MAGAZINE 2022-23
The confidence and extravagance of early Edwardian Britain sat well with the era of the Belle Époque in France, as both nations reaped the rewards of their empires. Royal Liverpool GC member Arthur H. Crosfield, had for many years been a regular visitor to Cannes, where he met H.I.H. Grand Duke Michael of Russia.
The Grand Duke was then President of Cannes GC. A keen player in his own right, he was also an enthusiastic promoter of the game, having been introduced to golf while visiting Scotland in the mid 1890s. Crosfield subsequently invited the Grand Duke to attend the 1902 Open Championship at Hoylake as his guest. It was during this visit that the two men decided that Crosfield and a representative team of Hoylake golfers should travel to France to play a match against Cannes GC. This fixture, which took place in March 1903, was among the first international club matches ever contested.
The Hoylake team selected by Crosfield was a formidable one, at least at the top of the order. Spearheaded by John Ball, Harold Hilton and Jack Graham, it also included Royal Liverpool past secretary William Ryder Richardson and Lord Eldon. Crosfield was an accomplished golfer with a handicap of 2, and several of the players on both sides were scratch or better: indeed, in the spring of 1903, John Ball Jnr was a +7 handicap. Secretary Harold Janion accompanied the Hoylake contingent, although he played no part in the actual contest. It was hoped that Charles Hutchings, the reigning Amateur Champion, would be available to join them, as he was vacationing in Pau at the time, but he was unable to travel to Cannes due to illness.
The membership of Cannes GC was truly international, although the team was mainly made up of English golfers, along with at least two Americans. Also representing Cannes was the 'Scottish American' Henry James Whigham, winner of consecutive early US Amateur Championships in 1896 and 1897, who had first gone to America in 1893 to demonstrate golf at the Chicago World's Fair. Whigham was originally introduced to the game by Joe Lloyd, by then the Pau professional, but once a caddie from Hoylake who became the US Open Champion at Chicago GC in 1897.
Upon arrival, the visitors wasted no time in familiarising themselves with the parkland terrain of Cannes GC, so different from the links of Hoylake. Several exhibition matches took place prior to the main fixture and an account of the play appeared in the New York Times: 'The visitors' true form and play are not to be judged by these matches, as they were greatly handicapped by the journey, their unfamiliarity with the course and the surroundings, and, above all, by the glaring southern light'. The following day a scratch medal competition took place. John Ball Jnr's game showed little sign of travel weariness as he recorded a very fine score of 74, with Henry Whigham finishing second, five shots behind. For his efforts, Ball received a Louis XV silver fruit basket, which Crosfield had donated as a prize. On the eve of the main match, both teams were entertained at a grand dinner hosted by the Cannes GC Committee, with Grand Duke Michael presiding. He warmly welcomed the visitors in his address and Arthur Crosfield replied on behalf of his team; Lord Eldon then proposed the Grand Duke's health, 'emphasising his dignified urbanity, kindliness and geniality'. The following morning, the visitors breakfasted at Villa Kasbek, the Grand Duke's Cannes residence, where they were joined by Countess Torbay and Winston Churchill, who was then the 28-year-old Conservative MP for Oldham.
THE VISITORS' TRUE FORM AND PLAY ARE NOT TO BE JUDGED BY THESE MATCHES, AS THEY WERE GREATLY HANDICAPPED BY THE JOURNEY, THEIR UNFAMILIARITY WITH THE COURSE AND THE SURROUNDINGS, AND, ABOVE ALL, BY THE GLARING SOUTHERN LIGHT'
The fixture involved four 36-hole singles matches, followed by four 4-balls. After a delayed start due to torrential rain, John Ball Jnr swiftly took control of his match, but it soon became clear that the hosts were very competitive on their home course. Hilton and Graham lost to Hillyard and Whigham respectively, while Ryder Richardson and Lord Eldon unsurprisingly succumbed at the bottom of the order. The overall score was level at the end of the singles matches. In the four-balls, Ball and Hilton easily accounted for Edwards and Hillyard, the next two matches were shared, before Ryder Richardson and Lord Eldon were defeated after a valiant fight. This meant that the overall result was a 6-6 tie and Crosfield was unable to return to Hoylake with the magnificent silver trophy that the Grand Duke had donated for the match.
Soon after this, in early June 1903, Crosfield's Hoylake team hosted the men from Cannes on home sand and soil. The silver trophy was not played for on this occasion, and a weakened and much changed Cannes team was easily defeated. The original idea had been for the match to be decided on a 'holes up' basis, but many of the individual games proved to be one-sided and the results were not recorded. For the record, the Hoylake side prevailed 8-3, with one match halved.
The third fixture between the sides took place in March 1904, hosted once again in Cannes by Grand Duke Michael, and this time the trophy would be at stake. Press reports on this meeting were few and far between, and there are no accounts of the actual play. We do know, however, that the Hoylake marauders were victorious and returned home with the spoils. Ball, Hilton and Graham were once again the vanguard of the side, and although the Cannes GC team shaded the singles, it was routed in the fourballs. The final result was 7-4, with one halved match.
For over a century, the whereabouts of the Cannes trophy remained shrouded in mystery. There was little mention of it in the club minutes, although our scrapbooks did include a few relevant press cuttings from the time. Out of the blue, however, in the midst of the 2020 Covid lockdown, the trophy was listed for sale at an internet golf memorabilia auction in the USA. Designed and crafted by Mappin and Webb in London, the imposing silver trophy was in excellent condition. Adorned with ram's head handles and a pineapple finial on the lid, the names of the participants and the final match results were clearly engraved. The historical importance of this piece and its potential for display were compelling reasons for pursuing its acquisition. At the end of a competitive two-week bidding process, some of it nocturnal, the club was successful. The news of the return of the Cannes trophy to Hoylake did much to lift spirits during the pandemic.
No account of this series of matches between Cannes GC and Royal Liverpool would be complete without at least a mention of the subsequent lives of the two men responsible for establishing the fixture, Arthur H. Crosfield and Grand Duke Michael of Russia, Crosfield lived in Warrington and subsequently went into politics, winning the seat of Warrington in the 1906 Liberal landslide, and representing it until 1910. He inherited the thriving soap, candle and chemical company, Joseph Crosfield and Sons, which he promptly sold. He then moved to London, where he purchased an elegant property in Highgate. Knighted in 1929 for services to the National Playing Field Association, things took a turn for the worse for him in the mid 1930s, when he made a disastrous investment in a failed Greek mining venture. He tragically lost his life in 1938, when he fell out of a railway sleeper-car window, en route to Cannes from Geneva.
Grand Duke Michael was the youngest brother of Tsar Nicholas II, and represented Russia at Queen Victoria's funeral in 1901. He became President of Cannes GC in his mid-twenties and was said to be an enthusiastic, though extremely slow, player. His marriage to a commoner in 1912 incurred the wrath of his brother, and he was banished from Russia in disgrace. At the onset of WWI, he rejoined his Cossack regiment in the Caucuses, where he served with distinction. The Russian revolution of 1917, however, heralded the end for the Romanovs, not least the Grand Duke. In 1918, he was executed by the Bolsheviks near the remote Eastern city of Perm, and his body was never recovered.
1871 was a landmark year in the early days of the Royal Liverpool Golf Club, and arguably the most important in its 150-year history. The fledgling 9-hole course which had been laid out just two years before had become heavily congested on medal days, and arguments in favour of extending the links to 18 holes were compelling. The membership sought to develop a golf course at Hoylake that would come to rival those at St Andrews and Prestwick, and extending the course to 18 holes was a crucial first step in that direction. Writing of the changes to the course in 1871, the golf correspondent of The Field, whose pseudonym was 'Wooden Spoon', noted: 'Commencing at the short hole, we go five holes due south, along the warren to the foot of West Kirby, and back four holes by the banks of the Dee, joining the old links at the Rushes hole. Although the distances are short, the difficulties are great: what with rushes, bent, hills, hollows, mounds and real St Andrews bunkers, the most experienced players will be glad of a forecaddie and a flag; fortunately, the putting greens are smooth and true throughout'.
In the spring of 1871, Colonel Edmund Hegan Kennard became the club's second Captain, taking over from James Muir Dowie. Kennard had been working behind the scenes in an effort to persuade Prince Arthur, Queen Victoria's third son and a keen golfer, to become the club's President. On 29th June 1871, Kennard received a letter from Buckingham Palace confirming that Prince Arthur had 'great pleasure in accepting the Honorary Presidency of the Liverpool Golf Club'. The Minute Book recorded the good news: 'So that henceforth the club designates itself "The Royal Liverpool Golf Club"; the meeting expressed its gratification at this happy result'. So it was that, just two years after it was founded, the precocious northern English golf club had become only the sixth in Britain authorised to call itself 'Royal'. Council wasted no time in recognising this, and plans were made to design new gold buttons and to update the engraving on the Club Gold Medal.
At that time, official Bank Holidays did not exist. This changed when Sir John Lubbock, Liberal politician and banker, introduced the Bank Holiday Act of 1871. Thereafter, the first Monday in August became a public holiday, along with Whit Monday, Easter Monday and Boxing Day. John Dun, himself a banker and a prominent member of the Royal Liverpool club's Council, was eager to organise a Summer Meeting. This initiative was supported by Council and arrangements were made for the inaugural event to be played on Monday 7th August.
Before the competition took place, however, there was much to decide. Several of the new holes had yet to be named, and these were now listed in the Minutes for the first time. The importance of prizes was also recognised: a small silver medal would be awarded to the winner of the scratch event, while many members donated prizes for the handicap competition. J. Spinks presented a striking silver tankard which would be won outright by the player with the best handicap score. Other prizes included a pair of silver beakers, a set of golf clubs, and golf balls. A handicap committee was formed, and although John Ball Snr, John Dun and J.C. Baldwin were assigned scratch handicaps, many other members were new to the game. Overall, therefore, the newly established Summer Meeting could safely be described as a mixed ability gathering.
Forty-two competitors took to the links, weaving-and hacking-their way across the rough and newly formed golfing terrain. At least two of the holes criss-crossed, and the scoring reflected both the nature of the new layout and the golfing prowess, or otherwise, of the membership. Only one player broke 100, and we must surely spare a thought for H. Adamson, whose gross score of 172 (net 132) suggests a particularly dispiriting afternoon! Widely regarded then as the best player in the club, John Dun duly won the scratch medal with a gross 96, while the leading handicap score (88; gross 104) was returned by Robert Forman.
One significant link between the club's 1871 other milestones and the Summer Meeting is the Spinks silver trophy, which, for the past 150 years, has been somewhat shrouded in mystery. However, this long-lost artefact surfaced recently at an American golf auction, and the Royal Liverpool Heritage Committee was fortunate enough to secure its acquisition. The magnificent and well-preserved silver tankard is now on display in the clubhouse, where it properly belongs. Designed by a leading nineteenth-century silversmith, Elkington of Birmingham, the lid features one of the early Hoylake club crests, with its Liver bird, crossed clubs, four golf balls and, not least, its crowns, reflecting the club's recently acquired Royal patronage.
Robert Brodie Forman, winner of the handicap prize, was then in his mid-twenties and a founding member of the club. A minister's son from Leven, Fife, he was one of many Scots who travelled south to trade from the then booming port of Liverpool. In 1869, he joined with Robert Balfour and Alexander Guthrie to form the Balfour, Guthrie shipping company, an offshoot of Balfour, Williamson, which was already one of the largest such firms worldwide. In the early days of the San Francisco-based subsidiary, Forman coordinated the Liverpool side of the business. By the 1890s, Balfour Guthrie was the world's largest trader of grain, taking advantage of the commercial opportunities that marked the speculative boom in Victorian San Francisco. In time, Forman moved to California, where he was joined by fellow Royal Liverpool founder members Alec Williamson and John Lawson in establishing the San Francisco Golf Club in 1895.
So it is that the recently acquired Spinks silver trophy brings together many of the important early initiatives of the ambitious, forward thinking Royal Liverpool membership in the second half of the nineteenth century. It also reflects the story of the great trading city of Liverpool, and of the men who settled there in search of the business opportunities it offered. Happily, they brought the game of golf with them to Merseyside and would eventually introduce it to the rest of the world.