CW History - Coombe Wood Golf Club

The Story of
COOMBE WOOD GOLF
CLUB
The First Century 1904 to 2003
by
John W.Weston C.B.
Published by the Author
All rights reserved All profits will be
donated to the Club
PRICE: £7
The Author enjoys the view from the
balcony
CONTENTS
Page
Introduction
Foreword
Chapter 1
2
2
3
Antecedents of Coombe Wood
Chapter II
4
The First Coombe Wood Golf Club 1904-1936 Chapter
III
9
End of The Coombe Estate & Fitzgeorge Era The Saving of
our Course from Building The Tamkin
Chapter IV
12
The Second & Present Coombe Wood Golf Club 1936-1964
Chapter V
The Club's Third Lease The New Clubhouse
Chapter VI
19
21
Memberships 1964 - 2003 The Course 1964 - 2003
Chapter VII
Financial Progress of the Club
The Club's Fourth Lease
The Redevelopment of the Clubhouse
23
Chapter VIII
28
Chapter IX
32
Golf and Golfing
In Conclusion
Acknowledgements
The Club & Ladies' Captains
33
34
2
INTRODUCTION
Having taken the history of Coombe Wood Golf Club up to 1995 in the
second part of my History, the passage of a mere eight years would not
normally justify putting pen to paper again. 2004 is, however, not a
normal year for us as it is the centenary year of our course and club.
Accordingly I have prepared a Centenary Booklet called "The Story of
Coombe Wood Golf Club - the First Century 1904 to 2003", which
deals with the history up to 1995 and the not uneventful next eight
years. It is a very abridged version of my History - with some
improvements and additions - but all the interesting and/or important
matters relevant to the Club are covered albeit more concisely. Details
of golf successes have been limited to the major competitions and
minor or peripheral matters have been excluded or touched on very
briefly. An innovation is the inclusion of illustrations, an excellent
move suggested and organised by James Mowbray.
J WW
October 2003
FOREWORD
This third publication of John Weston covers the first one hundred
years history of Coombe Wood Golf Club from its inception in 1904.
John has amalgamated his earlier works for the period up to 1995 with
the last eight years. As always John has been very thorough with his
research and the records are most informative.
Probably the most significant new entry is the redevelopment of and
extensions to the clubhouse which have recently been completed. Both
the structural and financial aspects of this work adds to and completes
all the interesting facts and figures of the Club's history.
by reason of the Royal Marriages Act 1772, she could not become the
Duchess and their sons were debarred from succeeding to the
Dukedom. She became Mrs FitzGeorge, was very beautiful and a
paragon, it seems, of all the virtues. As a result it was said that "at her
home at Queen Street, Mrs FitzGeorge has the cream of society, while
her Majesty is left with the skimmed milk". The 2nd Duke's Army
career can hardly have suffered because he was Commander-in-Chief
of the British Army from 1856-1895; he also continued to have cordial
relations with his first cousin, Queen Victoria. He eventually
persuaded the Queen to meet "my Louisa" and what was intended as a
formal audience, turned out to be a cosy chat of two hours.
The 2nd Duke died in 1904 and two of his sons, Admiral Sir Adolphus
Augustus Frederick FitzGeorge (the Admiral) and Colonel Sir
Augustus Charles Frederick FitzGeorge (the Colonel) succeeded to the
Coombe Estate.
CHAPTER II
THE FIRST COOMBE WOOD GOLF CLUB
THE NINE HOLE COURSE 1904-1922
Towards the end of the 19th Century the Coombe Estate decided to sell
gravel from most of the top part of the present course lying between
George Road and Warren Road. When excavations were completed
around 1900/01 they must have left a barren eyesore between George
Road and the ridge at the Warren Road end where excavations stopped.
At the end of the ridge, where the 1st green now is, there is some 180
yards to the Warren Road boundary; at the other end of the ridge (the
present 3rd green) there is only some 30 yards. The reason for this was
that the Coombe Warren Cricket Club had had for some time its cricket
ground in the vicinity of the present 1st green and 2nd fairway and was
not to be disturbed.
At that time there was a burgeoning of golf courses, both generally and
locally, so much so that between 1892 and 1914 no fewer than 14 new
courses, including Coombe Wood, were created within four miles, as
the crow flies, of our Clubhouse; they are all still existing and all
except, Strawberry Hill and Thames Ditton and Esher, were either
originally, or, like us, have become, 18 hole courses. We are one of the
last to reach our Centenary.
It is not surprising therefore that the 2nd Duke and his sons decided to
create a golf course on what was substantially an ugly gravel pit.
Because of the restricted use of the ridge only 7 holes could be fitted in
to the top part of our course and the other 2 holes (holes 1 and 2 of the
9 holes course) were created on land just below George Road, which
are now holes 11 and 12 of the present course. A modest pavilion or
perhaps hut was erected near hole 1. No further land was available on
that side of George Road because the Kingston Hill Hockey and
Cricket Club had had for some time two hockey pitches and a cricket
As we go into our centenary we are eternally grateful for the work
done by John in compiling this story and his earlier histories of the
Club, without which we would have far less knowledge of our
heritage and the recurring problems which have faced our
predecessors and ourselves alike. We are now looking forward to
our Centenary celebrations and, no doubt, the ups and downs of
club life will continue during the next 100 years or more.
As Tom Baillie wrote in the foreword to the 1996 part 2,1 would
also say that 'It has given me great pleasure to write this foreword
and commend the book to every member of the Club'.
I would also echo the thoughts of Michael Bowyer, who wrote the
foreword to the 1985 part 1, and say 'Thank you John, and I hope
that others will take up the pen (or word processor) to up-date this
history from time to time.'
John Marsh
Captain 2003-4
October 2003
3
CHAPTER 1
ANTECEDENTS OF COOMBE
WOOD GOLF COURSE
As the name of our Club and
course implies, the course was
created on part of the Coombe
Estate. When on 25/4/1837 the 1st
Duke of Cambridge, the 7th son of
George 111, bought that estate
from the 3rd Earl Spencer, it
comprised some 1300 acres of
which only 68 were not woods or
farms. Most of the estate was the
old Manor of Coombe (Neville)
which had been acquired by the
Spencer family when the Trustees of the Will of Sarah Duchess of
Marlborough in 1753 purchased it with the money settled by her on her
great grandson John, later the 1st Earl Spencer. The map on the
conveyance in 1837, excluding the 68 acres, shows only four buildings,
the Manor House (at the top of Traps Lane) and the farm houses of the
Coombe, Hoppingwood and Robin Hood Farms. The 68 acres had in the
early 1830's been let on long lease in two contiguous parcels to two
lessees to build substantial residences, Kenry House and Coombe Hurst,
Kingston Vale, (both now part of the University of Kingston); they were
the earliest of the building developments of the Coombe Estate which over
the next hundred years were to absorb the Coombe Estate excluding
Coombe Hill, Coombe Wood and Maiden golf courses and other sporting
areas.
The 1st Duke died in 1850 and his only son, Prince George, succeeded him
both to the Dukedom and to the Coombe Estate. He had married an
actress, the daughter of a Bow Street printer, whom he had seen at the
Lyceum Theatre, but
square on the present 13th and 18,h fairways, with a pavilion in the area of
the present 15th tee
The architect of the 9 hole course, Tom Williamson, made full use of the
ready made features i.e. the ridge and a mound some 100 yards from the
ridge which had escaped the excavations because there was a majestic oak
tree (the Club emblem) standing on it. This mound is still the tee for our
8th hole, known in years gone by as "the pulpit" or "the island". It is said
that this oak tree was used for hanging highwaymen, but since there were
official gallows within less that a mile of the mound, I remain to be
convinced of the authenticity of this story. The area was
known as Gallows Hill and was still so marked on the plan, based on the
Ordnance Survey, attached to the Kelly's
Directory of 1928.
The creation of the course was by the
owners of the land and the formation of
the first Coombe Wood Golf Club and
the management of both the course and
the club were undertaken by those
owners i.e. after the 2nd Duke's death in
1904, the Admiral and the Colonel. Thus
the Club was a proprietary club in the
management of which the members had
no say. All records of the creation of the
9- hole course and the new Club and of
the management of them belonged to the
Coombe Estate. Attempts to find any
such records amongst any surviving papers of the Estate proved fruitless
with the result that the present club possesses nothing to help in dealing
with the first club's history apart from the old Honours Boards, some
competition records and a membership register for 1925/6. Thus it is not
as clear as it might have been that the new course and club opened for golf
in 1904.
The Captains' Honours Board shows that for 1904 the Captain was none
other that the then Prime Minister, the Rt Hon. A.J.Balfour and for 1905
the Captain was the Admiral. When writing my history of Coombe Wood
Golf Club up to 1970 I was happy to rely on that contemporary Board to
assert that Coombe Wood Golf started in 1904; when bringing my history
up to 1995 - with our centenary becoming nearer - I was faced with an
article in the Surrey Comet of 27th May 1905 stating that Mr Balfour was
going "to drive off" that afternoon, that "it is expected that this will be at
the commencement of a foursome" and that "subsequently the course will
be available for general use by members". It is not accepted that this
negates the clear inference that Mr Balfour was Captain for 1904/5 and the
Admiral for 1905/6. The article shows that there was already an
established body of members and, in an era when golf in general was in its
infancy, the idea of a Captain's "drive in" or "drive off' may not have
emerged until the club was seen to have a sufficiently promising
membership to justify a captain and a drive in. Having got so far, might
not there have been much delay before the Prime Minister was free to
perform his "drive off'. With a course fit for play it is unreasonable to
suggest that there should be no play by members until a captain was
appointed and he could fit a "drive off" into his busy life as Prime
Minister. The article seems carefully to avoid saying that the Captain was
opening the course; he was merely honouring his Captaincy by "driving
off'. Finally on this matter some of the accounts of the later club in the
1950's and in 1961 had under the name of the Club "Founded in 1903".
There is no evidence to support that; it may be that some of the holes were
ready for the FitzGeorge family and friends to play but the present club
prefers to stick with 1904 as the starting point both of the whole 9 hole
course and the first Club.
Judging by the Competition records for 1910 onwards the male
membership soon took root and included some very low- handicapped
players before 1914; one K.E. Poyser (Captain in 1907) was plus 2 at one
time. A tombstone competition was
layed for in those days - one played until one's handicap was exhausted; in
1921, two players tied after 20 holes. Our oldest trophy, the Cambridge
Cup - men's singles knock out -, started in 1911; in 1913 there were 46
entries and in 1919 when it was resumed after the 1914-18 War there were
36 entries, indicating good progress towards attaining pre-war standards of
activity. Christmas time pre 1914 involved competitions on Christmas Day
and Boxing Day but after 1914-18, there was usually only one, on Boxing
Day.
Only one match was recorded before 1914, one against the old Raynes
Park Golf Club (which in 1926 moved to Maiden as the Maiden Golf Club
when its landlord refused to renew its lease). Our first two pairs were
impressive; two Reverends, E. Barter (Captain 1909) and A. Hyslop, both
playing off 1, and H. Bailey (Captain 1927) and R.F. Eden (Captain
1914-20) both playing off 2. The match involved 8 singles and 4 fourballs;
Coombe Wood won 7 to 5. Bailey was the agent of the Coombe Estate and
the first club's first Secretary and Eden was closely associated with the
FitzGeorges and Secretary of the old club for the last fourteen or more
years of its life. If those two did not have much to do with the decision to
create the nine-hole course, I should be most surprised. ________
f.
Pf u ,.
6
In medal competitions of the men between 1910 and 1914 and 1919-22 two rounds of the 9 hole course - there were rarely scores under 70; all
told, one 67, three 68's and six 69's.
The first Professional was Hugh Williamson, a brother of the architect,
followed by Bernard Yates, then A. Brembridge and in 1920 Vic Saunders
who did not retire until 1959.
The Ladies were, it seems, very few in number until after 1922. A
challenge cup was presented in 1913 which attracted only 13 entries; it
was won by Miss Barter who beat another Miss Barter, presumably her
sister, and both daughters of the Rev Barter. Miss S Barter also won Mrs
Dunn's cup in 1913. Nothing further is known of these cups.
THE EIGHTEEN HOLE COURSE 1922-1936
Following the outbreak of the 1914- 18 War, all
the hockey and cricket activities on parts of the
present course ceased either at once or soon after.
Certainly the hockey club wanted to resume after
the conclusion of that war but the Coombe Estate
had decided to take the opportunity to create an
eighteen hole course, utilising the land occupied
before the war by the hockey and cricket clubs.
With the part of the ridge formerly occupied by
the Coombe Warren Cricket Club available, ten
holes could be and were created on that side of
George Road. With the land available on the other
side of George Road, formerly occupied by the
Kingston Hill Hockey and Cricket Club, eight
holes could be and were created on that side of George Road. The Hockey
Club joined up with the Richmond Hockey Club, the joint name being
used until the 1939-45 war; the cricketers did not renew even to that
extent.
7
The original wooden hut by the old 1st tee, used as a pavilion, was moved
to the other side of George Road where it formed the first section of a
Clubhouse running along the side of the present 6th green and for much of
its length within three yards of the green. That wooden building was used
up to 1967. The new course was opened on 17th June 1922 by our then
Captain, Field Marshal Earl Haig G.C.B., O.M.; he drove in and then
played in his own Captain's Prize; equalling the bogey of 70, playing off
16. The following week, the new Paget Cup presented by General Sir
Arthur Paget in commemoration of the new course, was played for over
36 holes. The new course accordingly was given an excellent start.
The following year, 1923, General Paget was our Captain and he
presented a second trophy - the Paget Scratch Cup - also to be played for
over 36 holes. In that year H.R. Heard won with a gross 158 and H.A.
Packham was second with 160. According to Packham's brother (R.A.
Packham, Captain 1956), those two entrants were both keen cricketers as
well, so they played their first round together starting very early, went off
to their cricket match and returned in the evening for the second round
which they started level (81); they each bettered that in the second round Heard 77 and Packham 79. The best non-cricketer scored 163. In those
more spacious days presumably there was no rigorous time limit either for
starting or putting cards in. The Cambridge Cup and the two Paget Cups
remained the only major competitions for men until after the 1939/45 war.
The Paget Scratch Cup is now played as the Club championship; in 1988
the Board decided that for the scratch Paget Cup the two rounds should be
played on successive days - I was a minority of one in opposing that.
Some years later that decision was applied to the handicap Paget Cup.
Earl Haig's sojourn on Kingston Hill was very short; after moving away
he died in 1928. The Countess was also an active player and they took part
in a number of mixed foursome competitions. The Earl's successor as
Captain, General Sir Arthur Paget, lived at Warren House, which he
acquired in 1907, until he died. His widow continued to reside there up to
1956, when ICI purchased the House and grounds. Only after the sale of
10 acres by ICI in 1987 did the two large blocks of flats overlooking the
second fairway appear. There is no record of the General's handicap or his
participation in competitions. He was a long standing member at Coombe
Hill - founded as a proprietary Club with an 18 hole course in 1911, with a
lease from the Coombe Estate - and, apart perhaps from his year of
Captaincy, may not have played much at Coombe Wood. The same can be
said of our first - and perhaps most prestigious Captain, Mr, later Earl,
Balfour. He did not live in the area and there is no record of him playing
the course, other than for his "drive off' in 1905. When in 1895 he joined
Rye Golf Club his handicap was 9 and was presumably about that level
when he was Captain of the Royal and Ancient in 1894/5. Ten years later
at Coombe Wood, his handicap is unknown. The only trace of him since
1905 was that in 1925 he proposed the then Duchess of Rutland for
playing membership. He had been one of the FitzGeorge's Honorary
Members from the start.
As shown below, the 18-hole course has perforce remained virtually
unchanged. The bogey was 70 at the start and this remained until the
standardisation of par commenced around 1951. Up to then any hole of
400 yards or thereabouts would be a bogey 5 and, in addition to the
present 1st hole which is still (just) a par 5, the present 6th, 11th, 13th and
18th holes were all bogey 5. Our first standardisation was to 68, later it
became 67 and finally, around 1965, the 66 which applies now. The bogey
of the original 9-hole course is not known, but I suspect it was not more
than 35.
THE MEN As with the known medal scores of the 9-hole course, 66 was
rarely beaten on the 18-hole course between 1930 and 1936 - the only
years for which there are records. This occurred thirteen times of which
only one was as low as 63. Judging by the not infrequent winning scores
two or three below 60 nowadays - against par of 66 - the less scientific
handicapping of the old days must have had its merits.
In this period we had two outstanding golfers; John de Forest - later Count
de Bendern - was Amateur Champion in 1932 and P.W.L. Risdon became
an English international in the middle 1930's. Rodney Heard had a
handicap of 1 at this time; at age 21 he won the 1935 Cambridge Cup off
2; in that year there were 72 entries. Boxing Day, but not Christmas Day,
competitions were held regularly - frequently a one club medal
competition over 10 holes on half handicap. Excellent winning scores
between 43 and 45 resulted. The best handicap Paget Cup won below
bogey was in 1935 by Gaspard Lee, Captain in 1960. Friendly matches in
this period - all-day events - seem to have been limited to one with the
Middle Temple Golfing Society and the other with the Royal Naval
College, Greenwich.
THE LADIES In this period the Ladies established themselves so well
that a Ladies Section was created in 1925, no doubt with the blessing of
the Colonel. Like the men, they could do little more than deal with
handicapping and competitions, though representations to the management
on behalf of the whole section should have received more serious
consideration.
There was a limit at this time of 55 seven-day ladies but they played a
large number of matches - some with 14 players aside - as well as Pearson
Trophy games. In the Pearson for 1931, they won the Surrey Section,
defeated Hadley Wood (the Middlesex winners) in the semi-final 4-3 and
lost against Eltham Warren (Kent) 7-2 in the final. Their next best result
ended at the semifinal of the Surrey Section, losing to Reigate Heath 5-2.
At their Autumn Meetings, a one-club competition over 9 holes was
included; a best score of 40 net (their bogey was also 70) was achieved
and their successful onslaughts on that bogey in medals between 1929 and
1936 included 20 below 66 of which there was one 61 and five 62's.
Two Junior members of that period subsequently made their marks as
golfers. The first was Pam Barton whose record included winning the
American Open in 1936 and being British Ladies Champion 1936 - 1939,
having been runner-up in 1934 and 1935. We can however claim only
limited credit for this outstanding player; her mother and Pam joined in
1929 but they moved away at the end of 1930 when Pam was 13. I suspect
that Vic Saunders had a hand in starting her off on the right lines. What a
force she would have been after the 1939/45 war had she not died in a
plane crash in 1943 when serving as a Flight Officer in the W.A.A.F.
The other Junior member to blossom was Sylvia Bailey, daughter of
Harold Bailey. When 10 handicap, she was runner- up in the 1929 Girls
Championship. Her known subsequent successes were all at Coombe
Wood. Mrs Balfour - of whom more anon - presented a cup for two medal
rounds in honour of the Silver Jubilee of King George V in 1935. Sylvia
returned gross rounds of 66 and 72; playing off 4. That was a net 130, 10
below bogey; hence her handicap became +2. She also won the Renwick
Bowl outright in 1932 and the two preceding years, and re-presented it.
Lady Renwick's Bowl (presented by her in 1925 to celebrate the formation
of the Ladies Section) and the Haig Cup presented by Countess Haig in
1921, were the Ladies major competitions at that time. On Christmas Day
1922 a medal competition was held which was open to men and ladies, the
latter adding 6 to their handicaps for playing off the men's tees. R.F. Eden
held the Ladies at bay but Mrs Negus (nee Brown) playing off 11 was
second.
CHAPTER III
THE END OF THE COOMBE ESTATE AND THE FITZGEORGE
ERA
The Admiral died in 1922 and his half share of the Coombe Estate
devolved beneficially in accordance with his Will. In 1925 the Colonel
and his brother's Trustees granted a lease of the golf course to a company
they had formed - the Coombe Wood Golf Club Ltd - for some 8V2
years to 24th June 1934 and in November 1930 that term was extended to
24th June 1938, at the rent of £200 for each of the last four years.
In 1931 notices appeared on the Estate indicating that Coombe Wood and
Coombe Hill Golf courses were being sold for building development, 100
houses on Coombe Wood and a larger number on Coombe Hill. It seemed
clear that the object of the Colonel and his brother's Trustees was to give
the old Club security of tenure of the course for a few years after the sale
and a breathing space in which the members might contrive to keep the
course for golf. The sale to Higgs & Hill Ltd took place in Dec 1932 for
£207,000 and comprised the 700 or so acres remaining out of the original
1300 acres bought in 1837 by the 1st Duke of Cambridge. So far as our
course was concerned,
9
Higgs & Hill then acquired the freehold but would have to wait until
24/6/38 to obtain possession from the then Coombe Wood Golf Club Ltd.
Bearing in mind that the rent of the 67 acre course was from 1934 only
£200 per annum, while the rent of the adjoining Tennis Club for less than
2 acres was then £42 per annum, one can understand the feeling of the
Admiral's beneficiaries that a sale would be in their interests and that the
Trustees had a duty to act in their best interests; the Colonel was then over
80 and no doubt realised that soon his beneficiaries would be feeling the
same in relation to his half share.
Immediately after the sale, Higgs & Hill put up for auction various small
parts of the estate with which they did not wish to be bothered, such as the
Tennis Club and, what is now, Wolsey Close bordering the 14th hole.
When I first went up to the Tennis Club in 1926 as a Junior Member, I
used to see the cows looking over the boundary of the 14th hole. As
appears later, the Coombe Wood and Coombe Hill golf courses were sold
to the Local Authority, so that Higgs & Hill were very largely left with the
considerable area from Kenry House down to the Kingston by-pass for
their development activities. Accordingly the Coombe Estate ceased to
exist as an entity after December 1932.
With the death of the Colonel towards the end of 1933, the FitzGeorge era
came to an end. The Club continued under the auspices of R.F. Eden,
accountable to the trustees of the estates of the Admiral and the Colonel,
but, as appears later, the new members' Club took over on 1st June 1936
and a completely new era commenced.
Before dealing with that, a tribute to the Admiral and the Colonel is due.
But for them Coombe Wood Golf might never have started; in 1904 when
they were both over 50 years of age they took the plunge and, 18 years
later, were willing to enlarge the course to 18 holes. The past, present and
future memberships owe them a debt of gratitude.
Nothing is known of the Admiral's direct participation in the affairs of the
old Club apart from the fact that he was Captain in 1905/6. There is no
information as to his playing the course or his handicap. Certainly after his
death in 1922 his younger brother, the Colonel, seems to have taken a
considerable part in running the Club; he was Captain in 1921 and again
in 1933 up to his death later in that year. If he was an autocrat, he must
have been a benevolent one as, for his 80th birthday in 1927, the members
of the Club gave a dinner in his honour - 125 were present. J.W. Orr
(Captain in 1911) praised him as a man who "could walk with Kings but
not lose the common touch". The reminiscences of two past captains,
which I elicited some twenty years ago, bear this out.
Gaspard Lee had an aunt who had met the Colonel in 1888 in Egypt when
the Colonel was on the staff of the Sirdar. When in 1923 Gaspard, then
aged eleven, wanted to start golf, this Aunt put him in touch with the
Colonel who gave him the courtesy of the course in the school holidays
until he joined the Club at age 16 in 1928 "for a guinea or two". Gaspard
recalled the Colonel's invariable elastic sided boots and R.F. Eden's
invariable Old Etonian tie. Reg Packham also recalled the Colonel from
his Junior days; when he got down to 16 handicap he became entitled to
apply for permission to play at weekends and this involved an interview
with the Colonel and Eden. At the interview the Colonel gave a short
lecture on behaviour on and off the course, impressing on Reg that he was
seeking a privilege and then gave permission, with the injunction never to
hold up his seniors and betters. Reg remembered Eden for his monocle.
The Colonel from time to time made honorary members; two he appointed
in February 1924 were the then Duke and Duchess of York who had made
their first matrimonial home at White Lodge in Richmond Park. The
Colonel was a second cousin, twice removed, of the Duke who was a good
golfer. The latter opened the Duke's course in Richmond Park, but there is
no information as to the extent to which he or the late Queen Mother used
the course.
10
As he approached 80 the Colonel would only play 10 holes - usually on a
Sunday afternoon. Reg Packham told me that the Colonel used to spend
weekends with the Edens at Cambridge House (adjacent to the 1st fairway)
and would tell the Club if and when he wanted to play so that the top ten
would be free at the required time for him; it would be a slow game, 4
players, 4 caddies plus dogs and lady supporters, and no one would be let
through; the member who got so frustrated that he eventually drove over
the party's heads was not seen again; a touch of autocracy perhaps, but the
Colonel did own 50% of the club and the course and the member in
question had behaved recklessly as well as unwisely.
I have not forgotten a niece of the Admiral and Colonel who was a very
respected Lady member for a long time but she was never involved on the
ownership or management sides of the Club or course in the FitzGeorge
era. Miss Iris FitzGeorge started playing, no doubt as an honorary
member, before 1914. After that War she became Mrs Balfour and
attained a handicap of 19; her cup in honour of the silver jubilee of her
distant relative, King George V, was it seems a once only competition.
Her husband R.S. Balfour, was President of the Club for some years. After
the 1939 War she continued playing, latterly, after her first husband's
death, as Princess Galitzine, until a few years before her death in 1976;
she was the last FitzGeorge link with both the old and the new clubs.
SAVING THE COURSE FROM BUILDING
Following the announcement in 1931, that Coombe Wood and Coombe
Hill golf courses were to be sold for building, a public enquiry was held;
only two owner-residents of adjoining properties turned up. This apathy
was gradually being overcome by a few stalwarts led by a Coombe Wood
golfer,
Major - later Colonel- G E Rhodes, but not before the actual sale to Higgs
& Hill of the Estate including the courses, had been completed in
December 1932. That served to expedite matters. With commendable
backing from Maidens & Coombe Urban District Council (the Council),
the scheme adopted was for the Council to promote The Maidens and
Coombe Urban District Council Act 1933 (The Act) authorising and
regulating the purchase of the two golf courses by the Council. The two
courses were sold to the Council in November 1933 for £72,000 and then
leased to the existing clubs.
As to finance, the sine qua non of the scheme was that the Council should
eventually be fully reimbursed of all its expenditure. A substantial part of
the recoupment was to be provided by an improvement rate levied on all
properties neighbouring either course for 21 years; 2/- in the £1 for
properties fronting or overlooking a course, 1/- in the £ if fairly close and
6d in the £ if more remote but deriving some benefit. This rate, plus the
rents for the courses, was calculated to recoup the £78,000 total of the
Council's initial costs and its loan interest charges. At the end of the 21
years of improvement rates, the Council had not been wholly recouped
and would have had to rely on the rents of the courses to cover a
deficiency in 1993 of perhaps as much as £40,000. But the ratepayers
need not worry. Under an agreement made in December 1993 our Club
paid £570,000 for a new lease at a ground rent expiring in 2119 - the old
lease, at a rack rent, was due to expire in 2024. The ground rent started at
£500 per annum and will be adjusted every 5 years by reference to the
Retail Prices Index. The first such adjustment was to £578. Coombe Hill
made some similar arrangement in respect of their 120 acres (we have
only 67 acres) for which it paid £1.2m The Council, now Kingston
Corporation, still owns the freeholds, subject to the leases.
The Act purports to make the two courses open spaces indefinitely, but
that Act, like any other, can be revoked or amended by another Act of
Parliament!
11
THE TAMKIN
My reference to Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough in the opening
paragraph of this story takes us back to the reign of Queen Anne
(1702-14), through much of which Sarah was a close friend of the
Queen. Now I want to go back some two hundred years earlier, since our
Tamkin, standing between the 13th and 18th fairways, has been on site
since 1516 when the works, of which it was part, for supplying water to
the new Hampton Court Palace started to operate.
Cardinal Wolsey had a "gall complaint" and was told that the pure water
springs of Coombe were "supposedly good" for it "as a preventative of
the stone in the human subject". Accordingly the Cardinal ordered that
pipes should be laid to Coombe - some SVi miles - to convey water to his
Palace; this involved burrowing under the Thames. The pipes, other than
those under the river, were leaden and in 25 foot lengths; a film of
sulphate of lead formed in the pipes preserving them from corrosion and
the water from injury. After over three hundred and fifty years the pipes
were, when dug up, as sound as when they were first laid; they supplied
the water to the Palace up to 1896.
Two of the three conduit houses from which this water supply flowed
were erected in what are now the gardens of two neighbouring properties.
The first, "Gallows Conduit", is some twenty yards beyond the boundary
fence next to the 18th green in the property known originally as "Wolsey
Spring" and now "Hampton Spring". The second conduit house was some
hundred yards further away in the property beyond Hampton Spring
called Coombe Ridge and was known as "Ivy Conduit"; it was badly
damaged in 1944 by a VI bomb and has not, like the Gallows Conduit,
been restored.
The purposes of the Tamkin were to be an inspection house and to collect
the water piped from both of those conduits, passing it forward through
one set of pipes. It has not served these
purposes for more than a century but it remains a remarkable historic
building, now nearly 500 years old; its stone and brick walls appear to
have been untouched but the roof was restored some thirty years ago. The
springs are still present and a confounded nuisance; they erupt on the
course when and where they will. The land drains (intended to take the
rain and the spring water to the main ditches), that have been laid over the
years, have not provided a permanent solution, largely no doubt due to the
clay subsoil on that side of George Road. In 2001 the Club thus resorted
to digging open ditches across the 11th, 15th, 16th and 18th fairways to link
up with the main ditches.
12
CHAPTER IV
THE SECOND & PRESENT COOMBE WOOD GOLF CLUB
1936-64
THE 1936 CONSTITUTION
The final part of the scheme under the Act was to obtain a lease of our
course from the Council and, to do this, the members of the old Club
formed a Company called The Coombe Wood Golf Club (1936) Ltd (the
1936 Company) and an associated new Coombe Wood Golf Club (the
New Club). The Lease was for 14 years from 1st June 1936 at the rent of
£400 for the first seven years and thereafter £500; the lease to the
FitzGeorge Golf Club Company had first to be surrendered and the 1936
Company arranged to pay that Company £550 for that lease and for all the
ground and clubhouse equipment.
The 1936 Company was one limited by shares - nominal Capital £1000,
consisting of 8000 halfcrown shares; its directors were in control of the
new Club. The original Rules of the Club required Full Members (only
men) to hold 8 shares, Lady 7-Day Members 7 shares, and Five Day (men
& Ladies) members 5 shares. Later Rules required all non- playing
members to hold 1 share; if a member ceased to hold the necessary
shareholding his membership ceased. The new set-up, unusual at the time,
gave the Ladies the vote with full parity except in relation to seven-day
members; because the men paid a larger subscription than the Ladies they
each held one share more, so that when voting on a poll they had one
more vote. The Committee consisted of those nominated by the Directors
(they could include Directors) or in the absence of nominations, the
Directors. Management of the Club and of its financial affairs was vested
in the Directors or the Directors and the Committee who had power to
amend the Rules and make ByeLaws. There was no provision for General
Meetings of the Club to be held.
When I was writing the first part of my history around 1983 no one could
find a copy of the 1936 Company's Memorandum & Articles of
Association and that is still the position, so while it is clear that
shareholders leaving the club were supposed to transfer them to new
members requiring shares, we do not know the details. For example what
price had to be paid, what happened if
13
there was no new member requiring shares or, if the retiring member just
disappeared or refused to bother about next to nothing, at the most 8
shares of 2/6d each. However it matters not since that original constitution
came to an end in 1961 with the dissolution of the 1936 Company for the
very reason that out of 1291 shareholders in 1961, only 344 were then
members of the Club. I imagine the outbreak of the 1939 war either
started or magnified the shareholding difficulties; very many members
would have resigned or just disappeared over the first two years or so with
no replacements to take over their shares. These technical difficulties did
not however impinge on the activities and running of the new Club and I
will now deal with those more interesting matters of the 1936 Company's
progress.
THE FIRST LEASE 1936-1950
As from 1st June 1936 the whole of the existing staff, indoor and outdoor,
were re-engaged, including the Secretary, R.F. Eden, who must have been
a great help to the new Club over the period to July 1939 when he
resigned for ill-health. A much-needed extension of the old wooden
Clubhouse costing £1500 was carried out at once. That sum was largely
provided by members in 120 loan notes of £10 each repayable at £12- 10s.
Apart from those loans and collecting £880 in advance subscriptions for
14 years in 5 cases and 7 years in 8 cases, the new set up paid its way out
of normal revenue and the modest share capital. In this period total yearly
income was under £4000 and for the four years up to 31st May 1940 there
were three profits of £153, £71, £132 and one loss of £74. In 1937 the
subscription for Full Membership was 10 Guineas; this compared with 7
Guineas in 1925.
Up to the war, the new Club continued the golfing activities much as
before; it had three scratch players during this period. T.R.H. Chalcraft,
AG. Collins and Rodney Heard. Again 66 (4 below bogey) was rarely
broken; only 5 times in all the recorded competitions, only one (a 60)
below 63. In 1938 the first Stableford competitions were played by the
men and the ladies; the records show that originally the scoring was to
take the points on the gross score at each hole and add the 778th of
handicap to the end total; a generous method. In the previous year there
was the first recorded match between the men and the ladies; 22 singles in
the morning and eleven foursomes in the afternoon; the men won 24lA 8Vi
That leads me to the Ladies Section. With the Board of Directors being
answerable to the members, the Ladies Section could demand that their
complaints or suggestions were at least considered and replied to and this
may have led them to adopt a more democratic basis. In November 1936
they held their first recorded Annual General Meeting (and have
continued to do so) and at that meeting the new Captain, Secretary and
Committee of 5 were elected by the 43 members present; previously the
outgoing Captain and Committee had nominated their successors. That set
the seal for the future.
Ladies matches - both Pearson and friendly - continued until after the
1940 Spring Meeting, when the phoney war was abruptly turned into the
real thing. A new cup was presented in 1939 by the Lady Captain for that
year, Mrs M Carter, which is now the Ladies' Challenge Cup. Mrs Iris
Stileman (nee Dove) won the Renwick Bowl for the third successive year
in 1937; she (9) and Mrs Munro (nee Brown) (7) were the only single
figure handicap ladies at this time. The Ladies had more medal scores
under 66 than the men, including two below 60 up to May 1940 when
their competitions ceased for the duration of the war.
In February 1940, the Ladies held a Bridge Drive to help the Club funds;
it raised £9.2s which in those days was not to be sneezed at - it would
cover the wages of a greenkeeper for three weeks.
During the war years the object was of course to keep the club going; loss
of income as a result of a reduced membership had to be balanced by
cutting expenses and that to a large extent meant wages. Two groundsmen
and another employee were given notice in September 1939 and other
employees were called up or resigned. The financial results of the five
years to 31st May 1945 were two losses totalling £103, two surpluses
totalling £87 and an unspecified "satisfactory surplus" for the year 1941/2.
These figures are after reserving a total of £1600 for deferred repairs.
While the Board at times got very near to a plea ad misericordiam to the
council for a reduction of rent, it never made one.
An Air Raid Defence post was established in the clubhouse with our then
Professional Vic Saunders, as the warden and this enabled him to be an
invaluable jack of all trades - warden,
Professional, bar tender and standing in for the Secretary when not
present. After R.F. Eden resigned the Secretaryship, A.M. Cooper
(Captain 1937) took over until the spring of 1944 followed by A.L. Savage
(Captain 1939) until September 1945. Many members helped out in
multifarious ways; the offer of a retired Merchant Navy Captain, Tommy
Dunster, to become the scythe expert was perhaps the most unusual. I have
recently been told by a former Junior that, during the time when Bert
Rasey was the only greenkeeper, several members each took over a green
to cut and its bunkers to rake.
The new club gave the courtesy of the course to two notable - for different
qualities - golfers during the war. One was Archie Compston, the pre-war
Ryder Cup player who was joint second in the 1925 and third in the 1928
Opens and defeated Walter Hagen over 2 x 36 holes at Moor Park in a
challenge match in 1928 by 18 and 17. The second was General 'Ike'
Eisenhower, who for a short period after coming to England in 1943 lived
at Telegraph Cottage in Warren Road - so named as it was once one of a
chain of semaphore stations for signalling messages between the
Admiralty in London and the fleet at Portsmouth. His stay there ended
when it was realised that Richmond Park - less than a mile away - was a
decoy area for German Bombers. Our course in fact suffered some bomb
damage. The crater in front of the 5th green and the smaller crater between
the sixth and seventh fairways have become useful hazards. A very
different result occurred from bombs falling on the bottom half of the
course. The soft clay there, as opposed to the hard gravel on the top half,
delayed and smothered the explosions so much that one, falling in the
garden of a house in what is now the Berystede development beside the
12th hole, did not break windows of a house some fifteen yards away.
As to the golf, some of the men's competitions continued throughout the
war and had reasonable support; for example the 1944 Cambridge Cup
had as many as 36 entries but I know of no startling results. There were a
number of new members during the war, some of whom were later
captains and all now long deceased - but I would mention Mr & Mrs John
Beck who came to live at what is now Hampton Spring in 1944 and joined
our club. He played in the 1928 Walker Cup and was non- playing
Captain, when Great Britain won at St Andrews 7-4 in 1938; she was the
Irish Ladies Champion in 1938. They left soon after the war and were
made honorary members and, perhaps in appreciation of this, John Beck
when again captaining the Walker Cup team in 1947 gave Coombe Wood
as his club. A nice gesture consistent with his reputation of walking into
the clubhouse and fixing up to play with anyone available. He became our
second Coombe Wood member to be elected as Captain of the R&A for
1957-8.
The course did its bit during the war; it had allotments on the left of the
11th green by the Tennis Club and on the left hand side of each of the 12th
and 16th fairways; it was some ten years after the war before the first and
third of these war time allotments came to an end.
The Board could be said to have been in a worse position in restoring the
new club to its peacetime standards than it was in 1936 when it launched
the new members' club. At least in 1936 the new club started with both a
ready made satisfactory membership and a ready made staff. In 1945 the
memberships were far below the pre-war figures, new staff had to be
engaged and much needed to be done to remedy the unavoidable
deterioration of the course and the clubhouse due to war time shortages of
both labour and money. The £1600 for deferred repairs referred to earlier
would not have gone far.
The crucial matter was to increase the membership. The Board in 1945
demonstrated confidence by re-imposing entrance fees in May 1945 - 7
guineas for full men, 5 guineas for 7 day ladies and 3 guineas for 5 day
members but there were no entrance fees in the accounts for 1946-7.
These accounts showed that membership totals for these classes had
grown to 172, 50 and 57 respectively. The welcome influx of 14 men and
6 ladies from the Morden Park Golf Club (which was closing down) had
contributed to that progress, with consequential benefit to the finances.
These accounts also showed a small £23 profit from a gross revenue of
£5861. Thirty of the £10 Loan Units issued in 1936 were repaid in that
year and all five of those worthy members, who in 1936 paid 14 years of
subscriptions in advance, were still around.
The Board soon after the end of the war approached the council to secure a
renewal of the new club's first lease which was due to expire on 31st May
1950. Another 14 year term was offered up to 31st May 1964, at a
premium of £500 and at a rent of £750 for the first seven years and £1000
thereafter. The Board accepted those terms in April 1946 and immediately
increased subscriptions to 12 guineas for full men, 9 guineas for 7 day
ladies and 6 guineas for 5 day members.
There are no competition records for this period apart from the honours
boards. Victory Cups were presented by Mr Mitsotakis (Captain 1944) for
the men and Mrs R Theakston (Captain 1948) for the Ladies and have
been played for from 1945 onwards. The mens' President's Putter for pairs
better ball knockout was presented by Harold Heard on becoming
President in 1948 - won by his two sons, Dick and Rodney in 1953. A
tribute is due to this stalwart member; he joined pre 1914, was Captain in
1934, was one of the first directors of the 1936 Company, Chairman of the
Board/Committee from 1939 to 1948 and then President until his death in
1957. The Ladies had a similar stalwart member who joined the club pre
1914 as Miss W Brown, later Mrs Negus and then Mrs Munro. She was
Ladies Captain from 1943 to 1946 (although the Lady Captain's Board
only shows 1945 and 1946). I was told that she largely kept the Ladies
Section going throughout the 1939- 45 war. A new Cup - the Aston Martin
Cup - was presented to the Ladies by Mrs Martin in 1948.
THE SECOND LEASE 1950-1964
There was still much to do to bring the Club up to its pre-war standing and
this primarily meant increasing revenue from the subscriptions of larger
memberships. This was gradually achieved in that the full membership
reached 198 in 1956/7, the 7-day Ladies membership reached 60 in
1954/5 and the 5-day membership 94 in 1956/7. The 1957/8 accounts are
the last ones to give the totals of the memberships but it is clear from the
financial results of the ten years from 1953/4 to 1962/3 (excluding those
for 1958-60 which are not known) that the Club was leading a hand to
mouth existence since four years of profit totalled £1255 and four years of
losses totalled £1069. Subscriptions had been increased in 1959-60 (the
full subscription went up to 19 guineas) but only the increase in 1963-4
(the full subscription going up to 22 guineas) resulted in a profit more
appropriate to the Club's needs i.e. £2747, £2000 of which was allocated
to the new clubhouse fund.
The board had in 1959 agreed terms with the Council for out third lease
from 1st June 1964, this time for 21 years at the rent of £1250. This
enabled the Club to offer new members a reasonable length of
membership and the Board decided, just in time to catch me on joining on
1st June 1962, to re-introduce entrance fees of 5 guineas for full and 3
guineas for 7 day Lady and 5 day members. Entrance fees have been
charged ever since and have for a long time approximated to the annual
subscription.
In this period the Club lost two of its longest serving staff. Vic Saunders
retired at the end of 1959 after forty years as our professional. In his
earlier days he was an accomplished golfer achieving his record gross
score of 62 in 1928. Latterly his playing activities were severely restricted
by illness He had become more than our "professional"; he was the
respected friend of all and his loyalty to and interest in the club were of
the highest, as demonstrated earlier when he did so much to keep the club
ticking over during the 1939 war. The other retiree (in 1956) was A.
Rasey the then head greenkeeper; he had worked on the course for at least
30 years and bore the brunt throughout the 1939 war.
There is not much to record about the members or their golf in this period.
In the first part of my history (up to 1970 - written in 1983/4). I listed
some 90 men and lady members elected between 1945 and 1961 who had
16
then had twenty years or more active playing membership and/or been a
Captain. Only 6 of them are still playing a full round regularly and only
thirteen of the others are still alive after only another 19 years. We have
only one existing member - Basil Crutchfield - who was an adult member
before the war but, I believe, none elected during the war. On the golf side
there is little to report. Standard scratch for the ladies was fixed in 1954 at
68 but after a second appeal was increased to 69. The standardisations for
both the men and the ladies seem to have reduced the number of "freak"
rounds during the years for which competition records exist and I will
mention only that Rodney Heard, off 2, managed to reduce his own
amateur gross record of 67 to 65 when the standard scratch was 67. To
celebrate the first fifty years of the club in 1954, C. Delderfield presented
a cup to be played for as a mixed foursome Stableford competition.
It was in this period that the hole-in-one ties and scarf became established
as a result of the efforts of three members of our club. In the late forties,
Reg Armstrong (Captain 1959), the tailoring Director of Thresher and
Glenny, conceived the idea and, with the co-operation of Eric Weisters,
whose firm did the weaving, and Harry Culliford (Captain 1971) whose
firm did the manufacturing, launched this highly successful project, still
run by Thresher and Glenry. They maintain a register of certified
holes-in-one to this day and only sell the ties etc on production of a
certificate; later a "King hole-in-one" tie became available on production
of a certificate for a later hole- in-one.
Our club continues its pre-war practise of the perpetrator of a hole-in-one
being the guest of the club for food and drink for the day instead of the
more usual custom of being the host for drinks all round. He or she now
gets a cash allowance of £15 at the Bar and it is up to the perpetrator to
decide if and how far to extend hospitality. The Society of Surrey Golf
Captains decreed some years ago that for its meetings any hole-in-oner is
its guest for the day instead of the host for drinks all round, which is
surely the more appropriate rule, particularly at present costs.
THE 1961 CONSTITUTION
The 1936 Company failed badly in one of its objectives i.e. that only
current members of the New Club would be shareholders of the Company.
By 1961 there were nearly 3000 shareholders and only 344 members of
the Club. That problem was dealt with by dissolving that Company (no
one lost more than £1) and incorporating in 1961 as its successor the
present Coombe Wood Golf Club Ltd which is a company limited by
guarantee (each member is liable to a £5 guarantee if disaster strikes) and
provides in its Articles of Association that any member ceasing to be a
member of the Club should automatically cease to be a member of the
Company.
But other problems were to emerge from the new set-up. The 1961
Company (hereinafter called the Company) took over all the assets of the
1936 Company (including the then club) from the Liquidator of the 1936
Company and exercised its powers under Article 7 which provides that
"The Company shall always hold the assets belonging to the Company but
may allow the Club to be administered by a Committee of Club members
according to Byelaws approved by the Directors". In pursuance of this a
new Club (hereinafter called the Club) was constituted to be run by its
own committee and hold its own Annual General Meetings for adoption of
the Accounts and elections of its Captain and Vice-Captain and
Committee members. All full members (men only), 7-Day Lady
Members, Five Day Members and all former such members who were still
members of the club had the right to vote. In no way was the club
controlled by the Company or its Directors and the only references to the
Company in the Rules of the Club were that the Chairman of the
17
Directors was an ex-officio member of the Committee of eleven and that
full members should become members of the Company.
Under Article 4 the first members of the Company were its seven
subscribers and any member of both the Club and the 1936 company whatever type of club membership he or she still held - who applied for
membership on or before 25/3/62. Initially there were 105 first members they gradually diminished to 32 by 1977. Under Article 5 any other
member had to be a full member of the club. The register of members up
to 1977did not include anyone elected under Article 5. Thus election of
Directors and the ownership of the Company's surplus assets on
liquidation were in the hands of the company's membership, which was a
diminishing number of its original first members.
While the voting members of the Club initially elected its officers and
Committee, the Rules do not suggest that they were entitled to any surplus
assets on a winding up; the club belonged to the Company, it seems, under
Article 7 so that only Company members were entitled. For that reason
probably the Club's accounts have always been drawn up and adopted as
those of the Company and for the first three years - 1962 to 1964 - they
were approved at an Annual General Meeting of the Company at which
the only other express item was the election of directors.
Presumably the Club's officers and committee were elected each year but I
have found no record of when or how that was done until 1965 when the
Annual General Meeting was expressly one of both the Company and the
club and covered Company and Club matters on the Agenda. At that
meeting however the separation of the Club from the Company came to an
end; first the permitted number of Directors of the Company was
increased from 7 to 12 and secondly the Rules of the Club were altered to
provide that only Directors could serve on the Club's committee. Thus as
only the members of the Company could elect Directors, only they in
effect could elect the committee from 1965, though the strict election
position was not, I believe, adhered to - an unsatisfactory procedure to say
the least.
An attempt was made at the 1969 AGM to rectify matters by adopting
new Rules of the Club under which the Committee of
Management was abolished and the management of the club vested in the
Board of Directors of the Company. It was also provided that only voting
members of the Club i.e. Full, 7-Day Lady and 5-Day members and
former such members could be members of the Company. That was
thought, apparently, to suffice both to extend in that way the eligibility
for membership of the Company beyond Full members of the Club and
also to make them actual members. No change was made to the Articles
of Association limiting company membership to Full Members of the
Club and requiring a separate application for membership. Club Members
joining in and after 1962 simply received the Rules of the Club on
election; the Company was a closed book. In 1969 I assumed that the
new Club Rules were consistent with the Articles and, only in 1976 when
I was asked to deal with a query, did it emerge that the 1969 scheme,
though admirable in concept, was so basically flawed that matters had to
be put right.
We first invited all Full Members - then only men - to apply for Company
Membership to make it more representative of the club than the remnants
of the 1962 first members. We called an Extraordinary General Meeting
of the Company to alter the Articles by making 7-Day Ladies and
Five-Day Members eligible for membership of the Company. We were
met by sufficient male chauvinism to deprive us of the necessary 75%
majority vote. We got round that setback by later altering the Rules of the
Club to make the 7-Day Ladies into "Full Members" - no problem there as
a simple majority of the whole of the Club's voters, including the Ladies,
sufficed. Subsequently we brought in 5-Day Members and started on
making, for the future, membership of the Company automatic on election
to Full or 5-Day Membership of the Club. Initially those not already
members of the Company but who were or became eligible, had to apply
with the result that some long-standing members had, either through their
own default or a mistake in the office, not become members of the
Company. We therefore brought them within the automatic umbrella in
1998; thus every voting member of the Club at that time or since has
become a member of the Company until his membership of the Club
ceases. Therefore, fortunately, in March 2000 we could show to Customs
and Excise that both the Club and the Company were owned and
controlled by the voting members of the Club and were truly "member"
institutions. This qualified us to continue receiving exemption from VAT
on playing subscriptions under new regulations promulgated to ensure that
exemption was limited to such institutions.
I still do not know why, except for its first members, membership of the
Company was limited to full male members. There was then little prospect
of any surplus assets, but the general membership would not have taken
kindly to knowing that only a small minority of them could be
beneficiaries when prospects changed.
CHAPTER V
THE CLUB'S THIRD LEASE
The Club's second lease was due to expire on 31st May 1964 and, as
indicated above, the Board had, well in advance, agreed terms for its
renewal with the council, this time for 21 years at a rental of £1250 per
annum. Those terms were later amended in recognition of the fact that the
club was about to build a new Clubhouse on the landlord's land, which
would enhance its value, and felt entitled to a longer lease to enable it
better to recoup its expenditure. The Council was sympathetic to this claim
but it took some persuasion by the Club's representatives before agreement
of the longer lease was reached in November 1964.
The terms, conditional on the building of the new Clubhouse, were a lease
for 60 years from 1st June 1964 at the rent of £1250 per annum until 1989,
then £1550 until 1999 and then a revised rent at current values, but
excluding any value for the Clubhouse, followed by another such revision
in 2019. As will appear later, the economic benefits which flowed to the
club from that lease, which was formally granted on 2nd December 1969,
have been quite outstanding.
THE NEW CLUBHOUSE
There were in the early 1960's an increasing number of members in favour
of a new Clubhouse. The old single storey, picturesque, wooden building
sited adjacent to and along the length of the present sixth green consisted
of the original 1904 shed, moved up when in 1922 we became an 18 hole
course, plus periodic additions which were all pre 1940; by 1960 it was
becoming increasingly decrepit, expensive to maintain and inadequate for
a modern club with an increasing membership. In 1962-3 for example
£1431 had to be spent on re-wiring the kitchen. In August 1963 a
sub-committee was formed to consider and report
on building a new clubhouse. The committee of management later
supported the report which was in favour provided an extended lease beyond the 21 years - could be obtained and the necessary finance
arranged. As stated above, the council agreed a 60 year lease and that was
the green light. In May 1965 the membership of the club at a general
meeting supported the scheme and matters proceeded accordingly.
The site of the old Clubhouse was not practicable for the new one since
the latter would have had to abide by the then building line, which would
have involved a substantial encroachment of the sixth green. Hence the
present siting across the road, which had the advantages that the old
building
could be used until the new one was ready for occupation and its site
would provide much needed additional car parking space.
The total of some £53,500 was spent; the building cost £38,433,
Professional fees £3,900, demolition of the old building and the new Car
Park £2000 and Furnishing £9,249. Nowadays these figures appear paltry
but they should be viewed in the light of the full male subscription of £21
which was then current. Some £17,500 was lent by members, £6,000 by
local residents and £1750 by Whitbreads (all duly repaid). Four years of a
£5 levy between 1965 and 1968 produced with
other donations and contributions £13,884 and the balance of £14,400
came from the club's own resources, £10,000 of which had been set aside
from the profits of the club for the four years 1964 to 1967.
One interesting money-raising event was an exhibition match in June 1966
which involved Peter Alliss, Max Faulkner, who at the last minute
substituted for Christie O'Connor, Hugh Boyle and our own professional
Drew Paton who had succeeded Vic Saunders. Max Faulkner was an
outstanding success. He gave a very entertaining golf clinic and, after the
match, when a number of gifts were being auctioned, he offered to be the
auctioneer; He was brilliant and ended by presenting and selling his own
golf clothing. He was offered Honorary Membership as a gesture of the
Club's gratitude.
Peter Allis went round in 63 - then a professional record for our slightly
longer course of 5306 yards; Vic Saunders held the record of 62 when the
course was 5226 yards. The fee of the visiting Professionals was £50.
Many social and other events were organised, including "bring and buy"
meetings run by the Ladies (producing £199) and a concert by the Concert
Artists Golfing Society (producing £300). The Maiden Golf Club made a
donation which was used to purchase the large plaque which stands at the
entrance of the Clubhouse.
Sir Norman Joseph who lived next door to the Club at what was then
Wolsey Spring (now Hampton Spring) with a garden ending at the back of
the 15th green, decided to build a new house down the garden, taking the
name Wolsey Spring to the new house. Around 1964 he suggested our
club should buy Hampton Spring and convert it into a Clubhouse. The
proposal was correctly declined; conversion of all the small rooms on two
floors into rooms suitable for a Clubhouse, plus necessary additions,
would have been very expensive and in addition to the cost of buying the
house. There was no extra land to enlarge the golf course, such garden as
it had at the back being monopolised by the Gallows Conduit, some 20
yards from the 18th green. Also no bargaining factor for obtaining a longer
lease of the course from the Council would arise as the Club would not be
building a new Clubhouse on the Council's freehold.
The building operations were not altogether smooth since the contractor
went into liquidation when much remained to be done. I remember joining
a working party headed by the architect on the eve of the opening to help
carry out a legion of minor jobs. The opening was on Saturday August
26th 1967.
The plan was to pull down the old Clubhouse but, one Sunday morning a
week or so after that date, I drove up for golf to find it had burnt to the
ground overnight, its smouldering embers still giving off such intense heat
that it was impossible to use the part of the 6th green near the old building
during morning play; the flag was on that part!
CHAPTER V MEMBERSHIPS 1964-2003
The success of any Club depends in all respects on its membership and, in
particular, on its having a sufficient
number of members to provide the necessary funds. Earlier I showed the
satisfactory increases in the main playing memberships up to 1964 and
fortunately further increases followed. In 1963, the maximum numbers for
the Full and 7-Day Lady memberships were raised to 220 and 60
respectively and by 1984 they became 260 and 80. By December 1995 full
membership for men was 274 (including Restricted) and for Ladies 76 and
Five Day membership was 85 Men and 14 Ladies. By December 2002 the
corresponding numbers were for Full Memberships 277 and 92 and for
5-Day membership 75 and 13. These figures include 4 Intermediate male
members (age 18-24) but not Honorary, Free or over age 80 £5 Five Day
members; few of these are still active.
In 1968 a Restricted Full Membership was introduced for men. This was
to help new members who were new or fairly new to the game. The
custom had been to offer them 5-Day membership and to accept them for
Full Membership when a reasonable standard of play had been achieved.
Many men cannot make much use of 5 Day membership - particularly in
the winter - so this new Full Membership, which enabled them to play at
weekends after 12 noon, was introduced. Once such a member obtains a
certain handicap (it is varied from time to time), he is entitled to have his
restriction removed. Many such members have benefited under this
arrangement, some attaining single figure handicaps, one as low as 4.
In 1965 the Board introduced a free membership for those members who
at age 75 or over had completed twenty continuous years of Full or 5 Day
membership. By 1980 it became clear that such members were rapidly
increasing in number and, instead of just playing less than a full round
midweek, were regularly playing full rounds and entering competitions.
The Board made two attempts in the early nineteen eighties to advance the
qualifying age to 80 or over but at two Annual General Meetings - as
Chairman at one of these I was the Board's spokesman - the members
allowed their hearts to rule their heads and took pity on the aged. In 1992
however the prospect of an ever-increasing number of very active golfers
over 75, hardened the hearts of the members present at that AGM. The
free membership for the aged was abolished and replaced by a Rule under
which those, who at age 80 or over who had had the requisite twenty years
continuous playing membership, were entitled, if continuing as a full
member, to continue playing at the subscription applicable to them when
they were 70 or, if a 5 Day member, at £5 a year. Such a full member
could at any time switch to be a 5-Day member if he wished. If the
continuous playing test was satisfied at age 70 or over, then the member's
current subscription at that time became frozen so that for the long serving
members, a reduction in subscription can start at age 70.
In the seventies because, as indicated above, golfers were increasingly not
only living, but also playing golf, much longer, golf clubs in general were
forming senior sections. Our Club followed suit in 1979 when our
"Fellowship of Retired Old Gentlemen's Golfing Society" - in short the
"FROGGS" - started to operate with the first of its Wednesday meetings
on March 21st 1979. This coincided with Pat Bowman of the Roehampton
Golf Club conceiving, establishing, and running until his untimely death in
1986, "The over 60 League", which had the object of enabling, "elderly
gentlemen to enjoy gently competitive golf at each others courses".
Roehampton, Coombe Wood, Royal Wimbledon, Royal Mid Surrey,
London Scottish and Wimbledon Common were the original six members
of the League; they were soon joined by Wimbledon Park and Richmond
and later by Surbiton, when a ninth member was added to enable 4 home
and 4 away matches to be played each year. Coombe Wood won in 1982
and 1983 and have had six second or third places since. The League has
been a great success and so has been the Froggs. It started with some 25
members, by 1985 it had grown to 70 and in the last ten years or so it has
had a membership in the 90's, never until recently quite reaching 100. Any
retired or semi-retired member of the club is made welcome. The Froggs
has been a great boon to newcomers since they know they are guaranteed
a game on a Wednesday morning and can thereby get to know other
members.
There are no other mid-week "Froggs" days, except for competitions and
League and Friendly matches - but naturally the retired members play
together on other weekdays simply as members of the Club.
THE COURSE
The 9-hole course came into being in 1904 fortuitously as a means of
making an ugly disused gravel pit into something useful and presentable.
Its enlargement in 1922 to an 18 hole course was also fortuitous to the
extent that only the onset of the 1914 war put an end to the hockey and
cricket activities, which had been going on long before any golf was
envisaged on the Coombe Estate. Certainly the Kingston Hill Cricket and
Hockey Club wanted to return after that war but, having had the area of
the two hockey pitches and the cricket square (on the 11th & 18th
fairways) free of a tenant for a few years, the Coombe Estate had decided
to enlarge the 9 hole course into an 18 hole course for which the hockey
and cricket land was vital. Until then I doubt whether the Estate would
have had any such plans. The gradual development of the surrounding area
to our course had left only 67 acres for the course, given that the adjoining
tennis club land and Wolsey Close were then reserved
for development (some 4 acres between them). Since 1922 our course has
therefore been virtually unchanged, except to gain a few yards here and
there by pushing back or making new tees; there is little scope to do more.
In 1939 the yardage was 5226 with a bogey of 70. Our present yardage is
5299 (the extra 7 yards in 1966 when Peter Alliss shot 63 was perhaps a
mistaken measurement) with a par of 66 and, like the courses at Richmond
and Wimbledon Park where the par is also 66, the top players do not
murder them;
Our course, particularly the bottom 8 holes below George
Road, is liberally lined by trees. In 1922 for example the
present 13th and 14th holes were lined by some fifteen full
grown majestic elm trees; they started falling in the thirties. I
remember as a tennis club player one fell across the corner of a
tennis court around 1937 and the last I remember fell across th
the 13 from the ditch towards the Tamkin around 1967, by which time I
was a golfer. Innumerable suckers had grown to varying sizes - not yet
majestic - from these old elms and they suffered drastically from Dutch
Elm Disease in 1973-4, more than 200 dying. Replanting and another
generation of suckers - many in the next twenty years also succumbed to
the disease - have now largely covered the gap.
After the course had been sold by the FitzGeorge interests in December
1932, there was no incentive to do more than the minimum on the course
for the next 6V2 years when the lease of the course to a FitzGeorge
Company, subject to which it had been sold, expired. Thus, I assume,
when our present Members' Club took over in June 1936, the course was
in a pretty run down state and the Clubhouse, as stated above, was as bad
or worse. Some improvement was no doubt accomplished by the start of
the 1939 War; just over 3 years later, but for nearly 6 years of War there
would have been no further improvement, only general deterioration. Until
memberships increased, with consequential economic benefit, there was
little scope for doing more on the course than restoring and maintaining it
as well as possible. No doubt the cumulative effect of continuous good
maintenance, which had to cope with periodic set-backs such as the great
freeze in 1962-3, did restore our course to a reasonable standard by the
early nineteen sixties, but no capital expenditure was involved other than
on the ground machinery and vehicles and that position continued into the
early seventies. By that time with our new Clubhouse, our increased
memberships and a lease not expiring until 2024, we could embark on
capital improvements.
In 1972 we installed our first sprinklers, on the greens, (cost £10,125).
The tees were included in 1978 at a small cost and the top ten fairways
were done in 1980 (cost £13,800). These have all had to be renewed
subsequently. The bottom eight fairways do not need sprinklers because of
their clay subsoil and their springs. In 1976 we started to improve the
greenkeeper's area by buying a large shed of more sightly and permanent
construction than that of the collection of old, unsightly and dilapidated
wooden or corrugated iron sheds then in use. This, including laying on
electricity and new hardstanding and a better road, cost £5586. Since then
new and secure sheds have replaced the other old sheds including
acceptable resting accommodation for the ground staff. As time has gone
by, the number and types of machines and vehicles needed by a modern
golf club seem to have proliferated and all of these need secure new
housing. We have come a long way from the horse drawn gang mower I
used to see from the Tennis Club in the 1926-29 era.
Successive Boards up to the present time have over the years done their
best to give financial priority to the needs of the course and this has in my
view resulted in a course which has for many years been of a very high
standard. Congratulations to all concerned.
An "associated" improvement was in 1972 to buy a house for the
occupation of the Head Greenkeeper at Hinchley Wood for £7,206. Our
then Head Greenkeeper and his successor occupied it, the latter doing so
from 1974 to 1994. The Board decided in 1992 that he should be replaced
as Head Greenkeeper but offered
to retain him as an assistant at his then salary with the right to
continue in occupation of the house. This had been adapted in several
ways to help his crippled son. He refused the suggested terms and
claimed that he had been constructively dismissed with some
justification. He started proceedings in the Industrial Tribunal. A
comprehensive settlement was arranged whereby the club sold the
house to him for £47,000, a figure somewhat below the market value,
and he withdrew his claim.
CHAPTER VII
FINANCIAL PROGRESS OF THE CLUB
While one does not wish to over-emphasise the profit making aspect
of a members' Club's activities, it is essential for such clubs to do
more than just cover expenses. Not only may there be unexpected
set-backs but there is always need for improvements as well as new
developments, and without surpluses to form a reserve with which to
cover such eventualities or help to do so, a club would have to rely
entirely on loans and they would have to repaid sometime.
As shown earlier, the club made a slow start. It took over in 1936 a
rundown course and clubhouse though there was in being a reasonable
membership. After only three years it had
to cope with six years of war at the end of which the course and clubhouse
must have been more rundown than they were in 1936 and it had a
membership seriously under strength. No wonder no dramatic surpluses
resulted until 1963-4; up to then there were regular surpluses, albeit small,
but they were interspersed with small deficits. For the twenty-seven years
froml936/37 to 1962/3 (excluding eight years for which there are no
records), there were seven years of deficits totalling £1246 and there were
twelve years of surpluses totalling £1751 plus the unknown "satisfactory
surplus" for 1941/2. There is nothing to suggest that the missing years
(1947-8 to 1952-3, 1958-9 and 1959-60) did not follow the same pattern.
1963/64 was the breakthrough; a surplus of £2747 was made and set the
seal for the next twenty years from 1964/5 to 1983/4 which resulted in
eighteen surpluses totalling £65,387 (an average of £3632) and two very
small deficits (1969/70 and 1982/2) totalling £1669. This continuously
successful run received a serious set-back in 1984/5 with a deficit of
£31,283. Some £20,000 of this was the unavoidable overspending by the
Green Committee on course maintenance - at least the club benefited from
this - but £11,686 was sheer loss to the Club from its new venture in
taking over the catering. A new Secretary with experience of catering,
supported by a subcommittee, led to the Board employing a steward on a
salary with commission, instead of allowing him the franchise. For the
first eleven weeks from February 1984 to 31st May 1984, the accounts
showed a small profit of £693, only to deceive however. The Secretary
had become ill early in 1984 and this led to his resignation in June 1984.
The then Treasurer resigned in the autumn to be replaced on November
20th 1984. The new Treasurer reported soon after that there was a serious
loss on catering emerging which led to the new venture being
discontinued.
The Club quickly recovered from that set-back. With the help of a
supplementary charge on the playing members in January 1986, (£50 for
full men, £45 full ladies and £40 five-day members), producing £19,300, a
surplus of £15,468 emerged inl985-6. That surplus and fifteen others
during the seventeen years, 1985-6 to 2001-2 inclusive, totalled £274,929
(an average of £17,185). For the remaining year (1999-2000), there was a
deficit of £12,603; as in 1984/5 subscriptions had not been increased in
that year and again there were items of unexpected expenditure but the
deficit in 1999-2000 was under 3% of the income, compared with just
under 28% in 1984-5; they were not in the same league. To bring the saga
up to date, a deficit of £12,486 resulted in 2002-03, a difficult year by
reason of the Clubhouse redevelopment.
For the six years from 1988/9 to 1993/4 inclusive, the Board, anxious to
have liquid reserves to use as necessary on repairing and improving the
Clubhouse, imposed a levy each year (for a full male £25 in the first year,
£30 in the next two and £60 in the last three - full lady and five day
members were pro-rata). These totalled £126,603 and were extra monies
to the surpluses of those years. With this successful accumulation of
reserves from surpluses and levies, it is not surprising that successive
Boards felt able to embark on the purchase of a long lease in 1994 and the
redevelopment of the clubhouse in 2002 which are discussed below. As
will be seen, members paid £138,590 as a special subscription in 1994 for
the former venture, again extra to the surplus for the year, and members
lent £194,485 and £202,000 respectively towards the two outlays. I
mention those matters now as they are relevant to my next paragraph.
I wish to emphasise that the gradual emergence of the Club into a
well-established Club, owning a long lease, at a modest ground rent, not
expiring until 2119, and with a redeveloped Clubhouse of which we can
be proud, could not have been achieved without two factors. The first was
the approval of the current membership at the particular time it was
needed and the second was the willing co-operation of successive
memberships in paying not only the normal ever increasing subscriptions,
but also the extra levies or subscriptions, and in making loans. There are a
few survivors who have been
members since before the post war levies and appeals for loans started in
the mid-nineteen sixties. The vast majority of members at any one time
are by comparison birds of passage and the Club's thanks are due to them
perhaps in greater measure. They always (so far!!) get their loans back some generously waive repayment when they leave or in their wills - but
they only get a shorter benefit from levies or extra subscriptions. I can
only pay tribute to one and all of the present and past memberships who
have in anyway supported all or any of the projects carried out not only in
the last forty years but since 1936.
THE CLUB'S FOURTH LEASE
By 1990 the club was on the last lap before the rent revision was due to
take place in 1999. The rent for that lap had increased from £1250 to
£1550 per year. Had the third lease not been for sixty years, instead of the
twenty-one years originally agreed - by reason of the Club building the
new Clubhouse - a new rent would have been fixed in 1985 by which time
the rental value of golf courses had soared and continued to do so. With
the period of the ridiculously low rent of £1550 still in hand, the Board
decided to test whether action before 1999 would be worthwhile.
Discussions with the Kingston Corporation quickly showed that the
purchase of the freehold would be too expensive but it emerged that the
purchase of a long lease at a ground rent was a feasible alternative and
that resulted in the Club's fourth lease. The third lease - with thirty years
to run - would be surrendered in exchange for a hundred and twenty five
year lease from 1994 to 2119 at a ground rent of £500 - to be adjusted
every five years by reference to the Retail Prices Index - and for a
premium of £570,000. The calculation of that premium involved giving
credit to the Club for its benefits still to come from the third lease - the
very cheap rent up to 1999 and the fact that the 1999 and 2019 rent
revisions had to exclude any value for the Clubhouse. The Corporation
took the figure of £90,000 as the 1993-94 rental value on that basis. This
was in line with the astronomical rents which two of the nearby clubs had
to pay; the actual rent of one of them in 2000 was £114,000.
Suppose the market rent value of our course and clubhouse was no more
than £55,000 back in 1985, it meant that for each of fourteen years up to
1999 the club received a benefit from its low rent which exceeded the total
original cost of the Clubhouse. The credit for the unexpired term of the
third Lease was agreed at £250,000; that was additional of course to the
benefits from the low rents up to 1994. The first 5 yearly adjustment to the
ground rent of £500 was to £578.
It is not to be wondered at that the members readily approved the taking
up of the fourth lease, particularly when its results were compared with
the projected results of a renewal of the lease at a rackrent (no premium
involved) or of doing nothing until 2024.The £570,000 plus total expenses
of £50,505, i.e. £620,505 was largely (some 75%) provided by the
members; £138,591 by Special Subscriptions, £3870 by gifts, £194,485 by
the £500 loan issue and larger loans and £129,970 by advance
subscriptions for five years - a total of £466,921. A Bank Loan of
£200,000 was arranged for the balance; some of this was soon repaid as
some of the contributions from members were not received until after
payment of the £570,000 had to be made in April 1994. Two further
reductions each of £40,000 during 1994/5 came from (a) the sale of the
Groundsman's house and (b) a VAT refund; these, assisted by the monthly
repayments of £180, reduced the amount owing on this Bank Loan to
£15,061 as at 31st May 2002. The VAT refund was the result of the
European Community ruling that VAT was not chargeable on sporting
club's playing members' subscriptions. Most members waived their rights
to any part of the refund as a result of which a bonus of £54,215 was
available to the club at a very convenient time.
At 31st May 2002 £185,000 was still owing to members in respect of the
loans of £194,485 but with the Bank Loan down to £15,061, only just over
£210,00 was still owing in respect of the purchase of the fourth Lease in
1994 costing, with expenses, £620,505; a most encouraging position.
THE REDEVELOPMENT OF THE CLUBHOUSE
As a result of building up during 1988-1994 a cash reserve to pay for
improvements to the Clubhouse, two very worthwhile improvements were
carried out, the second involving an extension. The first, in 1991, was to
absorb into the Club's accommodation the Steward's flat. The Secretary's
office was moved into its present site - formerly the lounge of the flat and the area of the former office became the John Fraser room, with an
archway to the men's bar. Part of the downstairs accommodation of the flat
was converted to create a committee or bridge room and the remainder to
enlarge the Ladies' accommodation. This cost about £40,000. To make up
for the loss of the flat, a house in the Farthings on Kingston Hill was
bought in 1990 for £126,583, ostensibly for the Steward to live in but only
one has done so; the Head Greenkeeper occupied it for a short time but
otherwise it was let until it was sold and the proceeds used to help pay for
the 2002 redevelopment.
The second improvement was to the men's changing rooms and included
an addition; first the ablution area was entirely renewed in 1992 costing
some £28,000 - £10,000 of this for the new toilets and showers. Then in
1995 an extension to and the complete renewal of the old locker room
were undertaken costing some £46,000 - £26,000 of it being for the new
lockers. None of that work has been affected by the 2002 redevelopment.
The 2002 redevelopment had a long period of gestation. The replacement
of the roof, the windows and doors and the boiler had become really
urgent. In addition the members agreed to three major extensions which
to my mind are quite excellent. The first was to square off the outside
wall facing Kingston Hill, adding some 15 square yards both to the men's
bar on the first floor and the Ladies accommodation on the ground floor.
The second was to square off the outside wall facing down the 13th hole;
on the first floor level this involved absorbing into the main lounge some
15 square yards of the old balcony and continuing at that width to the far
end of the lounge, thus extending the lounge, by some 22 square yards; on
the ground floor the squaring off was limited to the addition of a small
storage room beyond the entrances to the Professional's shop and the
men's changing room. The third was to extend what was left of the old
balcony, some 8 feet in width, for nearly the whole length of that side of
the Clubhouse giving us a new terrace measuring some 8 feet by 60 feet;
it has steps at each
end and four double door entrances from the lounge and bar. In relation to
this third extension I would mention that during my seventeen years on
the Board up to 1988 the question of absorbing into the lounge the old
balcony came up several times but it was an all-or-nothing project. We
could never bring ourselves to abandon the entire accommodation for
sitting outside in the summer. Now we have the best of both worlds; an
extended lounge and a new terrace which gives us greater and
better-planned facilities for enjoying our quite exceptional view to the
North Downs.
To digress, it is our view from the clubhouse that features in John
Galsworthy's book, the Forsyte Saga, published in 1922. Born in 1867 he
lived from 1868 to 1886 in two large adjoining family homes built by his
father in George Road and each enjoying this same view. The first was
Coombe Warren (later Coombe Court) which, with its many acres
extending to what is now Coombe Lane West, lay behind the old brick
wall in George Road on either side of the top of The Drive. That road
came into being when the house was demolished and redevelopment of
this large area took place in the 1930's. Previously there was a short
entrance drive through the wall to the house on the right where the smaller
Coombe Crest now stands and is some 350 yards from our Clubhouse.
The family in 1875 moved next door to Coombe Ridge, now occupied by
Holy Cross Preparatory School, which stands less than 200 yards from our
Clubhouse. At the outset of the Saga, Soames Forsyte was negotiating to
build a country house and the author chose to place the imaginary Robin
Hill where he himself had lived in George Road for 18 years and to
emphasise the view. The book says the site was 12 miles from Hyde Park
Corner - that fits - and VA miles from Robin Hill station - that fits Maiden
Station. When in 1886 Soames brought his architect down to view the
proposed site, they walked up from the station and at the end "there was a
hill leading into a half made road" (that fits George Road) and on the other
side "a cart-track led ... to a gravel pit" (that fits the gravel pit that became
the main part of our 9 hole Course in 1904). Looking back "on the far
horizon ... rose a line of downs" (that is our
view). Soames, after being told by the agent "there's not a bit of
land near London with such a view", joined his architect who
recommended a different plot at the top of the slope. When
Soames objected, he was told "Hang the cost, man, look at the
view"; Soames gave in and Robin Hill was built at the top.
Later on in the book when the house was owned first by Old
Jolyon Forsyte and then by his son, the former said "The view's
first rate. You can see the grandstand at Epsom" and the latter
"walked up from the station entering his domain by the coppice
gate ... He passed the pond and mounted the hill slowly"; (that fits
the pond still at the bottom of The Drive and the steep walk up to
where Coombe Crest now is and Robin Hill was imagined to be!)
To revert to the redevelopment, it remains to deal with costs and
financing them. Work continued up to September 2002 and the
accounts for the year ended 31st May 2003 show the total costs of
the clubhouse development at £716,974. This
does not include furnishing it or the cost estimated at £56,000, still to be
incurred, of remedying the faulty work in the original construction of the
lounge floor. £56,000 is nearly 1lA times the 1967 total cost of
construction of the clubhouse! As to financing the project, £175,000 from
the sale of the Farthings, £202,000 from Members' loans and £110,000
from life memberships - totalling £487,000 - were used. The balance was
covered by a long term fixed interest loan from the Bank. At 31/5/2003
the loan stood at £400,326 of which only some £11,500 were attributable
to the 1994 purchase of out long lease. At 31/5/2003 the total of all
outstanding loans from members was 378,000.
In the first full financial year of the Company (1962/3) the full male
subscription was £19-19-0. In 1974 it was £58, in 1986 £275. In 1995 it
had risen to £710 and in the current year is £1029.
28
CHAPTER VIII
GOLF AND GOLFING
I have left a few comments on Golf and Golfing, the sina qua non of our
club, until the end.
THE JUNIORS
This section of the club has been transformed over the past thirty-five
years. In the early sixties the membership was 20 or so but by the early
eighties it had grown near to 40 and it was on 1st January 2003 72
including four girls. Over the years members have presented a number of
trophies, which has helped to make the section a live integrated one, so
much so that since 1980 a succession of senior members has overseen and
encouraged it and its members. There is now a Junior Captain and a match
programme with Juniors of other Club and other sections of our club.
Around 1970 Juniors began achieving single figure handicaps, Michael
Wale blazing the trail by winning the Scratch Paget Cup - now named the
Club Championship - in 1975 and 1976 his first two years as a senior
member; sometime later he played off 1. Juniors have also increasingly
been part of our team of six under 26 year olds for the Packham Bowl, a
triangular competition with Coombe Hill and Maiden, the best five medal
scores counting.
Juniors or young ex-juniors have virtually monopolised the Club
Championship for the last eleven years (1992-2002) and set a very high
standard in doing so; there were only two winning scores above 139, two
141's. Andrew Fordyce started in 1992, age 21, with a 134, winning again
in 2000 with a 139. Michael Heath, age 15, won in 1993 with 136, Guy
Chesser, age 22 won in 1994 with a 141 (he also won in 1995 and 1997
with a 139 and 141), James Lithiby, age 25, won with a 137 in 1998 at age
25. James Heath age 16 won in 1999 with a 136 (he also won at age 19 in
2002 with a record 130 (2 under par) ,when he was +2) and Michael
Choong won in 2001 at age 18 with a 137. The interloper was in 1996
when Neil Johnson (never a Junior) won with a 135 at the mature age of
33. In 1995 both Frank Cocker and his younger son Tom - then 16 - tied at
139 with Guy Chesser, but lost on the play off.
Thus the high playing strength of our Juniors is self-evident. There are
now 5 Juniors with single - figure handicaps and one hopes they will
follow in their predecessors' footsteps.
The two Heath brothers were both Club Champions as Juniors. Michael
played in the Surrey County Junior team in 1995 and came 2nd in the
National Junior Golf Tour, comprising the top 60 in the country. James
(Jay) followed suit playing in the Under 16 English Team in 1998 and
1999 and winning the Under 16 Faldo Competition in 1998. He also
played in the English Under 18 Team in 1999 and won the English Boys
Under 16 championship, the MacGregor Trophy, in that year- In 2002 at
age 19 he won the Greek Amateur and came 2" in the European Amateur;
he came 4th in 2003 when he also played for England in the Home
Internationals.
Coombe Wood has never had many girl juniors; in fact the present four is
thought to be the highest number we have ever had at one time. Paucity of
numbers however did not prevent Lisa McGowan, a leading Surrey player
and worthy Coombe Wood star, from following our two pre-1939 stars,
Sylvia Bailey and Pam Barton dealt with in Chapter II. I have included
Lisa's successes in the Ladies Section.
THE LADIES
I would first record that in 1975, the Ladies reached their 50th year as a
self-governing section of the Club. The Board acknowledged this Jubilee
by presenting to the Ladies the Jubilee Plate, which has become the name
of the annual foursome match between the Ladies and the Men which was
played in 1975 and every year since. As Captain of the Club at the time of
the 1975 match I had the honour of presenting the Jubilee Plate to the then
Lady Captain, Mary Warshaw, at the buffet party after the match. I was
also on that occasion honoured to make a presentation on behalf of the
Board to Mrs "Tops" Lunt Roberts in acknowledgement of her impending
retirement after very long service since August 1952 as Secretary of the
Ladies Section. She took over at a time of discord and very soon, so I was
told, she established her long reign of harmony and efficiency.
The unhappy saga of the (then) Seven Day Ladies and Five Day Members
losing their right to vote on the election of the management of the club in
1965, the flawed attempt in 1969 to remedy it - not fully realised as such
until around 1977 - and the eventual successful remedying of the position
in 1979 after the first attempt was rejected by male chauvinism, is
discussed in chapter IV. The remedy adopted not only cured the voting
problem but also gave to the former Seven Day Ladies, under their new
description as 'Full Members of the Club', the rights as such under the
Articles of Association of the Company, including eligibility for election
as an Ordinary Director. Thus from 1980 to date there has every year been
one Lady Director or in recent years usually two. The chauvinism misfired
in that it resulted in the Ladies achieving far more than was initially
proposed but rejected.
Turning to actual golf matters there were as one would expect
developments. The Business Ladies, who make up about a third of the full
playing Ladies, were establishing themselves as an active sub-section of
the Ladies; since 1962 they have had their own captain and have played
week-end matches with neighbouring clubs. Trophies have been presented
to the subsection as well as further trophies to the Section as a whole. One
of the latter is the first "scratch" competition of the Ladies, a cup being
purchased out of a legacy from Hetty Spearing and first played for in
1995. It is this cup - an aggregate scratch cup for the best average of seven
specified medal rounds - which seems to me to transform the basis on
which I worked for assessing the leading Lady golfers up to 1995. I took
the leading nine competitions plus the Burrough Aggregate Cup - all
handicap based - and counted the wins between 1970 and 1995. Of those
playing throughout, the late Betty Biggs and Rosanne Pursey had the most
wins, Betty 17 and Rosanne 14, Betty with 4 Burrough Aggregate
successes and Rosanne 2. Gaye Youldon over a much shorter period up to
1986 also had seventeen wins with 4 Burrough Aggregate wins. A new
name established itself in the 1990's, Corinne Bown, who had made her
presence known by winning the Burrough Aggregate in 1978, won it three
times out of four during 1992 to 1995 and won the Aston-Martin Cup in
three successive years 1992-4.
They, with Lisa McGowan, were the outstanding players in the period up
to 1995, but I should add that Sue Soloman and Marie Vrind had,
respectively, remarkably high numbers of wins for relatively few years of
membership.
From 1995 to 2002 the Hetty Spearing Scratch Cup seems to me the main
guide to form with the Aston Martin and Burrough Aggregate results to be
considered. Corinne Bown - no other - won the Scratch Cup in 1995,
1996, 1997 and 2001 and added another Burrough Aggregate in 1996 and
the stalwart Rosanne Pursey won the Aston Martin for four successive
years from 1998 to 2001 - her first win was in 1958 - as well as one more
Burrough Aggregate in 1997. They with Lisa continued as outstanding
players for this further period and are joined by the other two winners, so
far, of the Scratch Cup, Madeleine Coopman in 1998, 1999 and 2002 and
Chris Butler in 2000; Chris also won the Burrough aggregate in 1999 to
2001, to help her cause.
Now to Lisa; she became a Junior beginner at age 12 in 1988 and in 1990
was third in the under 15 national finals. She got her colours for the Surrey
Junior Girls team in 1990, for the Surrey Ladies 2nd team in 1991 and the
Surrey Ladies 1st Team in 1995. In the Surrey Girls Championships in
1993 and 1994, she was 3rd
and 2nd respectively. In 1994 she went up to Manchester University so
we saw little of her at Coombe Wood for three years but she kept her
golf going sufficiently to win the Surrey Ladies Golf Championship in
1996 and successfully repeated it in 2001. She continued in the Surrey
team after she moved in 2000 from the Kingston area. As to her
Coombe Wood successes, she won the Aston Martin in 1990 and 1991
(while a Junior Member) and again in 1995 and was joint runner up in
the Club Championship in 1993, also whilst a Junior. She just failed to
reach Scratch while at Coombe Wood, ending up with a minus 0.5
handicap.
THE MEN
The Men's golfing programme expanded over the last forty years with
more internal competitions, more matches with local clubs and three
local leagues (Warren, Waffron and Hilliards). We now have an
annual scratch match against the Surrey "A" Team for which we often
need help from the lowest handicapped juniors.
In assessing who the best players are, in my view one only needs to
study the results of the scratch competitions i.e. the 36 Holes Club
Championship - the old Paget Scratch Cup - running from 1923, the
Lewis Aggregate Cup - the average of best six gross scores out of
twelve specified medal competitions - running since 1967 - and the
new Frank Cocker Cup (Scratch knock-out) running from 2000. I have
seen the results of the Club Championships from 1948 onwards; up to
1980 there were only four winning scores under 140, J. Eager 139 in
1951, G.A.F. Ramsden 133 in 1961, (a new record then) T.P.
Thompson 138 in 1972 and M.F.B. Falconer 137 in 1977; in the next
twelve years up to 1991 there was only one winning score under 140,
Frank Cocker's 137 in 1991. In the next eleven years up to 2002, as
shown under the Junior Section, only once did someone who was not a
Junior or an ex-junior under 30 fail to win and do so with a score
under 140 except twice i.e. two on 141. As already stated James Heath
in 2002 scored 130 at age 19 and thus became the current record
holder, displacing Ramsden's 133 record in 1961. Since 1948 the
following have won more than once; Eddie Saunders 5 times, Rodney
Heard, Michael Taylor and Peter Dazeley 4 times, Frank Cocker and
Guy Chesser three times and M. Theakston, J. Eager, John Radcliffe,
David Whittaker, Michael Wale and James Heath twice.
The Lewis Scratch Aggregate started in 1967 and the same names appear.
Eddie Saunders 1970, Michael Wale 1976 and 1977, Michael Taylor six
times between 1978 and 1985, Frank Cocker eight times between 1986
and 1994 and James Heath 1999. Up to 1999 Frank was the only winner to
have achieved an average below gross 70 - he did it twice with a 69 and
68.3 and had three other scores under 71 which was achieved by only one
other winner up to 1999 - Michael Wale - who had a 70.1. James Heath then aged 16 - in 1999 walked away with the Cup with a record average of
64.6. In August 2000 he established the Amateur course record of 59. One
record however, may be safe for a time i.e. 63.2 for the Burrough
Aggregate Cup, since playing off a + handicap. James has to add it to his
actual average score.
Finally the Cocker Scratch Knock-Out Cup - in memory of Frank - started
in 2000 and was won in that year and 2001 by none other than James
Heath. In 2002 a new name, Chris Pitt, appeared as the winner; he also
won the Lewis Aggregate. In 2003 he also became Club Champion
When writing my History of the Club up to 1995, it was clear to me that
Frank Cocker was the outstanding male golfer of the Club at least since
1970, but in the intervening period up to the end of 2002, the achievements
of James Heath, both within the Club and beyond it, have in my view been
such as to demote Frank to second place. That is still very remarkable for a
man who joined the Club at age 33 as a Full Restricted Member and was a
recent beginner in 1980, but began winning the Lewis Aggregate Scratch
Cup six years later.
GENERAL
The Club has had an annual Pro-Am each year since 1982 which has been
popular among both the Ladies and the Men. It has over the years
benefited various charities nominated each year by the Captain. This year
it was an Am-Am.
Our Professional, David Butler, having succeeded George Ritchie in
January 1983, retired in October 2003. George had been an excellent
professional, particularly for one so young, and had been tempted away something he later regretted. We hoped that his successor would be at least
as good but we need not have worried, since David has been a most
excellent successor for over twenty years. Best wishes, David, in your
retirement. Congratulations and good luck to Phil Wright, his successor,
who has long been associated with the Club
The Ladies and the Men still join battle on the golf course on numerous
occasions. Not only the Jubilee Plate from 1975, but the earlier Jubilee
Cup from 1954 (to celebrate the Club's first fifty years) and the other
Monday Bank Holiday mixed competitions continue, as does the annual
mixed foursome knock-out cup. There is also the summer Thursday
Evening "Bob a Nob" get together which has been operating for some fifty
years; it is open to all and of particular value to a new member wanting to
meet other members.
CHAPTER IX
IN CONCLUSION
I had thought that Part 2 of my History of the Club, up to 1995, would be
my swan song, but having survived, I contributed a short precis of our first
hundred years for the Club's centenary brochure. I then realised that from
2004 onwards any history of the Club which did not cover the first
hundred years would be quite inappropriate. To add a supplement would
be equally so and I decided to write this Story which, as I said in the
Introduction, gave me the opportunity to cut out much that would not be
interesting to most of the current, let alone future, members, as well as
being more concise on other matters. For those who already have my
History, this Story contains new material for the period up to 1995 as well
as an account of happenings over the next eight years; it also contains,
thanks to James Mowbray, several illustrations which in my view
considerably enhance the volume. This Story is definitely my swan song.
Since 1936 we have been a members' Club and that means that for nearly
seventy years the Club has each year depended on members to do much
towards the running of the Club. It is not only the office holders but also a
whole host of other members, whether or not co-opted and whether openly
or behind the scenes, who contribute, in large or small measure, to the
successful running of the club or in the carrying out of special projects. I
wish to acknowledge all the contributions of those many hundreds of
members to our clubs' well being. In my History I tended to name a few of
the leading lights on particular projects but consider now that it was
invidious of me to do so. This story includes lists of the Captains of the
Club and the Ladies' Captains, as seems usual in Centenary Publications;
they are leading lights of their respective Captaincy years and often in
other years as well.
I have nearly completed 42 years of membership. No one has derived
more benefit and enjoyment from the club than I. I am so grateful both to
the club and to the countless fellow members I have known during my
membership. Finally I wish our club every success in the future; how
delightful it is to know that another hundred years can pass before our
present lease expires in 2119. Perhaps by 2104, steps will already have
been wisely taken to extend our tenure well beyond 2119.
JOHN W. WESTON October 2003
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
In writing this story as with all three of my earlier publications, I
received much help from members. Part 1 of my History (up to
1970) was published in 1985 at £2.00. After Frank Eyles typed my
hand written manuscript, Derek Underhill took over. He printed the
mastercopy and designed and produced the cover and bound the
first 600 copies, provided by Paul Hipps (400) with Tom Baillie and
Denis Prickett (100 each). Later John Evans provided another 200
copies for which Terry Hoggett provided the covers and Charles
Wiggall arranged the bindings.
Part 2 of my histoiy (1971- 1995) was published in 1996 at £3.00,
again with typing assistance from Frank Eyles. Roy Gray
word-processed the document and James Mowbray then produced
the final computer generated master copy. For this part John Evans
produced 300 bound copies using covers designed and produced by
Danny West.
The next step was to produce a volume containing both parts, after
James Mowbray had scanned Part 1 into the computer file already
containing Part 2. The combined volume was published in 1998 at
£6.00. John Evans provided 50 copies and subsequent copies have
been directly printed in the Club office using the computer file and
Danny West's covers.
My thanks again to all those kind helpers who enabled me to keep
expenses to a minimum, namely £100 for gifts to those who
actually printed John Evan's copies and £9 for binders. Total sales
to October 2003 have been £2903. A total of £2830 has been
received by the Club including £36 of gifts.
This Story, an abridged version of Parts 1 and 2 brought up to 2003,
has also emerged from James Mowbray's computer. He it was who
made the welcome suggestion of including coloured illustrations to
enhance both the text and the cover which he also designed. That
enhancement was made possible by the colour
laser printer attached to James' computer. Thank you James for all
your labours and expertise.
The 1983 and 1995 Captains, Michael Bowyer and Tom Baillie
kindly wrote introductory foerwords to parts 1 and 2 of my
History respectively. John Marsh, who is our Centenary Captain,
has kindly followed suit for this Story. I thank them all and wish
John a highly successful and interesting year.
34
J.W.W October 2003
Captains of Coombe Wood Golf C
ub
1904
1905
1906
1907
1908
1909
1910
1911
1913
1914
1915-20
1921
1922
1923
1924
1925
1926
1927
1928
1929
1930
Rt Hon A J Balfour
Adml Sir A Fitzgeorge
B Weguelin
A S Poyser
B Weguelin
RevE Barter
R J C Tangye
JWOrr
C Farrar
R F Eden
1914-18 WAR YEARS
Col Sir ACF FitzGeorge
F M Earl Haig
Sir A Paget
H F Lowe
R G Bradshaw
J Murphy
H Bailey
V Knapp
C B Watson
F P Wilde
1957
1958
1959
1960
1961
1962
1963
1964
1965
1966
1967
1968
1969
1970
1971
1972
1973
1974
1975
1976
1977
W Johnson
E L Burrough
WRO Armstrong
G S Lee
J Withers
E D Tiddy
A Darlow
J Chesworth
S H Lewis
J K Radcliffe
L M Stone
H V Gapper
A Edwards
N Bingham JP
H N Culliford
L Fraser Mitchell
H E Davis
A G Thompson
J W Weston
C M Booth
J M Leveson
1931
1932
1933
1934
1935
1936
1937
1938
1939
1940
1941
1942
1943
1944
1945
1946
1947
1948
E T Spearing
Sir A Woodgate
Col Sir A C F FitzGeorge
H S Heard
J B Brown
J B Brown
A M Cooper
H Ingram-Royle
A L Savage
T Hiscock
F H J Brooks
F A Farwell
H DonaldsonDSO
S Mitsotakis
Lt Col W E Batt CMG
His Hon Judge E Hancock MC
A B Lowrie
R J Lunt Roberts
1978
1979
1980
1981
1982
1983
1984
1985
1986
1987
1988
1989
1990
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
W A Read
A G Marley
P A Hipps
J E Evans
E Wale
M C Bowyer
K James
T Duncan
R Silver
D Gould
J H Hart
C Wiggall
J F Mowbray
ROA Keel
A H S Jenkins
A Kirby MBE
D Comish
TWT Baillie
1949
1950
1951
1952
1953
1954
1955
1956
J F Farquharson
F Theakston OBE
J S C Collier
E White
C Delderfield
J McGuckin
W J Miles
R Packham
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003--4
C A Noble
P J Hickey
T H Courcha
J H Sullivan
R W Hancock
A A Ansari
T M Livesey
J D Marsh
Captains of the Ladies' Section
1925
1926
1927
1928
1929
1930
1931
1932
1933
1934
1935
1936
1937
1938
1939
1940-44
1945
1946
1947
1948
1949
1950
1951
1952
1953
1954
1955
1956
1957
1958
1959
1960
1961
1962
1963
1964
1965
1966
1967
1968
1969
1970
1971
1972
1973
1974
Miss E Murphy
Miss E Murphy
Miss A F M Evans
Mrs E M Crutchfield
Mrs E M Crutchfield
Mrs R Rothwell-Jackson
Mrs K C Cook
Mrs S Batt
Miss S Bailey
Mrs C Reading
Mrs D R Helmore
Mrs D Kellie
Mrs E M Munro
Mrs E M Munro
Mrs M Carter
1939-45 WAR YEARS
Mrs E M Munro
Mrs E M Munro
Mrs R Rothvvell-Jackson
Mrs R Theakston
Mrs M C Clatworthy
Mrs M C Clatworthy
Mrs R Rothwell-Jackson
Miss M Royle
Mrs M I T Tolhurst
Mrs N L Killick
Dr N Robinson
Dr N Robinson
Mrs E Simpson
Mrs B M Fitt
Mrs GVM Thompson
Mrs P L Brown
Miss W E Packham
Mrs L M Davis
Mrs A Darlow
Mrs M E Henderson
Mrs B G Wichers
Mrs J Bingay
Mrs S Culliford
Mrs A Eyles
Mrs J M Priestley
Mrs H E Spearing
Mrs E H Acheson-Gray
Miss K J R Bianchi
Mrs B Biggs
Mrs D M MacDonnell
1975
1976
1977
1978
1979
1980
1981
1982
1983
1984
1985
1986
1987
1988
1989
1990
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2003-4
Mrs A C Warshaw
Mrs M J Froomberg
Mrs E Wale
Mrs W A Read
Mrs S G R Nice
Mrs D V E Marsh
Mrs M C Bowyer
Mrs M H Kerbel
Mrs D J Cawston
Mrs ROAKeel
Mrs C E Smith
Mrs B F Sharp
Dr M P Baillie
Mrs R E Adams
Mrs M A Silver
Mrs J M Sheldon
Mrs D V J Higgins
Mrs M A Villars
Mrs D M Waygood
Mrs E C Saunders
Mrs S M Mowbray
Mrs K H James
Mrs M J Holden
Mrs B E Gray
Mrs D M Kirby
Mrs M Carr
Miss M L M Lyle
Mrs G E Leveson
Mrs M Marsh
Dr D J Hetherington
V2.7b