GOLF.
The annual match between the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge was played this year at Hoylake, this being the first time a northern green was chosen for the contest. In accordance with custom the match was decided by holes, and Cambridge won by no less than 30 holes against 7. Oxford only won a single match, and halved another. Her captain, Mr. G. E. Grundy, played Mr. A. G. Barry, the amateur champion, and, after playing two rounds of the course, they had a tie. Mr. Barry’s brother played a good match with Mr. R. H. Hill, whom he defeated by two holes.
The Mid-Surrey Club won the first foursome tournament for London clubs. Its representatives were Mr. S. H. Fry and J. H. Taylor, who, in the final tie, beat, by 9 up and 8 to play, Mr. W. Herbert Fowler and James Braid, of the Walton Heath Club. The latter couple showed poor form, much to the disappointment of their friends.
The Inter-county Tournament, arranged by the Cricketers’ Golfing Society, was won by Yorkshire, which in the final round, played at Walton Heath, defeated Sussex by 3 points to nothing. The winning county was represented by Mr. Ernest Smith, the Hon. F. S. Jackson, and Mr. T. L. Taylor; and Sussex by Mr. G. Brann, Mr. W. H. Dudney, and Mr. C. A. Smith. Each of the former trio won his match. This was the first Inter-county Tournament, and it was considered necessary to play it under handicap, but it is to be hoped that on a future occasion it may be possible to put the competitors on their merits.
Muirfield witnessed some good play at the spring meeting of the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers. Mr. Charles L. Dalziel carried off the club medal with a score of 80, while Mr. John E. Laidlay, tied for second place with Mr. A. W. Robertson-Durham with 83. Mr. Laidlay won when the tie was played off. Mr. Leslie M. Balfour-Melville, another ex-amateur champion, took 89 for his round. The course is reported in splendid condition for the Open Championship in June.
Last year eight of the Edinburgh clubs possessing private greens inaugurated a foursome tournament, and this year they repeated it. On this occasion play took place on the links, at Duddingstone, of the Insurance and Banking Club. The local club was the fancied winner, but in the final round it was defeated by the Murrayfield Club, which, with four strong representatives, won by a single hole.
Newcastle in County Down saw the first of the championship meetings of the year. There the ladies of Ireland held their annual meeting, and they showed their interest in it by turning out in very large numbers. For the second year in succession Miss May Hezlet and her sister, Miss Florence Hezlet, competed in the final round, and again the former won by 2 up and 1 to play. Miss May Hezlet has now won this championship on four occasions, and the Ladies’ Open Championship twice.
Sporting Intelligence.
[During March-April, 1906.]
Following an operation for appendicitis, Colonel Stanley Arnold, of Barton House, Moreton-in-Marsh, died on March 14th. A prominent member of the Warwickshire Hunt Club and of the Heythrop Hunt, the deceased was a good preserver of foxes.