Anniversary marks amazing comeback
Angling Golf
A tremendous variety of fish have been caught from Stonar Lake.
The ever-popular fishery is managed by the Canterbury and District Angling Association and 10-year-old Ruby Roberts had a fantastic time there.
Ruby claimed a new personal-best mirror carp, weighing 20lb 8oz, beating her dad Scott who caught 20 carp to 20lb 2oz along with a 3lb tench and seven bream to 5lb.
Both Marc and Sarah Combes bagged three common carp to 16lb. Sarah’s three tipped the scales to 7lb, 14lb and 16lb.
Arguably the best carp haul of the week has been taken by Steve Harris. With 11 small carp to his name, Steve went on to catch as many again double-figure fish culminating in the landing of a 35lb 10oz mirror carp known locally at the water as ‘Big Girl’.
Carp fishing at Fordwich Lake has been steady with a few big mirror and common carp landed from the ‘north bank’ and the ‘deeps’ areas.
Steve Price’s 32lb common carp was the heaviest fish seen while Ben Johnson bagged the best haul of four carp ranging between 15lb and 28lb. Mixed mirror/ common braces were hooked by Gavin Stewart and John Collins. Gavin’s 28lb mirror and 23lb common were as welcome as John’s 26lb mirror and 17lb common. Stour Lake hosted Jon Weir and his son Henry who both targeted tench from the river-side of the lake using quivertips. Jon went on to catch seven bream and a brace of carp to 14lb. Junior member Henry only had one bite using luncheon meat baits, but that was worth the wait when he safely landed a new personal-best tench of 6lb 11oz.
Pleasure anglers will be encouraged to know that good bream bags have been seen including Mike Scarr’s 20 fish to 7lb and Guy Langston with twelve more to the same great weight. Bream to 3lb, nine rudd to 1lb 4oz and four quality roach to 1lb 2oz have been reported by David Sturge. A sole common carp of 10lb 8oz accompanied 22 bream to
5lb 8oz for Chris Bryant.
Alex Stewart’s tally of 12 bream to 6lb and 14 carp including a mirror of 24lb was not uncommon in a busy and successful period at Stonar Lake, while David Draper hooked bream to 4lb and eight carp to 15lb and Dan Draper carp of 10lb, 25lb and 26lb 5oz.
Another mixed bag fell to Stonar-regular Dan Bean who’s 350lb keep-net full comprised three carp up to 28lb each. Small tench and bream to 5lb were also part of the fine catch.
Although July’s scheduled staging of the Open at Royal St George’s has had to be postponed for 12 months, this summer still represents a notable golfing landmark for East Kent as it is the 100th anniversary of the Royal Cinque Ports staging the Championship for the second time.
Today (Thursday) should have been the opening day of the 149th Open but it was cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic and will be played next year at the same venue, from July 15-18. The Open was first held over the Deal links in 1909 when JH Taylor won the fourth of his five Open titles, and the championship was then due to return to the Royal Cinque Ports six years later.
But the R&A decided that the Open would not be held again until the First World War was over and although hostilities ceased in November 1918, it was further decided not to hold the championship again until 1920, with Royal Cinque Ports the venue.
The 1920 Championship was held from June 30 to July 1 with two rounds on each day, and was the first under the permanent administration of the R&A which had taken over sole responsibility from the host clubs.
The total prize money on offer was £200, with £75 going to the winner plus a gold medal valued at £25, and after the opening 36 holes it looked as though England’s Abe Mitchell was going to triumph. He had opened up a six-stroke lead over the two players in joint second place, fellow countryman Jim Barnes and Scotland’s Sandy Herd. However it was another Scot, George Duncan, who was to steal the show with one of the most memorable comebacks in Open history. Duncan started his third round 13 shots behind Mitchell after two opening rounds of 80 and, after the second round, Duncan went to the Exhibition Tent and purchased a new driver that was to help to dramatically change his fortunes the following day. In the third round Duncan played himself back into contention with a 71 while Mitchell struggled to an 84, which meant that the leader going into the final round was England’s Len Holland who had a one-shot advantage over Barnes and Herd. But Holland and Barnes both finished with rounds of 79 while Herd could only manage a 75 for a total of 305, two shots behind Duncan who won his only career Open crown with a final round 72. Meanwhile, down in joint 53rd place in what was his debut in the Open, was legendary American professional Walter Hagen who had already won the US Open twice in 1914 and 1919 but who found his initial experience of British links golf a testing one.
And Hagen’s mood probably wasn’t helped by the fact that he had to change into his golfing shoes in the Daimler car that he deliberately parked in front of the clubhouse after being told that the building was only for the use of amateurs. That first negative experience, however, did not prevent Hagen from dominating the Open for the rest of the decade, during which he won the championship four times and finished in the top six on two other occasions en route to his career haul of 11 major titles.
As for the Royal Cinque Ports, the course was also scheduled to host the championship on two further occasions, in 1938 and 1949. But both times the course was flooded during the previous winter, resulting in the event having to be switched to Royal St George’s and which next summer will host the championship for the 15th occasion.
And with modern-day Opens now requiring such a large area to cater for all the exhibition tents and other off-course infrastructure, plus the massive crowds, it is the Sandwich links which will continue to host future Opens whenever the R&A decides to bring the Championship back to this part of the country.
Canterbury Golf Club champion Josh Bristow showed his class to win Sunday’s Brook Rose Bowl medal competition.
He won with a stunning four under par 67, despite a double bogey on the par four third, from a field of 102.
But the performance of the day came from 15-year-old six handicap Harry Fagg, who shot his best competition round at Canterbury, a level par gross 71, to win the net competition Henry Knight Salver.
Fagg (nett 65) won by a shot from James Shore (h16) and his gross 71 was also good enough for third place in the Brook Rose Bowl.
He said: “I’ve been working hard on my game all through lockdown and everything sort of fell into place.”
He is hoping for a place on the British Junior Golf Tour next year and will play in three of its Order of Merit oneday events in Wales over the August Bank Holiday.
Bristow said: “I’ve come second in this event the last three years so I’m pleased to win it finally. I played solid despite the double at three, when I lost my drive right, into the trees.”
Ann Lake teamed up with the currently unstoppable
Sue Jones to win the Ladies Algarve Vases betterball Stableford competition. A storming 24 points on the front nine, in equally stormy weather plus a steady 18 on the back nine as conditions improved, saw Lake (h19) and Jones (22) finish with 42 points, from a 9/10th handicap allowance.
In second place, one point behind, were Jacquie Mount (h12) and Pauline Nicholls (17). Sue Luke (h15) and Gilliand Soutar (h10) were third.