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Work commitments kept me from playing in the EGU finals more than I did, but I did play in two. The first time was at Royal North Devon Golf Club, Devon and the second time at St. Enedoc Golf Club, Cornwall. These are great events as the six western counties play each other every day for a week and the winning team goes forward to represent the West Region in the EGU finals. I can remember playing Ken Graveney (Gloucester cricket player) at Westward Ho and we had a great game for a half. I never missed a putt from six foot and in, all week. Against Wiltshire I played Peter Edgington and I holed three monsters on the first three greens to go three up and he came up to me and said, John, are you going to keep this up all day, suffice to say, I didn't and we ended up halving the match. I was more than satisfied as he was one of the better scratch players around at the time.
It is only by being selected for the EGU week that one gets ones county blazer badge and tie, so I do feel honoured that I managed that, even though I must have played probably more than fifty times for the County.
We also played an annual match, the South Western Counties versus the Midland Counties and each county would nominate two players each for the South West team. This was not based on the 12 best players but when it was your turn you played in it and also were awarded a South Western Counties tie. I have long since lost mine I’m afraid.
By this time I had a confidence that was so high that I felt that I could win everything but we all know that never happens, but I won a few, finished runner up numerous times and generally managed to score well enough to maintain my 1 handicap. I suffered no nerves whatsoever and possibly I became cocky and arrogant with a great belief in my ability to play this game under pressure.
I usually played these events every year plus of course my own club championship and our very own open for the Hawkins Trophy.
I was also selected for the Somerset side to play the annual match against the Gloucester & Somerset professionals whom we beat last year. Gordon Brand had taken the Professionals job at “Knowle Golf Club” but could not play on the tour as he had not served his time, so he was restricted to the local and alliance events, but I think in reality he wanted to support his son in his quest to be a professional golfer. We all know that he accomplished this with great performances over the years and over £3,000,000 in earnings.
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