LBGC Centenary Book - Flipbook - Page 18
Langland Centenary Book
15/2/05
6:08 pm
Page 18
The History of the Club
Chapter 2: The Years Between
Langland Bay Ladies’ Team - October 1931
The Statutory Meeting of the new company was held on the
30th March 1927 and the Langland Bay Golf Club was on its
way. Legally, we should now refer to the Company and not the
Club, but as in the minds of members the terms are
synonymous, we shall continue to refer to “the Club”.
The first Board of Directors comprised thirteen together with
the President, Mr.W.T. Farr and the Vice-Presidents, Mr. H.M.
Peel and Col. Morgan. Both Mr. Farr and Col. Morgan died
during the year and Messrs. H.M. Peel and R.H. Marten were
elected President and Vice-President respectively.
The staff of the old Club were taken over, but Frank and Mrs.
Venn were asked to move from their accommodation in the
Clubhouse and a new stewardess was appointed. A cheque for
£273 was paid to the old Club for the purchases of its assets,
and the old Club had to settle its own liabilities.
One of the last important improvements carried out by the old
Club, the cost of which was included in its liabilities, was the
installation of mains water to the Clubhouse. Previously all
water had been obtained from wells, one of which is under the
present Secretary’s office and the other one was alongside the
present first fairway.The well now hidden under the Secretary’s
office was still in use after the 1939/45 war when a most
unsophisticated and elementary bowser, rather like a large beer
barrel on wheels, was filled from it and used to water the
outlying greens.The rate of extraction was very slow and about
only one green per day could be treated.The latter well,
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complete with cast iron hand pump, was in use until the 1950s,
and was investigated in the early 1970s to see whether it could
produce sufficient water for the greens, but unfortunately this
was not so. Further investigation took place during the hot
summers of 1975 and 1976, but unfortunately at that time the
exact location of the well could not be pinpointed. More on
this subject later.
This, however, is digression.The installation of mains water made
the construction of the additional nine holes quicker and easier,
as the little bowser was filled much quicker than from the wells.
The new eighteen-hole course was opened in June 1928, by
which time the Club had become a member of the Glamorgan
County Golf Union, and the Club President, H.M. Peel, had
presented the “Peel Cup” for mixed Foursomes match play.
The ever popular Peel Cup produces a host of anecdotes, and
among the favourites are when H.M. Peel’s daughter was in the
final, having tried in vain for many years to win the cup. On the
seventeenth green, dormie two with a stroke advantage she hit
her putt for the match so firmly that it went right off the
green. Her partner Ron Lewis, chipped back close to the hole
but, needless to say, the putt was missed and the pair went on
to lose that hole, the eighteenth and the deciding nineteenth.
Most golfers will know just how Miss Peel and her partner felt.
As Bernard Darwin wrote” a man may miss a three foot putt,
yet still be a good husband, good father and an honest
Christian gentleman”.The same presumably applies, suitably
edited, for the female gender.
