Bursary Day is tribute to Alan
FORMER King’s pupils remembered one of their very best in the first King’s School Bursary Golf Day to be played after the passing of long time organiser Alan McInnes.
The event, which has raised over £25,000 towards funding part fee and full bursaries for children from families of limited means was, as one of the winners Robert Thorneycroft, remarked, “finally played in the sunshine, in the sort of conditions Alan would have loved.”
Two eagles proved the difference in a hugely competitive tournament played at Macclesfield Golf Club for the eventual winners in the four man format of father and son Martin and James Allmand Smith, Richard Bianchi and Robert Thorneycroft, but they were made in dramatically different styles.
James played a slight fade down wind with his driver fully 300 yards to the eighth green before sinking a 15 foot put.
Then legal eagle Thorneycroft, knifed a chip half up the flag on the twelfth to see the ball fall down perfectly into the cup for his two on the short par four.
Principal of the King’s Boys’ Division Paul Cooper, who made the presentation, said: “This event brings us closer to the community at a time when the school is about to embark on a new and exciting era.”
Before the presentation Alan, a former title winning Wigan rugby league coach was remembered by his son in law Steve Moores. “Alan grew up on the Weston estate and wouldn’t have had the chance to go to the King’s School and all the opportunities it gave him if it had been fee paying so raising funds for bursaries was very important to him.”