OBGS - 2026 Heads Cup

What a fabulous day! The numbers attending ebbed and flowed even as the (very tasty) bacon rolls were being served, eventually settling at eleven OB’s. We had a great mix of year groups and golfing talent with

Peter Owen, Jonathan Spencer, Charles Spencer, Martin Like, Kevin Noble, Matt Shervington-Jones, Llyr Raw-Rees, Steffan Raw-Rees, David Harris, Gegs Williams and Tom McLean.

The group was further enhanced by the very welcome attendance of two current members of staff, Deputy Head Simon Hill and Director of Sport Sam Hewick. As usual, and with his customary grip on proceedings, the organiser had to interrupt the chatter to remind everyone that some golf had to be played, announce the pairings and format for the day and encourage the first group to the tee.

The Spencer brothers and Martin led us off, followed by the Raw-Rees brothers with Dave and Gegs then Matt, Tom, Simon and Sam with Peter and myself making up the last group.

The morning had been wet and windy, with low, grey clouds but we teed-off in the dry and the clouds slowly lifted and parted. Gradually, the damp blustery conditions gave way sunshine and calm, with not a drop of rain. The scoring reflected the improving conditions through the day.

The course was in excellent condition and the scoring, as is becoming usual, was solid to fantastic (in a couple senses!).

Charles Spencer arrived back in the clubhouse feeling pleased and quietly confident with his efforts having matched Martin (usually a pretty good barometer for scoring). Martin, however, looked a little confused at the situation, having not scored better than his handicap….

The always competitive Raw-Rees clan were half-happy with their day, with Steffan not able to replicate his ‘London & South East’ performance being pipped by Llyr. Both looked a little perplexed by the performance of Dave and Gegs. Dave had a distinct air of of ‘what could have been’, with his 22 points on the back nine; whilst Gegs just couldn’t help a permanent bashful grin.

Matt, Tom, Simon and Sam were evenly matched through their solid front nine, but ultimately Simon’s back nine performance saw him pull away the others.

Peter and I enjoyed 12 holes and headed for the clubhouse.

Come the reckoning, 24 points was the lowest total and Martin and Llyr were joint third with 32 points. Simon played solidly off his 10 handicap to score 15 points on the front nine, in the worst of the conditions, and fantastically well be only 3 over on the back nine for 22 points and a total of 37 points.

Simon’s points tally was, however, surpassed on both nines; by scores of 18 points and 25 points respectively by Gegs, for a total of 43 points - off a 28 handicap.

This might have given rise again to a conversation around the scoring by those with a formal handicap, those with informal ‘guestimated’ handicaps and the possible creation of a second trophy to distinguish between them.

It is to be assumed that nobody would deliberately claim anything other than an honestly held estimated handicap with the aim of securing an advantage to win an OB event. That is certainly the case for Gegs. He would have to have claimed a handicap 6 shots better to have been equalled Simon’s points. When I re-scored Gegs’s card on the day against a handicap of 22, as opposed to the 28 he had, by simply deducting points from holes by stroke index, I found Gegs would still have won on countback. After a quick deliberation, it was decided that Gegs could not have been reasonably expected to play with a handicap of 22 or less and so he was declared the winner, with no need to consider the need for a ‘Bandits Trophy’ and with no slur on his character. Congratulations, Gegs!

The Headmaster, as always, generously gave up his time to be on hand to support this event and to present the trophy for the final time before he departs to pastures new.

In order to mark the occasion of Gareth’s last appearance at a Heads Cup as the Head of CCB, and as a gesture of thanks for his unstinting support for OB golf, it was with great pleasure that Peter presented Gareth with a specially OBA commissioned painting of the view of the Brecon Beacons / Bannau Brycheiniog across the 12th green at Cradoc.

If you wish to make a donation to the OBA towards the cost of the painting, please contact Huw Richards.