Ilkley Golf and Dinner

Fourteen golfers travelled to Ilkley Golf Club on Friday 18 April from all parts of the North and Midlands to take part in the second North of England OG Golf Day, organised and hosted by Martin Scriven (RS ‘62). There were numerous faces from last year, such as the Clark brothers - Andrew (W ’73) and Richard (D ’76) from Hull, Peter Branton (H ’48) from Burton-on-Trent, Malcolm Curphey (B ’59) from Liverpool and David Craven (B ’90) from Wilmslow. However, we were also joined by one or two new faces this year, some of whom hadn’t been in touch with the school since leaving twenty to thirty years ago. The weather, unlike last year, was cold breezy and wet and proved a real test. Despite this, scoring was very good indeed. Carl Bushby from Leeds (A ‘77) ran out winner with an excellent Stableford score of 38 points.  However, probably the highlight of the day was the first OG Golf Day hole-in-one! Keith Brassington (B ’68) holed his 7 iron tee shot at the short second hole - his first ever hole-in-one! 

In the evening many of the golfers were joined by their partners and one or two non-golfing OGs for a lovely dinner and prize giving, with a total of 23 enjoying an excellent carvery. Martin made a short speech of thanks, followed by an up-date from Richard Devey on Gordonstoun in the 21st century. There was then some time for questions and answers at the end, and all seemed to appreciate the opportunity to catch up and clear up some misconceptions about Gordonstoun today.

All left saying they’d be back again next year, and several said they would be spreading the word to try and get the numbers even higher. Many thanks go to Martin for his excellent organisation, as ever.

All in all, an excellent day!