Oxfordshire Golf Captains

The Foundations Being Laid

On the 22nd July, 1968, a total of nineteen past Captains from Burford, Chipping Norton, North Oxford and Oxford City golf clubs attended a meeting at North Oxford Golf Club to consider the formation of the Oxfordshire Golf Club Captains’ Society. Agreement to go ahead was duly reached, the life membership fee was set at two guineas and the first officers were elected:

Chairman                                 Philip Haynes, Burford Golf Club
Secretary/Treasurer              Gordon Matthews, Burford Golf Club
Committee Members                John Chaundy, Oxford City Golf Club
                                             Geoff Roberts, Chipping Norton Golf Club and
                                             John Stephens, North Oxford Golf Club.

As can be seen, the original number of four member Golf Clubs within the Oxfordshire Golf Captains has gradually increased and today stands at 18 Clubs.

At the first Committee meeting on the 12 August, 1968, George Gale, Burford Golf Club, but then Secretary at North Oxford Golf Club, was co-opted onto the Committee.  At the same meeting it was agreed to organise Spring and Autumn meetings and to stage annual matches against Berkshire, Devon, Gloucestershire, Somerset and Wiltshire.

Founder Members

Burford
1948 Philip Haynes
1958 Gordon Matthews
1959 C W R Cross
1964 George Rose
1967 Lindsey Stirling
1968 K I T Smith
Chipping Norton
1966 Geoff Roberts
Huntercombe
1954 Sir Robert Speed
North Oxford
1958 John Stephens
1966 Ron Church
1967 George Pimm
Oxford City
1949 Herbert Draper
1953/54 John Chaundy
1964 Dennis Bryden
1965 George Butler
1966 Dick Gray
1967 Derek Honey

The following month saw the initial Autumn golf meeting, hosted by the North Oxford Golf Club, when the £1 entry fee apparently covered the cost of tea, prizes and gratuities.  George Pimm and Dick Gray were triumphant in this foursomes event with 34 points.

During 1969, Henley, Huntercombe and Tadmarton Heath Golf Clubs brought the total number of participating clubs to seven and by then the Society had attracted a membership of 68 past captains; sadly though, a planned week-end trip to Hawkstone Park had to be cancelled through lack of support. At the first Annual General Meeting in September 1969 Ted Kirby, North Oxford Golf Club, was elected the Society’s first President.

Internal Developments

Philip Haynes was elected President at the second AGM in 1970 and remained in post until 1976. After this, the President’s term was for a period of two years until 2001 when it was still further reduced to one year.

It was also in 1970 that Reg Powell replaced Geoff Roberts on the Committee. It was agreed at that time that Philip Haynes (who was also the first officially to be appointed Match Secretary in 1976) and Reg Powell would select the teams and, in practice, together they performed the bulk of the work in running the Oxfordshire Golf Club Captains’ Society until their deaths in 1985 and 1986 respectively.

The first appointment of Vice President happened in 1977 but it was not until 1982/3 that Jim Austin, who had been a Committee member since 1976, became the very first Captain of Captains.  From the group’s inception until this time, the various Committee members had acted as match ‘Captain of the day’ in rotation but it was then decided that a Captain should be appointed. Ever since, the Captain has been elected annually for a term of one year.

Brian Hull became Secretary/Treasurer in 1975, a position he held for ten years until Derek Honey succeeded him. Derek, in turn, stayed in the post for a further 20 years, finally relinquishing in 2005.  One area in which Brian and Derek had exerted their influence is perhaps reflected in the rising cost of match fees from £1 in 1972 to £15 in 1990 and to £35 today!  

As the years passed, other events were introduced that we still play today, like the first mixed foursomes (to become greensomes in 1999) in 1972 at Southfield and that same year the Society flag was designed and purchased. At the 1977 Annual General Meeting the Society was re-named the “Oxfordshire Golf Captains’ Society,” eventually assuming it present title the “Oxfordshire Golf Captains” in 1989.

The passing years witnessed membership gently rise to 103 by 1975, then to 150 in 1990, and again to 230 in 2000, 277 in 2004 and finally to over 300 today.
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