OC Golf is thriving and it is gratifying to have good support for our many events.

It is also pleasing to report that our team in the Halford Hewitt met with some considerable success. The competition at the beginning of April was played in atrocious conditions, but saw Cranleigh playing some outstanding golf. The full results are set out below. The first round win against Charterhouse is a delight to report. As Tony Whitty commented "certainly Cranleigh's finest win in 20 years and it was probably the biggest surprise result of the first round. It again proved that handicaps count for nothing and that team spirit and compatible partners can be very signifcant factors".

The second round win against Ampleforth was a comfortable one. They had been Grafton Morrish finalists in the last competition.

The third round match provided strong opposition. Merchiston went on to the semi-finals this year having been finalists in 2000. There was little between the two sides. The 5th pair were all square on the 17th tee, but lost the 17th and 18th holes having played exceptionally well throughout the tournament. This was Andrew Cronk's first loss in 5 matches and none of his games had been halved. The full results were:-

Our congratulations go to all concerned for an excellent performance. Ed Coleridge in particular seemed not to be fazed by the experience. He was a school leaver only 2 years ago. With several promising golfers who are recent leavers or currently at School the future is looking rosy for continuing success.

In contrast we failed to qualify for the Grafton Morrish finals. 19 teams took part in the qualifying with 8 sides to go through. We gained a total of 75 points in the Scratch Stableford foursomes, some way short of the qualifying mark which was about 80. The team was:

We also narrowly missed success in the Brent Knoll although, as Matthew Hansford reports, our team members had a fantastic weekend of high quality golf and hospitality (I wonder whether those descriptions are in the right order!).

In the first match the OCs played against a very strong RAF team with at least 3 scratch players. The RAF pair were too strong for our top pair, Mark Connolly and Mark Burridge. Matthew Hansfordand Martin Riddiford were unlucky to lose on the 19th, and Bobby Stovold and David Bradbeer (a few years' difference here!) were pipped on the 18th. We lost to the Burnham club side in the afternoon, but David Bradbeer gained his first win for teh OCs, hopefully the first of many years to come.

The Spring Meeting at Walton Heath was well supported with 37 participants including (as it was held during Long Leave) 2 vistors from School - Henry Allis, the then Captain of Golf and David Bradbeer with handicaps of 10 and 9 respectively. Both played some excellent golf.

The best gross in the morning was 78 by David Bradbeer followed by Robin Stilwell with a 79. Peter Rold and Henry Allis each scored 36 stableford points. The afternoon foursomes were won by Anthony Fey and David Bradbeer.

Twenty members had an enjoyable evening at Royal Wimbledon for the Putting Competition, won this year by Marcus Ferguson-Jones who was the only the 8th and last qualifier.

We subsequently failed to qualify for the Putting Finals. 8 Schools compete each night, the first 2 qualifying for the Final. Malvern and Cliftonwon through on our evening when we came fourth. We were represented by Luke Parry, Marcus Ferguson-Jones, Martin Riddiford and Richard Sykes.

There were 17 pairs taking part in the Invitation meeting at New Zealand. The overall winners for the 2 ROunds were Colin Ferguson and his guest with second place being taken (to everyone's delight) by John Brazell and Peter Mathieson. Monty Booth and his partner were third.

Apart from those scores Tim Hazell and his partner had the bestremaining score in the morning round, and Tony Rogers and his partner in the afternoon.

Our team in the Mellin Salver (for the over 55s) won through 2 rounds and were beaten in the semi-finals.

We defeated Haileybury in the first round by 2 1/2 - 1/2. The first pair, Andrew Cronk and Tony Mote, were held to a halved match, but the other pairs, Ian Borrow and (on his debut) Mickey Moore and Robin Elsdon-Dew and Richard Sykes both won.

In the second match we beat Downside by 2 matches to 1. The pairs were the same. The first pair won 4 & 3 and the second pair clinched the match by winning on the 20th.

We were defeated in the semi-finals by Cheltenham. The first pair won easily 6 & 5 but the other pairs lost 3 & 2 and 2 & 1 repectively.

By the time this report is seen in print we will have had the Autumn meeting at Worplesdon and the October weekend at Deal. They will be followed by the Annual Dinner to be held in November at Boodles.

Andrew Cronk will be taking over as Captain in November, a second stint in this role in recognition of his considerable support of OC and School Golf for many years. He has agreed to organise another tour in the first week of September 2002, this time based in Dornoch on the North East Scottish coast.