LBGC Centenary Book - Flipbook - Page 25
Langland Centenary Book
15/2/05
6:08 pm
Page 25
was decided that an official opening should take place and in
the absence of the Captain, the Chairman, the late J.W. Leslie
Morris (“Les without” to distinguish his baldness from the late
T. Leslie Morris who was far more hirsute and obviously
known as “Les with”) duly played the first ball into the net.
Unfortunately, either the mesh was too large or there was a
hole, because the ball went right through the net and
ricocheted round the building with members present
remembering their war time training and lying flat on
their faces!
1947 also saw the commencement of the Glamorgan InterClub League.This League which is still thriving and hotly
contested, was formed principally to bring the Clubs together
again after the war years and was, and still is, a fine idea.
Unfortunately the lack of petrol in the first few years limited
travelling so that many matches were played on “neutral”
courses, which was somewhat against the spirit of the league.
The poor road system in South Wales at that time was also a
limiting factor. It must be remembered that there was no road
bridge by-passing Neath, the Port Talbot level crossing or its
resultant queues. No wonder a match against a Cardiff Club
had to be played on a week-end, for to get to Cardiff in a
couple of hours was good going.
Many anecdotes relate to travel in league matches at this
period. Stuart Buchanan, at this time a comparatively new
member and a fine golfer - as he still is - had a perpendicular
Morris of about 1932 vintage. Returning from a match at
Wenvoe Castle he missed the road at the nasty little level
crossing which used to be near Crumlyn Burrows and went
bounding up the railway lines.Well, the road wasn’t all that
much smoother! Fortunately, one of the team members, and a
passenger with Stuart was “Mac Waters, a former Swansea Bay
Artisan, and an engine driver himself. He soon whistled up a
posse of railwaymen to lift the car back on the road, and the
journey was finished safely.
Another return trip was made from Wenvoe by a member who
will remain anonymous. He was a senior club member, but at
that time was a recently de-mobbed R.A.F. pilot. All he could
remember about driving home was “twice round Culverhouse
Cross roundabout, twice round Pyle roundabout, and waking
up hitting the kerb near the Halfway Garage on Mumbles
Road!” Needless to say this was pre-breathalyser.
Langland’s first team had been in the premier division for some
years and has several times narrowly missed being the
Glamorgan Champions. As an indication of how hotly the
leagues are contested, over the last few years promotion and
relegation have been matters of a fraction of one point,
decided on the number of byes won! One of the great
features of league golf at Langland is the support given to
teams by members, not only at home but at away venues as
well.This also applies to other competitions; for in 1976 when
Langland were narrowly defeated in the final of the Victory
Foursomes held at Royal St. David’s in Harlech, there were
some 40 Club members in support of Chris Last and Hugh
Evans, and as Harlech is some one hundred and thirty miles
from Langland, this indicates the measure of enthusiasm which
inspires the players and amazes other Clubs.
In 1975 a Junior County League was commenced and the
Langland Bay Junior section made a complete sweep, winning
three shields.
Again we have jumped forward somewhat and must return to
the Annual General Meeting when Greig Simpson was elected a
Life Member in recognition of his great work for the Club over
many years. He was also presented with an engraved silver
cigarette box subscribed for by members.The Club was
somewhat wealthier in 1974 when Tom Evans was made a Life
Member and was presented with a Television Set as well as a
cigarette box.
It was at this meeting in 1948 that is was announced that plans
were being prepared for the surfacing of the approach road.
This was not as simple as it sounds; various experts were
called in and decided that “soak way” pits would be required
down the eighteenth fairway and the seventeenth green would
become waterlogged and unplayable. Henry Longhurst in his
book “My life and Easy Times” recounts how he was consulted
as an expert about a “Hole-in-One” tie and that he said it
would be a non-seller, as no one would want to advertise a
fluke. He also says how the manufacturer ignored his advice
and went on to make a bomb, financially! The Board, by a
majority also ignored the advice of the experts, called in
Norton Limeworks to get cracking and before the new season
started there was at long last, a decent entrance to the Club.
No “soakways” were constructed and the seventeenth has
always been one of our better greens.
The Club was still financially sound because of low priority for
building licences, little could be expended. A licence was,
however, obtained to reroof the Clubhouse in 1949, and in
1950 the Club had to spend £200 to purchase a small plot of
land intruding into the third fairway. Unfortunately the liquid
reserves of the Club had led to a certain amount of
complacency and almost an obsession to keep down the level
of subscriptions, which resulted in a gradual whittling away of
the liquidity without doing anything positive to replace it.This
was one of the few points that successive generations of
Directors can be faulted on. Reproduced here is a copy of the
circular which was sent to members. Nowadays when
subscriptions need to double overnight - not ours, we hope - it
seems a tremendous effort to call a general meeting to
increase the subscription by one guinea.The estimated income
and expenditure make curious reading when compared with
our current levels of receipts and expenditure (see letter on
the next page).
In 1949 Frank Venn was made an Honorary Member of the
Club in recognition of his great services to the Club over the
past twenty five years, and in 1950 C.E. Penn was also made an
Honorary Member. C.E. Penn, father of Courcey, was one of
those great clubmen with which Langland Bay has been blessed,
and in his later years he was a good and enthusiastic snooker
player. One wet afternoon he challenged a visitor and was
unexpectedly trounced. And the word really is trounced. It
later transpired that the visitor was none other than Joe
Davies the World Champion Snooker Player who was
appearing that week at the then flourishing Swansea Empire
Theatre in Oxford Street.
The first post-war period was marred by a couple of rows
between some of the male members of the Club; rows which
unfortunately led to the resignation from the Board and later
from the Club of two very active members. It was a great
shame, and even now after more than fifty years, and for those
who remember, it still seems to have been so unnecessary.
By 1950 the Club had expended all its reserves on repairs to
the buildings and as it had not replaced them from profits,
financial embarrassment and retrenchment were the orders of
the day.The ground staff were reduced, travelling and meal
expenses of the league teams discontinued and a scheme for
locker room extension abandoned.The last item was not really
a saving because the plans were turned down by the Local
Authority anyway.The scheme envisaged the extension of the
locker rooms, now part of the Steward’s living quarters, across
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