Born in Wells, Arthur Ham, was an English professional golfer who was runner up in the 1923 Australian Open. He was described as having a beautiful style hitting a fine ball off the tee. 28 players took to the course at Wells to play the annual match between the Somerset Past Captains and the past captains of Wells hoping that they too would repeat the skills that Arthur showed.
Mike Rossiter playing with past Captain Andy Carter started the day playing Rob Coate and George Davis. Excellent golf was played, and Somerset led 2 up with two to play. In halving the match (well played Rob and George) Mike and Andy showed a generosity that would flow throughout the day.
The second match was Dean ‘Hero’ Evans and Keri Allchurch playing against Dean Hamilton and Phil Slater, playing for Wells. A great game played in the right spirit led to a 6 and 5 win for Somerset.
An excellent match that swung ‘to and fro’ was third off the 1st tee. The Wells team of Tina Davis and Colin Mantle played good golf to go 2 up after 13 holes, but Paul Hucker and Bob Acland came back with 3 birdies in a row to go 1 up. All square going down the last, a missed putt by Somerset led to Wells wining 1 up.
Angela Baker and Rich Bartin playing for Somerset started well until they got to the first green. After that the Wells pair using their shots and knowledge of the course eased to the winning line finally finishing 4 and 3 up.
In the next match Geoff Rooke and Alan Hurford played Andy Williams and Erica Klim. An excellent competitive match from start to finish with never more than 1 shot in it. After halving 10 holes and in a fitting conclusion Andy rolled in a putt on the 18th to halve the match.
Maddie Casson (Match Manager) and Tim Nicholls were not put off by the excellent ‘McIroy’ type putting of Jim Saint who was playing with Geoff Spinks. Somerset held on to win 2 and 1 whilst enjoying the great company provided by the Wells pair.
The score was now a tie of 3 points to each side and the prospect of Somerset winning was on the horizon. Unfortunately this was not the case as Steve Rowe and Jim Boyce for Wells beat Trevor John and Kevin Bleakly in a ‘lovely’ game. Despite being 4 down Somerset only lost on the last green, the difference being the putting.
Whilst the abilities of the present-day Captains may be slightly lacking in comparison to Arthur Ham this match always celebrates the friendships and camaraderie of Captains across Somerset, and all agreed that as always they thoroughly enjoyed the day.
Wells retained the trophy again with 4 and 3 win.
