A potted history of the first 50 years

compiled by J. H. Bell (c)

Minutes of a meeting held in the schoolroom at the Ordnance Survey Office, London Road Southampton, on September 24th 1934 to discuss the formation of an Ordnance Survey Golfing Society.

Present:

After discussion based on the subject of the meeting,. it was proposed by Mr. B. Watts, seconded by Mr. P. Grundy, that a Ordnance Survey Golfing Society be formed. The proposition was carried unanimously.

It was agreed that Golf meetings should be held in the second week of each month with extra meetings at the discretion of the committee. The annual subscription was set at 2/6d. Thus is recorded the birth, of what is now known as the Ordnance Survey Golf Club.

It is recorded that P. Grundy, who was the first Captain and held this office until 1938, won the Portsmouth Open Amateur Championship in 1935.

The first reference to an organised outing by the society was an annual trip to Hockley, whilst on the competitive side, A and B teams were fielded against such opposition as Stoneham, Barton, Hockley, Winchester, Romsey, Lee-on-Solent, Hollybank, Leckford, Customs and Excise and The Avenue.

Little mention is made of competition winners in those early days, except that J. Campbell won both the Captains prize and the DGs Cup in 1936. Other than these prizes it appears that spoons were awarded to monthly competition winners, until 1938, when it was decided to discontinue this practice and award other items as prizes to the value of 7/6d.

The society, by 1939, then captained by J Campbell and with a membership of 65, had progressed energetically and successfully to its fifth birthday when, in common with so many other clubs and societies, it had to cease its official activities for the duration of the Second World War.

With the end of the war, and the return of soldiers to civilian duties, the activities of the Golf Society were again taken up in May 1946. At a meeting held at the Southampton Civil Service Club, the first post war officers, amongst whom were such names as J.G. Woodford, J. Bolton, R. Sharp and J. Biles were elected and the annual subscription again set at 2/6d.

Golf was at the time confined to monthly competitions all of which were played on Southampton Municipal Golf Course, together with the revived annual outing to Hockley. As a matter of interest the cost of the outing was 10/- which covered 2 rounds of golf, tea, prizes, coach travel and various gratuities.

An interesting form of competition introduced at this time was the Boomerang league where six teams, each named after a golf club of the day (i.e. Mashie, Blaster, Niblick etc), played each other through out the year with the eventual winners being presented with a Boomerang.

In 1948 the outings were extended, to include a visit to the now defunct Hythe and Dibden course, as well as the traditional visit to Hockley, which that year must have been something special as the committee of the day directed that an entry be made in the minutes to the effect that "this meeting was a very successful event". Another first in 1948 was the introduction of the annual dinner, which, as was to become customary for the next few years, was held at the Dolphin Hotel.

By 1949 with membership now at 48 the number of outings was increased to 4 per year. Another notable step forward was made by the society at the AGM, when it was decided to affiliate to the Hampshire, Isle of Wight and Channel Islands Golf Union. This action gave the society the facility of allocating official handicaps, and the option, which was not taken up at the time, of changing its title from society to club.

Unfortunately it also caused the annual subscriptions to be increased from 2/6d to 5/-.

1949 also saw the introduction of the Greensome competition.

The first club outing of 1950 to Hayling Island, was made on a fine day in April, but it was not repeated for many years as the members considered the course to be too difficult! Also introduced at this time was the annual Gold Medal competition over 36 holes, contested between the winners of the monthly competitions. The first winner was Club Captain, Bob Sevage, with net returns of 81 and 68.

The festival of Britain was held in 1951, and as part of the celebrations in Southampton, an Open Golf knock out competition was held. It was pleasing to note the eventual winner , after a tough struggle against a member of Southampton Golf Club, was Bob Sevage. Subsidised lessons for beginners to the game were started by Club professional, Fred Bowdrey.

The most notable event was the decision, taken with some reluctance it was reported, to drop the title of Society in favour of club.

One of the outings in 1951 was to Royal Winchester. DG Major General R. Ll Brown attended. His wife donated the prizes, for the two unluckiest players.

As an experiment in 1953 an outing to Bramshaw was tried with members providing their own transport. It was not a success as only twenty members attended and it was not tried again for some years.

1954 saw the introduction of the Thackwell Shield competition, an inter section competition run on a knock out basis. The idea was thought up by Colonel D. Thackwell, hence the name of the shield.

The Club Championship had, until 1956, been run as a knock out competition, but in that year it was agreed to decide the Championship by the more satisfactory and possibly fairer method, by playing 72 holes scratch. The first was Bob Sevage with a gross total for two rounds of 157.

Membership of the Club reached the magic one hundred (actually 112) in 1958 and with it a reflection of quality as well as quantity, as eight members had single figure handicaps and a further forty two were 18 or under. On his retirement from Ordnance Survey, long time member and great enthusiast, C.H.B. Oakley was made the first life member of the club.

The silver jubilee of the club in 1959 was reached without any special celebrations. However the Veterans Cup, limited to members of 50 years and over, was introduced and won fittingly by founder member C. Prestidge. Membership had risen to 127, with 58 attending the first outing of the year to Rowlands Castle. An average of fifty percent entered all the major competitions.

In 1962, Bob Sevage won the Club Championship with a gross score of 153. However a year later saw a tie for the Club Championship between Bob Sevage and Mervyn Simmonds. After a three hole play off, Mervyn emerged the winner by one shot.

John Woodford who had been instrumental in re-establishing the Club after the war and had been secretary for the past seventeen years retired from the committee in 1964. The Chairman of the Club at the time wrote " As secretary he gave the Club a feeling of strength and permanence for which the Club would always be in his debt".

A low point in the history occurred in 1996, when with a membership of 129, the outing to Lee-on-the-Solent had to be cancelled due to the lack of support. A steep increase to 35/- (£1.75p) appeared to be the reason, a sharp increase in those days.

A team was entered in the Southampton Evening League in 1968, starting off in division 2. 1968 was also the year the Club start to welcome Chessington colleagues as they moved into the new HQ at Southampton.

Membership in 1969 reached a record of 145. This still stands today. Because of the newly introduced booking system at Southampton Municipal, some one day major competitions were moved to the outings. The Chessington Cup, presented to the club by the now defunct Chessington Society, was one of them that moved. Appropriately enough it was won in the first year by former Chessington stalwart Stu Mably.

Another long link with the past was broken at the end of 1969 with the retirement by Jim Bolton from the post of treasurer which he had held for 23 years. He was made a life member of the Club for his services, a fitting reward for one who had spent so many years extracting money, "with relish", it was stated in none annual report, from fellow members.

In only the second year in the evening league the OSGC team, led by Les Bomby, won promotion to Division 1. In 1970 the outing to Bramshaw will probably be remembered for the fact that the youngest and oldest members each won a competition; Alistair Stuart winning the Captain's Prize, while Ted Oxenham, who did not take up golf until the age of 62, won the Veterans Cup.

At the end of 1970 Tom Baker, who had been Club Chairman since 1948, retired from that office and sadly died early in 1971.

Club member Alistair Stuart won the Hants Youth Championship (17-21 age group) and also reached the last 16 of the Evening News Competition. Associate member Nigel Hosking, won the Club Championship with a record score of 147 gross.

The year that started so sadly finished on a brighter note with the Evening League Team, led by Vice Captain Don Davies, established itself in the first division by finishing fourth.

1972 saw the Evening League Team go one better than the previous year by finishing third.

The Thackwell Shield was revamped in 1974, being played as a team stableford event over the Municipal course and thus achieving a result in one, albeit long, afternoon.

Miss P. Vidler, as an entrant in the Thackwell Shield , had the distinction of being the first lady to play in any Ordnance Survey Golf Club competition. She celebrated by scoring 34 points which helped her team to win the trophy. The Club Champion was Alistair Stuart who also won the County Youth Championship for the second time.

This was also the year that Club professional Fred Bowdrey, retired. Fred, who had been involved with the club since its formation in 1934, must take credit for starting so many members on the road to an appreciation and enjoyment of the game.

To mark his retirement Mr. Bowdrey presented a cup for annual competition between the Clubs of Southampton, Ordnance Survey and the Municipal Officers GS (Mogs). It was fitting that Ordnance Survey won the inaugural triangular competition.

The Evening League team finished runners up in Division one.

In 1976, the year of the long hot summer, the Thackwell Shield was actually played on a wet day. However this did not deter over sixty golfers from taking part in the competition thus showing the popularity of the new format. The annual fixture of Captain verses Vice Captain saw Tom Powell break with tradition and win this event.

Division one status was retained in the Evening League, but only after a three way play off. On a brighter side Ordnance Survey won the Bowdrey Cup again.

Two more stalwarts, Bob Sevage and John Sumner, retired from the committee after many years service, but the member who will remember 1977 more than most will be Des McCloskey. He chose the outing to Salisbury and South Wilts Golf Club and achieved a Hole-in-one whilst winning the Chessington Cup.

The club was further honoured in 1977, when it was awarded the Dowson Trophy by the Ordnance Survey Sports and Social Club "in recognition of services given over many years and as appreciation of the way it conducted its business".

With all due modesty it must be stated that it was a well deserved honour for a Club which could proudly boast that its associate membership never rose above 5% of total membership.

The period 1979-1983 appear to have been uneventful. A full programme of events during this period saw Miss D. Lucas become the first full lady member in 1982, whilst Alan Oakenfull, long time committee member, Secretary and then Chairman retired from official golfing duties.

On the competitive side Joe Wright in his last act as Captain in 1980, led his team to victory in the Bowdrey Cup whilst successive Vice Captains have ensured that Division one status had been retained in the Evening League.

Membership was maintained above the hundred mark until 1981 but in 1983 had dropped to 81, reflecting the decreasing size of Ordnance Survey.

With the arrival of 1984, the Club decided that the Golden Jubilee should be celebrated in style, and elected Norman Hardisty as Captain and evergreen John Sumner as the third life member. 1984 also saw the revival of the Annual Dinner and presentation evening.

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