Spring Meeting 2025

Glorious weather greeted us on Worplesdon for our Spring Meeting on 9 April. A record turnout of 32 Members and 2 guests were warmly welcomed too. Duncan Reed won the Taffy Grenade during the morning session. A few stalwarts made it through the excellent lunch to take on the course during the afternoon - a session that was apparently won by the President.

HAC GS tour to Scotland to play against “the Fife Fusiliers”

A select band of members, including five former Captains of the Society, comprising :  Charlie Buckley, Andrew Cadell, Mike Cornell, Gerry Diebel, Richard Pettit, Michael  Phillipps, Richard Stubbs and Michael Webster travelled to Scotland  in June 2024 to play against our long-standing opponents who in the spirit of friendly competition, with minimal military justification, dub themselves : “The Fife Fusiliers”. This was a fixture originating on the initiative of  former HACGS member, Ian Gray, and represented the seventh visit of its type, the first one taking place in 2011.

Emulating the previous President, John Burns’ centenary tour in 2022, we stayed in a St. Andrews University Hall of Residence and one our first full day in Fife played an acclimatising game on the Balcomie Links at Craill (founded in 1786) which was won by Cadell and Diebel with a better ball score of 41, with Phillipps and Stubbs as runners-up with 38 points, the other two pairs sharing 37 points apiece.

On our second day of golf we played against the Fife Fusiliers on their course at Elie (founded in 1875) which was won by our hosts : 3-1, Buckley & Cadell being the winning pair for the HACGS. Our final day of golf involved playing foursomes on the Jubilee Course at St. Andrews, with lunch afterwards in the Members Dining Room in the main clubhouse. This resulted in a 3-1 victory for the HAC team: Webster  & Cornell, Pettit & Diebel and Buckley & Stubbs being the winning pairs. Since he won both his matches, Charlie Buckley was declared the indubitable Victor Ludorum of the tour.

All games of golf were played in winds ranging from Force 3 to gusting Force 6 but mercifully there was negligible rain. One of our members at Craill twice lost his push trolley in the wind! The author as organiser wrote to his counterpart, Ian Forgie, after the tour was completed saying: “The welcome we experienced was as if from long-standing friends. Even though a number had not met each other before, it just shows that the game of golf is a great unifier”. It is the intention of both societies to resume their encounters in 2026.

Michael Webster

HAC GS tour to Scotland to play against “the Fife Fusiliers”