TEGS 1977 - 50th Annniversary Jubilee

This was written by a long-standing member of  TEGS, Mr. Carl Chronander, who won The Slough Estates Cup in 1936, became Captain of TEGS in 1939 and then went on to become President of the society. He was still winning 43 years later as in 1979, we have his name recorded on the Mentholatum Cup.

With grateful thanks to my Father (George) for looking after this over the years, perhaps he knew something!     This is exactly as it was written, punctuation and all!

FLOREAT TEGS

Harold Brooks has asked me to write a Foreword to the Members’ Hand Book for 1977 – our Jubilee Year – and I am very pleased to comply with his request.

To begin with I know you will all wish to join me in congratulating the Trading Estate Golfing Society (more familiarly known as TEGS) on achieving its Golden Jubilee and I have no doubt that as long as golf is played it will continue to flourish. Indeed, it is more than likely that some of our younger members will be celebrating its Centenary in the year 2027.

My own ambition is to join in the Diamond Jubilee celebrations in ten years’ time (as well as achieving my own fifty years as a member)!

Looking back over the last forty years, I do not think that TEGS has changed very much in character. It has always been a good Society, and it is an even better one today. However, it may be of interest to recall some of the personalities who were members when I first joined and whom some of you will still remember with affection.

There was T. W. D. (Bill) Turner, the first recorded Captain of the Society. An unforgettable character, he was Chairman of Mentholatum and spent much of his time commuting back and forth across the Atlantic (in one of the ‘Queens’). Many will remember his resounding phrase - “Ting-a-Ling” – when ordering a drink at the bar.

A.J. (‘Tim’) Wilson was Secretary of the Society for many years and was a bit of a dictator in his way. Then there was the benign figure of Sir Noel Mobbs (who, of course, started the Trading Estate, in 1920, and so was responsible for our coming into being). He did not play golf himself, as far as I can remember, but took a keen interest in the game and in the TEGS. Being unable to walk far, I think due to arthritis, he drove himself about his own Stoke Poges golf course in what have must been one of the first ‘buggy’ cars to be seen in this country; the bridges over the streams and ditches on the course had to be widened to accommodate it. His two sons, Eric and Dick, were members of the Society, Dick being Captain in 1938 and winners of several trophies.

Among other notable past Captains were Col. Franklin, his son Jack Franklin and Ronnie Francis, whose salver is now played for on captains Day.

The majority of our meetings were played at Stoke Poges and Burnham Beeches, with occasional ones at Maidenhead and other clubs.  The Captains prize used to be a knock-out competition played at Burnham Beeches over a period of several months. This latter course has always been the ‘home’ of the TEGS and we have always been, and still are, grateful to the club for their hospitality. The important changes to the course have been made only comparatively recently as most members will recall. Stoke Poges, however, has changed even more radically; before the war there were two courses, the ‘old’ and the ‘new’, and the present course is a combination of the two (though rather more from the ‘old’ than the ‘new’).

So much for the past. Let us now look forward to our Jubilee Year and make it the most successful one yet.

R. Chronander  1977