Fantastic OC Netball and Golf Reports

OC Netball 

Coming off a back-to-back season win, there is no surprise that the OC Netball team took another win in thier first match of the new season! They played EY Athena on the 16th September with a 36-11 win. Thier players of the match were Lizzie Mills (SG 2021) and Aimee Paul (HG 2017). 

Thier next match is on the 23rd of September against the Highbury Honey Badgers. 

OC Golf

Match v Old Haberdashers – Wednesday 10th September 2025 at Harpenden Golf Club 

Both teams were struggling to get the full complement, but in the end we both put up a full team of 8. 

Out first for the OCs was debutant Ollie Bishop (SH 1995) partnered by Akash Saha (NG 2009). The lads said they managed to get three up nice and early and generally dovetailed well. As the game wore on each time the opposition made some inroads, we quickly shut it down, with Akash chipping in on the par three 11th to stem one of these advances. Although it took until the 17th green to win, the boys were never concerned. Second pair was Simon Martin (Hon OC) with Gordon Tindale (FG 1956) with Simon claiming he played awfully. In the end only a narrow loss. This was followed by match 3 where we had Zygi Kamasa (QG 1987) with Peter Ambrose (FG 1979); this time a big loss unfortunately with a 17 handicapper for the opposition standing at 4 over gross after 13 holes when the match ended. Zygi the lower handicap player of the fourball had to give him 7 shots, which pretty much summed up the match. Final pair was Marc Thomas (SH 1975) & John Riddell-Carre (NG 1994), who had a resounding win to counter the big loss in the previous match, to ensure we at least halved the match two matches each. 

Autumn Meeting at Harpenden Golf Club on Tuesday 16th September 2025 

A relatively new venue for a meeting for the OCs at Harpenden Golf Club this year. The gale force gusts from the previous day had fortunately subsided but the wind was still strong and challenging, however we had plenty of sunshine and no rain. 

Peter with the Dr H E Johnstone Cup

Out first in the morning at 8:30am was Anuj Anand (HG 1991), Luke Nokes (KG 2002) and Peter Langrish-Smith (MG 1973); they were the main contenders for the Scratch event and had a very close contest. Peter had the better front nine of two over, but started to wobble coming down the finishing stretch with bogies on the 15th and 16th. It all came down to the putting on the last where Peter three putted from the front to finish with a five over 75. Anuj had a 74 and was expecting to retain the Cup, only for Luke to birdie the last to finish on the same and beat Anuj on a last 3 holes countback for the Scratch Cup. 

Langrish-Smith had the consolation of finishing with 39 points Stableford points to win the Dr H E Johnstone Cup for the best Stableford score. Closest to him in second place was Ollie Bishop new to OC Golf and playing only his second event following the Old Haberdashers match the week before. Ollie had a very strong finish of 13 points for his last 5 holes to post 37 points, with Luke Nokes a further point behind on 36 points for third place. 

Robert and David – The Foursomes winners

In the Stroke Less Age event the clear winner was Langrish-Smith with a stunning score of 7. However, we have a policy of only being allowed to win one of the main cups on offer. As a result, it went to the next best which was 16 strokes for both Robert Audley (NG 1974) and Graham Dunbar (MG 1975). In the event of a tie here the older player is awarded the Kelly Shield, which thanks to being a year wiser was Robert. 

Lastly for the morning, the other trophy up for grabs was the Holdstock Aggregate Salver which is the combination of Stableford scores from the Spring and Autumn meetings. Of the seven players who played in both meetings Peter Langrish-Smith already had the best Stableford score from the Spring meeting so his 39 points at Harpenden led to a large victory. 

There were two Nearest the Pin prizes, which ended up being nice consolation prizes, first to Anuj for a shot to 2 feet on the 5th, and the other to Graham Dunbar hitting his tee shot on the 11th to about 7 feet. 

The Foursomes was rained off last year at Sandy Lodge, but we had no issue this year with warm sunshine. 12 players were available and a draw was made at lunch. The best score of the first group was Anuj Anand and Graham Dunbar who were going very strong for 8 holes, only to make two double bogies in the last 4 holes to finish on 24 points (effectively nett par). In the second group the better pair was Ollie Bishop and Greg Kraushar (NG 1982); despite an awful start of 3 one-point holes in a row they were then 1 bogey and 5 pars for the rest of the front nine to also have 19 points. However, they finished poorly to end with 22 points. The winners came from the last group with Robert Audley and David Monkman combining well for 25 points; they had an excellent 20 points for the front nine and won by one point. 

Overall, a successful and very enjoyable day for all. The course was appreciated by all as well as the clubhouse welcome and food. 

See below for more photos of the winners and the score table:

Peter with the Holdstock Aggregate Salver

Luke holding the Autumn Scratch Cup

The next event is the Autumn Tour to North Norfolk which is next week, Tues 23rd to Fri 26th Sept.