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How simple Percy Alliss always made the game look until he was on
the green. He would have won many more than his 16 tournament
victories but for his inconsistent putting stroke and he was always
experimenting with different methods. The previous year, at the
Yorkshire Evening News tournament at Moortown, he thought he had
finally found the answer. He placed his feet in such a way as to
form two sides of a square, with the left foot pointing in the
direction of the hole. He said that this eliminated the body
movement that is so detrimental on the green. It worked at Moortown
and he opened with a 71, the same score as me. We both lost in the
subsequent match play, but it was not Percy’s putting that caused
his demise. His clubs somehow ended up in another player’s car boot
and he was forced to play with a borrowed set that did not ‘fit’
him. By the time his own clubs were returned his match was lost and
by the time of the Scottish Open his new putting method had gone the
way of all the others.
 I went on to Muirfield to practise for the Open and to join the
England team for the international match against Scotland, to be
played on the course the day before the Open commenced. Henry Cotton
had demonstrated his typical single mindedness by again declining to
play in the match because it was too close to the Open. He went out
to practise and beat the Muirfield record with a 65, although it did
not count of course.
The summer that had begun with a blizzard continued to disappoint
with changeable weather that June and the South African tourists had
been frustrated by the conditions of a typical English cricket
season. The previous week the first Test of the 1935 five-match
series at Trent Bridge, Nottingham had been abandoned due to rain,
the first of four draws, but it was to be England who came off worst
in the end.
Our match began in oppressive heat and I suffered in the foursomes
when I was on the receiving end of a 5&4 drubbing from Syd
Fairweather (Malone) and Bill Laidlaw, a new Scottish cap with great
potential who was an assistant to my brother George at Malden and
later to Henry Cotton at Ashridge. Tragically Bill was to be killed
in the RAF flying over Germany in 1941. My partner was Tom Green,
who was Welsh born and later played for Wales when they entered the
home international series – one of the few players to represent two
countries. I remember that Tom hated the sea and his face would
match his name at the mere thought of travelling by boat. We did
manage to get him to go over for the Irish Open, but only after a
‘session’ in the bar.
England won the match 13-4, Scotland’s only two wins in the singles
coming from Jimmy Adams, then at Romford, and the veteran of the
Scottish team, George Duncan, who beat Syd Easterbrook. I won my
match against J. Forrester of Cruden Bay 4 & 3 and Tom extracted
revenge by beating Laidlaw two up. One of the Scottish team, Tom
Dobson, suffered from the controversial stymie rule when he knocked
Ted Jarman’s ball into the hole on the last green to lose the match.
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