The Mellin Golf Tournament was founded in 1960 and is played every year in a series of age groups by the same 16 schools at West Hill Golf Club in Surrey. The format always being scratch foursomes.
The 2017 tournament took place between 13th and 15th July with Bedford being represented in the Mellin Salver (for over 55’s) and the Peter Burles Salver (for over 65’s).
In the first round of the Mellin Salver, Bedford drew Forest from North London and lost 2-1 to a team that eventually lost to Bradfield in the final. In the Plate competition for first round losers, we played, and duly despatched, Hurstpierpoint only to come up against a very strong Oundle team in the semi-final. All three games went to the last hole but with Oundle eventually carrying the day. They then went on to beat Haileybury in the final.
The senior team in the Peter Burles had more success as they duly despatched Forest, Hurstpierpoint and then Cheltenham on the way to a final against Shrewsbury with both pairs remaining unbeaten in this run. This was our first involvement in the Peter Burles final since the winning team of 1996 but sadly it proved one match too many as Shrewsbury, with their team of single figure handicap golfers, won the day.
The respective squads were;
Mellin – Hector Paterson (65-70), Jerry Mytton (58-68), Kevin Dunbar (74-79), Tim Henderson (64-71), Scott Goodson (69-79), Mark Orchart (74-79) and Chris Johnson (66-75).
Peter Burles – Andrew Rudkin (64-69), Simon Kimber (58-65), John Cartwright (59-65) and Michael Bevan (50-62).
If there are any OB golfers in the age relevant categories who would like to become involved in this very friendly tournament next year (and going forward), please stick your head above the parapet and make yourself known to either the Mellin Organiser (Kevin Dunbar – kpdunbar0609@yahoo.co.uk) or the Society’s Secretary (Tom Langley-Poole – tom.langley-poole@allianz.co.uk)
Kevin Dunbar (74-79)