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The following day I
played in an exhibition match in aid of the Irish Golf Union at
Belvoir Park in Belfast. The club presented my wife with some Irish
linen and I received an Irish Blackthorn walking stick. I will
always treasure that memento of some of my happiest times on the
golf course. When we arrived at Belfast harbour a big crowd had
assembled to see us off and I was greeted with a terrific cry of “Hi
champ”. When I got home my four-year old son greeted me with the
same cry and he has always greeted me that way. He is a pensioner
now and still does it. Still a nice feeling! I returned to West Cheshire to a similar welcome and gave most of my clubs away. One young member, Gerry Chester, received my George Nicholl 4-iron and my putter. He said that the magic seemed to have rubbed off on him, especially the putter and his handicap quickly came down. I was soon to regret my generosity when I lost my putting touch and I pleaded with the young man’s Dad, a good friend of mine, to return the club to me. He told me that his son was so attached to the club that it would take something special to persuade him to part with it. A few days later the lucky young man found a new set of clubs in his locker. He was delighted but recalled later that, even when he was playing off scratch after the war, he never putted so well as in those pre-war days.  In August I was runner-up to Percy Alliss in the Northern
Professional Championship and to the young Scot Johnny Fallon of
Huddersfield, for the Leeds Cup - in the same tournament at Mere. In
those days events were combined and this was a three-in-one
tournament in which the leader after the first two rounds was the
winner of the Leeds Cup, the four round leader took the Northern
Professional title and the championship was also a qualifier for the
PGA News of the World Match-play championship. Johnny pipped me for
the Leeds Cup by one and, going into the last round I was four ahead
of Percy, but I finished badly for a 75 and Percy holed some good
putts to beat me to the Northern Pro Championship by two and retain
the title he had won at Heysham the previous year.Percy had been suffering from his putting malaise in the earlier rounds and the Manchester Evening News golf correspondent, Fred Tomlinson, questioned him about his habit of leaving his putts short on line. Percy told him how frustrated he was about this when a slightly stronger blow would yield more birdies, but he preferred that to a bold putt going three feet past. Tomlinson commented that Percy did not realise how exasperating it was to his friends to see him close to the pin with great iron shots and unable to finish them off. I think I was the exasperated one after that championship – to come second in a tournament is always a frustration but to be twice runner up - in the same event – is doubly so. Mere in Cheshire, a lovely parkland layout known as the Wentworth of the North, was only two years old and this event was the first professional tournament staged by the club. James Braid had designed the course, with assistance from his friend George Duncan, the club’s professional from its formation in 1934 until he retired in 1961. George was still ‘galloping’ around Mere in two and half-hours or less when in his sixties. Braid and Duncan teamed up again for the official opening in May 1935 to play Open champion Henry Cotton and Jack Busson of Pannal, holder of the News of the World Matchplay, Yorkshire Professional and Leeds Cup titles. Cotton and Busson won 3 and 1. Mere has invested heavily on course maintenance over the years and that week the Manchester Evening News wrote about the club ‘cooking the weeds’. The soil used for top dressing the greens was treated using apparatus consisting of an old steam engine and pipes through which steam was passed to receptacles containing the top soil - “So greenkeepers can tell when the soil is done to a turn and all the weeds are destroyed”, they explained, “they put a potato in the soil and, when it is cooked the soil is sterilised, preventing thousands of weeds being scattered on the greens”. Good old-fashioned greenkeeping! The News of the World tournament was at the magnificent Stoke Poges (now Stoke Park)with its splendid James Wyatt designed Palladian mansion clubhouse described by Darwin as: “A dazzling vision of white stone”. On the Harry Colt designed course I played against two brothers and an uncle and nephew. In the first round I beat John Burton of Hillside and defeated his brother Dick in the second round. I then accounted for Eddie Whitcombe in the third round, before losing to his Uncle Reg in the quarterfinals. NEXT |
