The second playing of the Bunter Cup took place on the glorious final day of April at Sandwich at our Spring Meeting . Played in memory of the late Dr Alastair Wells, Old Purples, LUGS and friends of the LUGS met to celebrate a life ended too soon but lived well.
Alastair was a very fine golfer even as a teenager, reaching the semi-finals of the English Amateur at Sandwich in 1979. Being an arduous competition, Alastair finally began taking a caddie as the rounds progressed and Sean Meleady, an equally youthful character, carried his bag and read his putts. One cannot help thinking of them as an English version of Francis Ouimet and Eddie Lowry in the US Open of 1913. Many year later, Alastair returned to the Club to find Sean, returned from the Navy and the high seas, as the new caddie-master. It was like putting the band back together.
Sean and Jeff, his deputy, were on hand to greet Rose, Alastair’s widow, when she arrived for lunch demonstrating, yet again, that Royal St George’s is not simply a world class golf course – it has many of the hallmarks of community. I think of the motto of Barcelona Football Club – mes que un club. It doesn’t simply mean more than a club; it is a phrase that taps deep into the well of Catalan identity.
An aspect of the day that Rose was quick to pick up on was that she wasn’t simply among the ‘usual suspects’. There were new and enthusiastic faces – Leo, Simon, Mark, Sean, Kaihan – who were all keen to engage. Not simply an acknowledgment of the ripple effect of Alastair’s effusive personality – also an acknowledgment of the LUGS being, in essence, a society which plays the game the right way.
Of LUGS’ newcomers, there were particularly fine golfing displays from Paddy, as good a striker as it gets with very soft hands around the green; and Simon (AKA Marcel Siem – er war wirklich gut!) whose game matched that of his look-alike.
The course was in marvellous condition, hard and fast being the mantra of Greig, the new greenkeeper at Sandwich and we were treated to an excellent lunch under the watchful eye of Laidlaw Purves, the Club’s founder. Alastair – or Bunter as he became known for his prodigious lunching – would have approved.
After 36 holes of foursomes, there was little to separate those at the top of the leader-board. Indeed, nothing at all to separate the top two pairs who shared the Bunter Cup; Leo Faganelli and Gorm Nielsen and Jonny Calder and Dermot O’Grady. The cup was presented by Ellie, one of Alastair’s two marvellous daughters. She wore her father’s Epsom College blazer for the presentation ceremony – it goes without saying that a very great deal of material had been removed from the original for it to fit properly.
Another fine day out with the LUGS.
| Pair | Score | |
| 1st | Leo Faganelli and Gorm Nielsen | 67 |
| 1st | Dermot O’Grady and Jonny Calder | 67 |
| 3rd | Andrew Westmore and Kaihan Mobed | 65 |
| 3rd | Mark Wheelhouse and Simon Doggett | 65 |
| John Paddy and Sean Dryden | 59 | |
| Ed Williams and Paddy O’Sullivan | 62 | |
| Mike Kershaw and Nick Yeates | 61 | |
| Nicola Calder and Alex Modgill | 53 | |
| Peter Dyson and Barry Grundy | 49 | |
| Neil Falconer and Paddy McCullagh | 56 |
London University Golfing Society 