All about golf in Swindon. Now Mark Twain famously referred to golf as a ‘good walk spoiled’. I’m not entirely in disagreement I won’t lie. Many quips and quotes surround golf and here’s a couple more of my faves:
“Hockey is a sport for white men. Basketball is a sport for black men. Golf is a sport for white men dressed like black pimps.” Tiger Woods. And if you hark back to the way golfers dressed in the 1970s in particular you can see exactly what he meant.
“I regard golf as an expensive way of playing marbles.” ― G.K. Chesterton
Golf in Swindon
Now this golf in Swindon blog is a guest post from Lee who I ‘know’ from Twitter. I’m delighted to have it. Because I do like to cover as many aspects of Swindon life on this blog as I can and golf is surely one of them?
I gotta say that I hesitate to refer to golf as a ‘sport’. Surely it’s not reasonable to call a sport, any game where you can progress in a motorised cart, and that can be played by overweight middle-aged men with cigars in their mouths. But, for the sake of argument, I’ve categorised this post as ‘This Sporting Life’. Reluctantly.
Lee’s interests in sport
Lee takes an interest in sport. He’s written for the blog before about Swindon Town Football Club for a start. So thanks to Lee for being my roving (coughs) sports correspondent and sending me these lines and the photographs. Lee also has a keen interest in history, which is reflected in his musings.
Among his photographs is one of Swindon’s own golfing success story: David Howell. Now I hail from Worksop – home of another very successful golfer: Lee Westwood – his mother used to be my chiropodist. She was always full of stories of ‘R Lee’. Time was I had a partner that was a keen golfer – I used to threaten to get a T-shirt printed with ‘David who? on one side and ‘I HEART Lee’ on the other. But I thought we might have been blackballed or whatever it is.
Anyway – with no further ado – Lee’s words:
“I love golf but to be fair I’m not that good at playing – not exactly a natural you might say.
In the Swindon area we’re spoilt for golf courses. There’s Ogbourne, Marlborough, Bowood and the lovely Wrag Barn at Highworth. Then of course there’s Brinkworth and South Carney. The 9-hole course in Highworth presents quite a challenge but the courses at Moredon and Coate are 3-par and friendlier.
All these courses have their histories but none so much as the jewel in Swindon’s Broome Manor Golf Complex.
Ancient woodlands
Here there are hidden acres of woodland not far from the ancient villages of Hodson and Coate.It really is a golfer’s paradise. Will it remain so with the plans currently afoot for a 50 room hotel at the complex?
Many good players have paced the fairways at Broome Manor – or Broome as it gets called.
A well-known name in the golfing world is that of Swindon born David Howell. Continuing to shine, David fine-tuned his game at Broome Manor. A six times winner in Europe he still is in the worlds top 130….with power to add hopefully when he returns from injury. David’s achievements with the niblick have been recognised at the club with an annual Pro-Am in his name. Here he is action. Oh and it’s in the rough … ! 😉
David who?
The driving range at Broome was opened by none other than Ian Woosnam – and to throw in a bit of history, the Old Broome Farmhouse still stands – a remnant of the 1000 year old manor.’
There’s lots of fab information here about Swindon’s various manors. I was going to quote some bits but the coding on the site won’t allow it. So if you’re interested you’ll have to visit it. http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/wilts/vol9/pp119-124
The train now standing … the Locomotive Broome Manor built in Swindon in 1938
‘In filthy condition ex GWR 1938 built 7805 Broome Manor lies parked at the back of Tyseley shed.
Although the back of Tyseley this and a parallel line extended to the main Warwick Rd in Birmingham affording a view of several locomotives that were in steam without the need to trespass. The shed had two turntables and these overflow lines were an extension from them. 7805 had certainly visited the coal drop before being stabled here.’
Says Lee: ‘This is a negative that I found in an old envelope, I think someone gave it to me in around 1969.’
Straight down the middle
Now to round this off, and despite not being a huge golf fan, I can take pleasure in a novelty song. And here we have Bing Crosby and Bob Hope from 1957 and ‘Straight down the Middle’. They wish. As the man says: Fore!
It’s only a few days since Martin Parry’s pièce de résistance ‘Railway Town Film’ premiered at the Wyvern Theatre to a sell out crowd. I had the privilege of being on the Q&A panel after the film – and what a great film it was. SUCH a wonderful testament to its maker and its subject matter: Swindon and its people.
It really was very moving and inspirational. It drove home just how much Swindon has to be proud of in its history and makes clear just how VERY special the Mechanics’ Institute is – make no mistake – that place is about SO much more than the building. It’s about the very heart and soul of New Swindon.
All of which makes a neat enough segue into other video footage about Swindon’s railway workers collected together by a chap I’ve come into contact with via Instagram.
His name is Mark Keen – known on Instagram as Sharpbluepix. Mark has YouTube and Vimeo channels that are worth taking a look at.
Mark was the first person in Swindon to get Instragramming I believe. He beta tested the app in 2010 before it got sold to Facebook and when it was only on Apple devices. So scrolling back through the #Swindon hashtag his are the first pictures.
He’s got some films online form the now defunct Swindon Cable (see below) – many featuring the GWR works.
Another 6 Swindon-related songs & why you should listen/watch
Hello listeners!
Following on from an earlier post listing 5 Swindon related songs here’s another 6 Swindon-related songs.
No 1 and No 4 are previously unknown to me. Clearly this Swindon-related music malarkey could go on forever so enough has to be enough with two posts on the theme.
To the moon ‘Robocop Spectrum 128K’.Why listen/watch? Because it was filmed at the marvellous Museum of Computing in Swindon that’s why! No 6 on my list of 10 things to celebrate about Swindon. I love this – I think it’s fab.
2) The Moody Blues back in 1969 – Tuesday Afternoon. Why listen? Apparently it was written under a tree in Lydiard Park. So I’m told.
3) Anything by Supertramp. Why? Because Rick Davies hails from Swindon! I’ve gone for the Logical Song because I remember it from my youth. Though I could just have easily gone for ‘Breakfast in America‘ for the same reason. Written in 1979 by Rodger Hodgson and apparently before he’d met Rick Davies. Who’d have thought when I was listening to this record back in Derbyshire that I’d end up living in the home town of the band’s co-founder and blogging about him?
4) James Pettefar – Swindon Town Song. Why listen/watch? It’s about Swindon. #obvs
And of course, I couldn’t finish this post without mention of this man:
6) Gilbert O’Sullivan. I was SUCH a fan when I was growing up. And yet another Swindonian. Well he was born in Ireland but came to Swindon when he was 7. So as good as. Gilbert – or Raymond as he’s actually called – went to St Joseph’s and then to Swindon Art College.
In that five I included two songs by a talented young Swindon man by the name of Hitesh Mistry. But this post is dedicated entirely to Hitish and his newest song: ‘Higher’. He wants to get lots of views on it on his YouTube channel #obvs. So if you click on the link below and have a listen he’d be highly delighted I’m sure.
Hitesh Mistry
Hitesh lives in West Swindon and his videos are so far all made around Swindon. So, if nothing else it’s quite fun seeing what you recognise.
15 years old and the son of Ash & Sheela, owners of the Eggelicious empire, Hitesh is the youngest member of the clan. He’s been writing songs since he was 11.
All of them support the family Eggelicious business in some way and Hitish is the fish marinader. Singer/songwriter and fish marinader. That’s some CV!
As well as flying solo, Hitesh also plays in a band called The Tribe.But his Youtube videos are all of him solo singing and playing.
Dark deeds in Chipping Cleghorn – Announcing a Murder at the Wyvern
Announcing a Murder at the Wyvern.
So imagine then. You’ve got your copy of the Swindon Advertiser, you’ve sat down with a coffee and chocolate digestive to peruse its contents and you come across something like this:
Now do some more imagining and think of the frenzy of speculation and gossip. Fever pitch wouldn’t cover it. There’s be a social media maelstrom. Facebook would fall over, Swindon 24 would be beside itself and Twitter would explode. Or is it implode? Anyway …When just such a thing happens in Chipping Cleghorn the sherry glasses shake and the tea cups tremble fit to break.
Red Herrings and all the usual suspects
And so begins an evening of: Red herrings Policemen wearing trilbys Characters who aren’t who they say they are A stereotypical servant with a thick eastern European/Russian accent (these plays werewritten in different times) And of course Miss Marple – the super sleuth in the tweed and clumpy shoes whose ever-present knitting and self-effacing personality disguises a razor sharp mind.
All of which adds up to the a murderously good evening’s entertainment on the stage of the Wyvern Theatre. So if you’ve got an evening free this week book yourself in and lose yourself in the classic, timeless cleverness of Agatha Christie – aka the Queen of Crime.
Agatha Christie’s 50th Book
Promoted either side of the pond as Miss Christie’s 50th book, ‘A Murder is Announced’ was published in 1950.
It’s a staple of the crime fiction genre, one widely considered to the best of the Miss Marple adventures.
‘ The villagers of Chipping Cleghorn, including Jane Marple, are agog with curiosity over an advertisement in the local gazette.It reads: ‘A murder is announced and will take place on Friday October 29th, at Little Paddocks at 6.30 p.m.’
A childish practical joke? Or a hoax intended to scare poor Letitia Blacklock? Unable to resist the mysterious invitation, a crowd begins to gather at Little Paddocks at the appointed time when, without warning, the lights go out…‘ And anymore would be spoilers!
The role of Miss Marple is taken by Judy Cornwell who has been in oodles of things since the 1960s. If you can even imagine such a thing. Though these days she’s probably best known for her role as Daisy in the BBC’s ‘Keeping up Appearances’. And I rather suspect that most of the rest of the cast you’ll have seen somewhere or there in something or other.
To whet your appetite further here’s a nice Youtube link to the official trailer of the production:
