon copy being sent to its Editor and after initial enthusiasm, information published about the Johnian Society, and in particular about its annual golf meeting, seems to have declined. Nevertheless what follows, which has largely been extracted from back numbers of The Eagle, provides some interesting reading. Should the Society's minutes come to light this introduction can be revised.

On 8^th July 1924 the first AGM and Dinner of the Johnian Society was held at the Connaught Rooms in London, Sir Edward Marshall Hall KC presiding. On that occasion he offered the Society a Golf Cup to be played for each year by its members. It is not known whether Sir Edward decreed the form that the competition should take, but initially and for a number of years thereafter it took the form of match play off handicap against the Bogey score on the card for the course.

On 23^rd May 1925 the first golf competition of the Society was held at the West

Surrey GC. The winner was W.I.Harding (matriculated 1900, handicap 12) with a score of 1 up and the runner-up was F.D.Morgan (matriculated 1906, handicap 1) with a score of 1 down. On in July 1925, at the second AGM and Dinner of the Society,

Sir Edward presented his cup to the winner. The Eagle of that year reported that

'Mr F.D.Morgan ... had arranged the competition, which was quite a success. There should have been many more entries than 7, as about 27 members originally asked for particulars. A suggestion has been made that a Johnian Golf Team should be formed to play occasional matches around London ... '

W.I.Harding later became the first Honorary Secretary of the 'Old Johnian Golf Team'. One of the seven competitors was W.A.Darlington (matriculated 1909, handicap 15), a founder member of the Johnian Society and a regular attender at the annual golf meetings. His name recurs later.

On Saturday 10^th April 1926 the competition took place at the Coombe Hill GC. There were eight starters and the cup was again won by W.I.Harding (handicap 11). The Eagle reported

'The date was chosen to enable schoolmasters to put in an appearance. They were conspicuous by their absence. Eight is not a very large entry out of forty known golfers, and with a membership of over 800 there must be many golfers in the Society who have not disclosed the fact. However the day was delightful ... Harding played very well and thoroughly deserved to win. Do they make a reduction on a quantity for engraving medals?'

Sir Edward did not participate in either 1925 or 1926. He died on 24^th February 1927.

On Saturday 2^nd July 1927 the competition took place at Moor Park GC. The Eagle reported

'There were eleven starters and the winner was G.N. Nicklin, (handicap 12) who was 4 up. This was a better field by three than last year, but still poor tum out for a very pleasant event. Play was fairly keen as W.A.Darlington (handicap 15) was all square. The feature of the day, however, was Nicklin at the eleventh hole, which he did in one! ... It is to be hoped that in future there will be a better muster. Eleven out of 900 Johnians does not seem very enthusiastic.'

Shortly afterwards, according to The Eagle

' .... at the Annual Dinner of the Society held, according to immemorial custom, on the second day of 'Varsities Cricket match at Lords, to wit on

5^th July 1927 .... Sir Jeremiah Colman (President of the Society) presented the Marshall Hall Golf Challenge Cup to this year's winner, G.N. Nicklin, and in doing so referred to our sad loss in the death of Sir Edward Marshall Hall. He reminded us of the great part Sir Edward had played in setting us off right. He presented a medal to Mr W.I.Harding as a record of his winning the Cup last year, he seized the opportunity of thanking Mr Harding for having arranged the Competition and for persevering in taking a golf team down to Cambridge to play the College.'

On Saturday 16^th June 1928 the competition took place at Moor Park GC. The Eagle reported

'There were 14 starters, again an improvement on last year. Hopes of seeing Mr Raven or Mr Sikes proved to be in vain. No undergraduates turned up to wrest the cup from the old brigade. There was a lot of wind which perhaps accounts for the fact that it was impossible to discover the scores. However it was agreed that Major I.H.Beith won, 6 down.'

Although the competition had commenced in 1925, the first named winner engraved on the silver band on the plinth of the cup is that of Ian Hay Beith in 1928. It seems that the plinth was added to the cup in that year, possibly by Major Beith as an act of atonement for his somewhat irregular victory. Nevertheless the names of the three earlier winners should have been recorded thereon.

On Saturday 19^th October 1929 the competition was again held at West Surrey GC with 13 members competing. The Eagle reported

'The Competition resulted in a tie between W.A.Darlington (handicap 12) and G.S.Graham (handicap 4), who were 1 up. A Foursomes Competition against Bogey for cups to be awarded by the Johnian Society resulted in a win for F.D.Morton KC and Mr F.W.Law who were 1 up ..... The replay between Darlington and Graham which took place at Addington resulted as follows:

Graham 4 up, Darlington 2 up.'

This is the first reference to a foursomes competition also being played at the meeting.

Thereafter there are no significant pre-war entries in The Eagle recording the history of the meetings, except in the year 1932, when it carried the following

'The Competition for the Marshall Hall cup was held on Saturday May 14^th at Sunningdale. The Johnian Society congratulates itself upon receiving permission to play on one of the finest inland courses in England and those present spent a very delightful day. Our good fortune was due to the fact that the College is the ground landlord and the Sunningdale GC felt sentimental about us. It made some ofus feel quite homesick as we drove up, to pass a door with a brass plate stating that it was the St John's College Estate Office. G. Brightman repeated his effort of last year and won the cup with a score of one up. There were 17 entrants . The Foursomes Competition held in the afternoon was won by J.A.Newbery (BA 1906) and his son RE.Newbery (Matr.1930).'

There were no golf meetings during the World War II years and they did not recommence until 194 7. Thereafter attendances must have been declining, because after the Johnian Society's AGM and Dinner in 1953 The Eagle reported

The Master (Mr J.M. Wordie) presented the Marshall Hall cup to Mr Arthur Beard, winner of the golf competition, and he reminded members that modesty about their golfing ability should not deter them from competing and enjoying a cheerful Saturday at Sunningdale.'

Although always played on a Saturday, a day's golf at Sunningdale was apparently not considered by many golfing members of the Johnian Society to be a major attraction. In 1957 this cri de coeur from W.A.Darlington, the then dramatic critic of The Daily Telegraph, was addressed to the Editor of The Eagle:

"Gentlemen,

By courtesy of the Sunningdale Golf Club, which operates on land owned by the College, the Johnian Society was permitted to hold its annual competition for the Marshall Hall Cup over that club's superb Old Course on Saturday 20 October (1956)

This meeting is always a pleasant occasion; but this year only nine members took part in it and at lunch time one of them remarked that if this was the best that the Society could do the fixture had better be allowed to die a natural death. The rest of us thought this idea subversive and premature, but nobody denied that it had an uncomfortable ring of commonsense.

Opinion was general that the meeting is being neglected simply because people don't know what they are missing; and, as I happen to be a scribe by profession, as an ex-editor of The Eagle I was deputed to try my hand at propaganda.

I am not going to make any appeal to old-college-tie sentiment. A man who wants to keep in touch with fellow-Johnians can do so better at the annual dinner than at Sunningdale. This is not so for me personally, because as a dramatic critic I find dinners difficult and golf meetings easy; and there may be Johnians in other Stygian professions (burglary for instance, or nightwatchmanship) who are similarly handicapped - but I am not arguing on behalf of a minority. I am saying that the golf meeting is worth saving for everybody's sake, simply on its merits as a day out.

For any man who plays golf, however badly, I can't think of a bigger treat. Sunningdale has two of the best inland course to be found anywhere. Officially, they are closed to visitors on Saturdays, but the club breaks its rule for us and looks after us beautifully, charging us only fifteen shillings a day inclusive of lunch, tea and tips. Could one hope, in these days, to get a day of first-rate golf for less than twice that anywhere else?

As for transport, in the days before the war those of us who had cars drove down, taking with them as passengers those who hadn't. It would be easy enough to make similar arrangements once again.

Finally let me emphasize that however incompetent a golfer a man may be, however long in tooth or handicap, he need never fear that the standard of play will put him out of countenance. There are always a few young to youngish men present, who can play to their handicaps and who save the Society's face by seeing to it that the Cup is won by a respectable score. But the hard core of the gathering is a group of elderly gentlemen who, whatever their pretensions before the war, are now contented hutch-dwellers, We persistent rabbits no longer aspire to win the cup. But there is a danger that, if numbers are allowed to go on dwindling, one of us may find himself, some year soon, solitary at Sunningdale and become the winner by default.

Yours, etc.

W.A.DARLINGTON"

In 1957, when I received my copy of The Eagle, I read this letter with astonishment as I was one of those members of the Society who had never known of the existence of the annual golf meeting. I immediately contacted Bill Lyon, who had been up with me in College in 1947. He lived in Lancashire and I lived in Birmingham but we decided to travel down to the meeting at Sunningdale for the meeting in 1958 which we both considered to have been well worth the long journey, (irrespective of our having won the foursomes).

Kenneth Ritchie, whom I had known during the war when we were both up as undergraduates, had organised the meeting and he then told me that the annual competition had become somewhat disorganised. (For example, there are no names of the winners recorded on the cup in any of the years 1955-57). Happily Kenneth Ritchie, who had won the cup in 1954, was anxious that the meetings should survive. Thankfully he achieved his ambition.

Unfortunately there was only one further meeting held at Sunningdale. Rumour had it that the club was only prepared to tolerate its landlord's representatives invading its course on a Saturday because of the privations of the war and the immediate post-war period. However its attitude must have hardened because, although the Society's intention as minuted in 1959 was to return to Sunningdale the following year, that meeting was in fact held at Huntercombe GC and thereafter the Society never returned to Sunningdale. Two further meetings at Ashridge GC were arranged, but in spite of the fact that the first section of the Ml had just been opened, this venue still involved a lengthy journey for anyone living outside the Home Counties.

The turning point came in 1962 when I was staying in College and by chance met

Mr R L Howland, who had been a major classics scholar, Athletics blue, Olympic shot-putter and a former President and Senior Tutor of the College. Later in life he also claimed to have won the President's Cup (awarded annually to the best golfer on the High Table) at least once in every decade of his academic life, save his last. To cap it all he had won the Marshall Hall cup at Sunningdale in 1949.

There could not have been a better a man than 'Bede' with whom to discuss the problems that the Society was experiencing in finding a suitable venue for its annual golf meetings. He told me that the High Table golfing society held its annual meeting at Royal W orlington GC at Mildenhall and wondered whether the J ohnian Society golfers might also like to hold their annual meeting there. When I pointed out that the travelling distance to and from such a course might still prove a deterrent for some members, he immediately added that perhaps this could be alleviated if the College Council would agree to provide golfers with overnight accommodation in College and added that he would recommend the Council to do so. He assumed that everyone attending the meeting would wish to exercise his privilege of dining in Hall, or in the SCR if the meeting were to be held during the Long Vacation.

Following this quite unexpected suggestion I spoke to Kenneth Ritchie and, after the College Council had agreed to the proposal, he arranged to move the 1963 meeting to Royal W orlington GC - which the late Henry Longhurst described as being the best 9 hole course in Europe.

In 1968 Kenneth Ritchie, whose professional commitments entailed his moving to

live abroad, asked me to take over the Secretaryship of the golfing section. Thenceforth we continued to play at, and thoroughly enjoy, Royal Worlington GC but the attraction of staying in College resulted in increased attendances by Johnian golfers and the club decreed in 1985 that the maximum number of players of visiting societies must not in future exceed 24. It thus became imperative to find another suitable course in the Cambridge area, so as not to disturb the excellent facility of College accommodation. After numerous enquiries from various clubs had been made, Nigel Snaith and I inspected the John O'Gaunt Golf Club at Sandy, which we liked and we recommended it to members. They agreed that it should become the Society's new venue and from 1986 onwards the annual meeting has been held there. With its 36 hole lay out it has proved very satisfactory.

From this brief history it can be appreciated how the viability of the Johnian Society's annual golf meeting was periodically in jeopardy from its inception in 1925 until 1963, when the suggestion emanating from College happily changed the course of events. The golfing members of the Johnian Society will be eternally grateful to the College for its initial proposal and continuing hospitality.

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After Kenneth Ritchie had assumed the office of Honorary Secretary in 1958, he kept minutes of each year's meeting. Following his practice I, and John Loosley after me, continued to do so. The following pages contain verbatim copies of the minutes of each golf meeting from 1958 to 2000.

D.E.R.