Advanced
Site Search

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

BACK NEXT Chapter 1 Early Days on the Common Page 11

Latterly it was a relic from the early days that assisted the Worcestershire Golf Club to complete a fine new clubhouse overlooking the present course. A rare ‘Henry’s Rifled Ball’ sold for a record £29,500.

During my early childhood came the first of the twentieth century conflicts that were to have such a big impact on our lives and my elder brothers, George and Charles, went off to war; George joined the Welsh Fusiliers and Charles, the Worcestershire Regiment. I was nine years old when the First World War ended and I can still recall some of the happenings of those days. Shortages in the shops were just a way of life and ears were always tuned to the grapevine in case there was anything to be had. Many times I stood in queues at the ‘Maypole’ in the hope of getting perhaps a pound of margarine – there was little else available. Bread was almost black – pretty horrible stuff it was too! Each family was allowed one pound of sugar per head per year for jam making, which believe it or not had to be collected from the Police Station. I had the job of collecting our family’s 6lbs. This was weighed out by the policeman in charge, usually into a strong pillowcase, and then it was a two-mile walk home. Meals were largely vegetarian, thanks to the very large gardens we cultivated and the jam that was made from the sugar allowance was mainly ‘plum and apple’ – the soldiers favorite. To this day I detest it, but it was the teatime mainstay during the war years. Breakfast usually consisted of porridge – with black treacle. No milk, or sugar - Fancy it? Looking back over those years I am sure that the country was nearer starvation during that war than it ever was in the second conflict. However, we got through it and George and Charles returned safely, although Charles received a severe leg wound, which could only be ‘patched up’ by the surgery available then and was eventually the cause of his premature death. Life returned to something like normal on ‘The Common’ and so it continued until it was time to take to the road.

Just after the war my brother George, who was then Professional at Roehampton, came home to Malvern with a selection of clubs to provide the three boys with a very short set apiece. We were the envy of the “the kids on the common”, as the adults called us, and they all wanted to try them. There was much discussion among the young ‘experts’ as to the merits of the various models. Having now acquired a set we were allowed to play on the course, generally restricted to the ‘Bottom Common’, which accommodated the first ten holes.

Dad used to play with Malvern Working Men’s Golf Club as a young man and had been a near scratch player. He hadn’t played for many years and we were always pestering him to come down and play with us. We really wanted to show him how good we were but, when we did finally get him to play, it took the wind out of our sails. He dug out his old clubs (museum pieces by that time), with enormously thick grips, spliced woods and irons with heads so small that it seemed almost impossible to get the ball on the clubface. He scored near level bogey (par today) for the holes we played and we returned home suitably abashed. Never again was he invited to play with us – he was far too good for a ten-year-old’s ego.

Being firmly put in our place by Dad in no way dampened our enthusiasm for the game and there was always a healthy rivalry between the kids on the common. From this competition emerged a succession of recruits for the professional ranks in the coming years, many following in the footsteps of their elders. In our family I was the fourth to take this path. George had been first, followed by Charles, both turning professional in their teens. Jack, three years my senior, started as assistant to George at Roehampton and might be described as the ‘gadabout’ of the family. He set off for the Indian sub-continent and spent most of his career at the Royal Calcutta and Royal Bombay Golf Clubs, the oldest clubs outside Scotland and England.



NEXT