Brief History of the WAGS

The foundation of the Wednesday Afternoon Golf Society (WAGS) started in the late 80’s. The founder members being Alan Newman (President), Denis Turley, John Carter and John Claridge.
They met every Wednesday afternoon and played for a fiver, winner takes all but pays for the first drink for all participants. Anyone having a birdie received a £1 from every player. If there was a tie for first place all bets were off.
This simple system worked well for many years but as members began to grow in the early 90’s it became unworkable as a young Ian McKay won so regularly, with many birdies, that his wife would arrive to pick up the money to go shopping.
The situation came to a head when the two John’s each lost £19 one Wednesday.
Graham Glossop undertook the task of devising a system where the maximum payable was £5 and still allowed for a birdie pot.  Denis provided a “name board”  and John Carter the “name tags”.  Henceforward playing partners were drawn.
A chart was developed and introduced which dictated the number of prizes, and the amount of money, to be distributed depending on the number of players each week.  The winner paid for everyone’s first drink and was cut 10% for his next four appearances.
A record sheet was also introduced to allow the system to operate by whoever turned up. At this time, the “tie, no bet” system was retained.
The system worked well until one day when there were 3 people tied for first place with one game still to come in.  The possibility of the “tie, no bet” rule being applied resulted in heated arguments until John Carter came in with 42 points to win. It was the day John saved the WAGS. The rule was immediately deleted.
The system virtually runs itself with anybody able to organise it. Small amendments have been made over the years to clarify the odd administration problem and the prize fund adjusted due to inflation.
In 2003 it was suggested that we had a WAGS Christmas event and the President and his farmer friends provided a trophy known as The Farmers Cup. This is now an annual event with around 40 members playing and enjoying a meal afterwards
In 2007, George Cowley died suddenly on holiday. He enjoyed the WAGS so much that his daughter Mandy donated a trophy in his memory. George was a single-figure golfer and the WAGS decided that his cup should be a stroke-play competition. Henceforth, the club’s June mid-week medal will have an added edge for the WAGS.

 For the records

Farmers Cup winners:-

2003 G Glossop; 2004 I McKay; 2005 A Spencer; 2006 M Cleere; 2007 G Shute; 2008 B Wright2009 C Stokes; 2010 P Casey; 2011 K Hibbitt; 2012 P Reynolds; 2013 K Hibbitt; 2014 W Cruickshank; 2015 I McKay; 2016 K Hibbitt; 2017 C Coles; 2018 S Craker; 2019 T Mansfield; 2020 Covid-19; 2021 Sam Meakin; 2022 John Garratt; 2023 Marcus Dunstan;

George Cowley Cup winners:-

2009 K Stokes; 2010 J Black; 2011 D Foulkes; 2012 R Hirst; 2013 A Spencer; 2014 S Craker; 2015 P Saunders; 2016 I Ashworth; 2017 K Stokes; 2018 D Coward; 2019 R Davies; 2020 S Barnes; 2021 R Davies; 2022 Pete Peachy ; 2023 Joe Hastings

The Arthur Spencer Pairs winners:-

2011 Black & Weaver; 2012 Saunders & Reynolds; 2013 Ashworth & Taylor; 2014 Hibbitt & McCann; 2015 Craker & White; 2016 Craker & White; 2017 Crash & Morgan; 2018 Taylor V & Crabtree: 2019 Morgan & White; 2020 Tomlin & Crabtree; 2021 Bloodworth & Webb; 2022 Dave Spencer & Ian Standbrook;