Other Stuff

A Bit Of Mumbo-Jumbo

A word of warning: there’s going to be golf in this here blog. And probably a bit of cricket – but only a bit because Warwickshire didn’t last very long against Essex at Edgbaston. And there’ll be elephants, which is always a good thing. Who doesn’t love elephants?

An attacking field at Edgbaston where Essex beat Warwickshire by an innings and 40 runs in less than two days. The home side, put in, were skittled out for 78 and 114. Essex made 232 after being 50 for 5.

Without further ado, well done to the US of A on winning back the Solheim Cup after a few barren years. Europe got off to a rubbish start and couldn’t quite claw their way back; it’s tough giving some of the best players in the world a big lead – you might work your way back once (in Spain last year) but twice in successive years? Nope. Still, after a one-sided first day, the match evolved into a real contest and American and European nerves were thoroughly shredded by the end. Roll on the Netherlands in 2026.

I had to listen to the finish on the radio – many thanks to Iain Carter and all at 5 Live for conveying the tension and excitement – because my Spurs mate and I were driving back from a gutting defeat. It was 1-nil to The Arsenal, our deadliest rivals, at our place and we weren’t happy. Apart from anything else, it was shaming for 56-odd thousand of us to be outsung by a few thousand ecstatic Gooners…Yuk. Where was our Delia when we needed her? LET’S BE ‘AVING YOU.

Down and out. Spurs 0 Arsenal 1….Bugger. That’s the away lot this end, right below my seat.

At least we managed to thrash Coventry 2-1 the other night…..(All footie fans will recognise that that means we were beyond lucky to scrape through and live to play another round in the Carabao Cup.)

Over in Oregon, the USA’s club professionals won the PGA Cup and raised the Llandudno International Trophy for the third consecutive match, beating Great Britain and Ireland 17 1/2 – 8 1/2. Roll on the next time, over here.

On a happier note, some of you will remember that the Curtis Cup was a few weeks ago at Sunningdale (GB and I won that one) and it’s always a time for old friends to meet up – often after many years apart – and for the memories to come flooding back. It got Anne née Willard (then Stant now Smith) reminiscing and going through her scrapbooks and memorabilia. Fascinating and guaranteed to have us all dodging and weaving our way up and down rabbit holes, along blind alleys, via diversions, going any which way, marvelling at the connections made over the years.

The best of starts.

Anne (with an ‘e’, unlike Stacy without an ‘e’ as in Lewis, the US Solheim Cup captain) was born in India because her father was the professional at Royal Calcutta GC at the time. She took to the game early and went on to win the British Girls’, followed by the English Girls’.

The Yarmouth Mercury reported many of Anne’s early triumphs and presumably learned to give her her ‘e’ in due course.

“I was shy,” Anne said, “but the photographer wanted me to look excited!”

In 1970 Anne and Robert (Bob) Barrell won the Sunningdale Foursomes, the year after Peter Oosterhuis and Peter Benka and in 1973, in her pomp, she won the British Women’s Strokeplay. However, she wasn’t picked for the Curtis Cup team that travelled to San Francisco the following year – she’d not long had her first child – and the non-selection caused quite an outcry.

Those were the days when amateur golf made headlines – and even caused outrage!

Anne did play in 1976, at Lytham, when she partnered Mary McKenna, who would become a Curtis Cup legend, against Barbara Barrow and Nancy Lopez. The Americans won 4 and 2 but if you’re going to lose, it might as well be to Lopez, who took the professional game by storm and became a bone fide great, the poster girl of the LPGA (Ladies’ Professional Golf Association) and a Hall of Famer. Years on, that defeat is surely something to brag about.

There’s much, much more in Anne’s scrapbooks – her maternal grandfather Henry Burrows was a professional and won the Dutch Open five times – in 1915, 1918, 1920, 1921 and 1923.

A lovely trophy, returned to the Dutch in exchange for a replica.

Three Staffordshire stalwarts at WHGC: Eileen (left), Anne and Jayne.

It’s amazing where this old game has taken us all, golfers good, bad and indifferent and the connections we’ve made.

There have been brightly-coloured elephants scattered all over Lichfield, Sutton Coldfield and Tamworth for the last few weeks and this weekend they’re all being gathered together to be sold off to the highest bidders in the big auction in Lichfield Cathedral on Sunday. It’s all in aid of St Giles Hospice and they’re hoping to raise many thousands of pounds.

Neither I nor my garden can rise to one of the big beasts – they’re not full jumbo size but are substantial enough – so I’ve entered the lottery to win one of two mini elephants on offer. Fingers crossed.

Inspiring. Let’s hope they all find good homes.

Round by us elephants aren’t really too much of a problem but we’re kept on our toes – well, stopped in our tracks more like – by pesky, peripatetic temporary traffic lights. We never know where they’re going to pop up next and lo and behold, there they were outside my front door! Oh happy day!