OTGS Spring Meeting at Royal Cinque Ports and Royal St George's GCs. March 13th and 14th.                          

                                                                                                                                      Report from Tony Monteuuis

This was a highly successful meeting, held initially in pretty good weather but with an increasingly difficult wind on the second day. It was well-supported and widely felt to be one of the most enjoyable meetings for years with some 50 members playing on either one or both of the two days.

On the Thursday at Deal, we had been rather pleased to think that our retiring Captain, Adrian Cooper, was about to win his own Captain’s Prize. However, very late on, Chris Charlton returned to the Clubhouse having destroyed the field with an astonishing 77 - 12 = 65 (42 points) to win by 6 clear points. The afternoon foursomes event for the President’s Prize was won (with 37 points) by the very experienced Richard Stocks and Ian Mackintosh. They had entered School House together on the same day only three months after Queen Elizabeth’s coronation. I wonder if they ever dreamed then that, 55 years on, they might collect a prize together at an OTGS meeting.

The course at Deal had been in wonderful condition but their locker room was being refurbished and not surprisingly was a bit of a building site (and darned cold). We were therefore quite pleased to move on to the relative serenity of Sandwich where we held our AGM and were particularly delighted to welcome Colin Vokins as our new Captain, replacing Adrian Cooper whose term of office had been a model and had proved to be a joy for the Hon. Secretary!

This was followed by dinner in the clubhouse at Royal St George’s where the food is legendary. It was a magnificent black tie affair and, by common consent, the best and most enjoyable Dinner (and Spring Meeting too) we have had for many years. The Club gave us a wonderful meal, their legendary silverware was on the tables and it was a glittering occasion. Neil Williamson and Gerald Corbett had the room rocking with laughter as they both gave wonderful speeches. Williamson earned roars of approval for, in particular it seemed, his elegant verbal assault on the Hon. Secretary and Corbett responded with consummate style, returning Williamson’s best shots with interest amidst general hilarity. Both speeches were tours de force.

On the following day, in blustery weather at R.St.George’s, Peter Saggers and Oli Boreham both played extremely well to share the trophy for the main event, the Scratch Medal. Saggers won the first prize on countback. Their scores of 73 were excellent and the four members of the Hewitt team taking part were left floundering in their wake. Not surprisingly Oli won the Handicap Medal with his net 68.

Next year we will be at Aldeburgh where John Thompson will be about to become their Captain so we expect the red carpet! Rather exceptionally we are being allowed to hold our meeting on the Friday and Saturday. This is a real treat for us and it is hoped that many of our members who cannot play midweek will join us on the Saturday.

The dates for the 2009 Spring Meeting will be Friday 20^th and Saturday 21^st March.