The Autumn Handicap Trophy

This week saw 26 ladies play for the Autumn Handicap Trophy and Rahela Gordon was the winner with 69 and one our newest lady members, Michelle Titley, came in second with 72.  Congratulations ladies.

The competition has been running 36 years and the trophy was kindly given by Harry Spiers in 1978 after having been a very competitive member and extremely good putter for many years.   He played a lot of golf with a nice man called Maurice Minchin and together they would always be modifying golf clubs by changing grips, shafts, etc. 

What some people may not know Harry was a keen table tennis player and played occasionally for The Circle TT Club Harborne in his younger days alongside another HGC member, Ron Fisher.  It appears that he took a break from this sport in his early 20’s but found it again at the tender age of 41 to much acclaim by winning the English Open Veterans’ title amongst many others.  In fact Harry had a article called ‘Life Begins at 41’ written about him in the Evening Despatch by the TT Correspondent, Alan Lake, on the 3 December 1956.  In it the journalist explains how the selectors for Birmingham turned a blind eye to Harry’s successes and it wasn’t until the Birmingham Team were at rock bottom did they ‘give in’ and send for him.   

Back to the golf club and Harry was instrumental in forming the HGC Veterans Section (now called the Seniors) but interestingly enough he never became Captain or President.  On competition days he could always be found in the main office checking the score cards and as the years rolled on he was well known for his response to ‘See you next week Harry’ ‘Yes, if I’m still here’

Many thanks for the help from Ron Fisher and John Rattlidge in putting this story together.

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