Old Eastbournian
OE Golf Society
OE Fives T he number of players has grown through this last year, especially ladies, and those trying out for the first time have shown how quickly the game can be learned, even ending a first session with a very competitive singles match. Seeds also continue to be sown at the younger end of the spectrum with the provision of a fives activity at St Andrew’s (four sessions per week throughout the year) and the use of the new glass back wall which has created an indoor specta- tor space as well as a slightly reduced playing area more suitable for young players. However, we await a further upgrade to this facility as the company tasked with installing the glass back wall went out of business before providing the finishing touches. We are also looking forward to the promised improvements to the College courts ie new roofing, although plans have understandably been delayed by the downturn in economic circumstances. This is frustrating as the courts con- tinue to suffer from the weather and any significant rain is likely to find its way into the courts and cause sessions to be can- celled. Nevertheless, we have enjoyed lots of great fives over the past twelve months and look forward to seeing more new faces in the future – every Tuesday evening at 8.00pm throughout the year (spencerbeal@hotmail.com). T he Old Eastbournian Golf Society (OEGS) organised a full programme of events in 2024. We entered the main scratch team tournaments – namely the Halford Hewitt, Grafton Morrish and Cyril Gray – and also the Public Schools Putting Tournament at Royal Wimbledon. We played a total of nine matches against other old boys’ golf societies, the College and the College Common Room. 2024 saw the third running of the Richard Day Singles Knockout and we again put on a Texas Scramble event aimed at younger OE golfers. To enable OEGS members to enjoy each other’s company on the golf course, we also organised two ‘Open Meetings’ in 2024: one at Piltdown in June (jointly with the Eastbournian Society) and an ‘end of season’ event at Cooden Beach in September. We are giving consideration to adding another such event to the calendar in 2025. We are Spencer Beal writes:
to 1.5. Our thanks go to Jo Grey for organ- ising this match for several years but this does look as if it will be last in the series. Piltdown GC Summer Open Event – 17 June 2024
also organising and subsidising a special golf evening in early 2025 for younger members and prospective members at a ‘virtual’ indoor golf venue in London. A range of OEGS branded merchandise – polo shirts and sweaters (for both men and ladies), caps, umbrellas etc – is available to members through our website. Membership of the OEGS is available to all members of the Eastbournian Society – ie OEs and also parents of former and current College pupils and members of staff of the College. Some of our fixtures are only open to actual OEs. However, our matches against other schools, our Spring Tour to Norfolk and June and Autumn Meetings are open to any member of the OEGS and to golfers of all abilities. We play on many magnificent golf courses, at times paying well below the usual green fee rate. Matches against other teams 2024 was not our most successful year in these matches. The matches against Cranleigh at Royal St George’s was just a friendly in preparation for the Halford Hewitt. Of the other eight matches (including those against the College and the College Common Room) we only won against Uppingham but did manage halves against Hurstpierpoint, the College and the Common Room. The other matches were against King’s Canterbury, Tonbridge, Lancing and Reeds / Dover College. The match against the College on 23 May saw wins for Iryna Photiou/Colin Farrant for the OEs and the formidable Shakespeare boys for the College. The boys were all excellent golfers but more impor- tantly, delightful company both on and off the course – a credit to themselves, their parents and the College. We were back at Royal Eastbourne GC just 10 days later to play against the Common Room . More glorious weather and another halved match. Jay Lorton, paired with Claire Patterson-Snell, may have lost their game but Jay made up for this with a hole-in-one at the 13th (which cost him a round of drinks for everyone). The team of seven that took on Ton- bridge at West Sussex on 21 July included four of our younger members: Will Buck- land, Oliver May, Matteo Chu and Dominico Wright. We had a much better afternoon than morning and only narrowly lost the overall match. The youngsters seemed to have enjoyed it and hopefully they will spread the word about the OEGS and our activities to their friends. We played Uppingham at Blackmoor GC on 24 July, a change from recent matches at North Hants, and we won by 3.5 matches
Emma Garrett with the winning team of Elaine, Iryna, Patricia and Claire This was the first time the OEGS and the Eastbournian Society had joined forces to host a golf day and it turned out to be most successful with 24 people playing. The weather was excellent and the golf course challenging. We played in teams of four with the two best Stableford scores counting, as well as best individual score, longest drive and nearest the pin. The team award went to Claire Patter- son-Snell, Iryna Photiou, Elaine Robinson and Patricia Sneath with an amazing total of 100. Nearest the pin on the tricky seventh hole went to Carolyn Oldham and longest drive to Matt Grover. We shall be repeating this event in June 2025 and look forward hopefully to seeing a few new OE golfers joining us. Scratch competitions This was a very special year for the Halford Hewitt Tournament seeing that the first one was played in 1924 (with Eastbourne joining in 1932). The Centenary Dinner was held in London in January, there were a series of special events at Deal during
The majority of our Hewitt team prior to our first-round match against Haileybury. From the left: Ben Twine, Jack Hughes, Tim Mote, Ian Sands, Geoff Campbell and Harry Rimmer
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