History

In 1957 Hugh Stenhouse (1915–1971), the youngest son of Alexander Rennie Stenhouse, became Chairman of Stenhouse Holdings, the partnership having incorporated as a limited company in that same year.  Hugh was a keen golfer and together with Sandy Sinclair OBE (1920–2002), a senior employee and one of the leading Scottish amateur golfers of that time, founded the society. The society became affiliated as a golf club to the Scottish Golf Union which enabled it to allocate official handicaps to its members.

To begin with the SGS held Spring and Autumn meetings in Scotland and, no doubt, organised competitions and awarded trophies and prizes.  In 1963 it was decided to organise a weekend event at Ganton Golf Club in North Yorkshire.  This proved a great success and the following year the event was held at Royal Lytham & St. Annes Golf Club in Lancashire, which started the wonderful association between the society and the club which endures today.

In the early days of the society it became the practice to invite the Captain of Royal Lytham & St. Annes to join the formal dinner in the club dining room on the Saturday evening.  In 1968-69 the Captain was Edward (Tony) Nickson, a scratch golfer who has the distinction of scoring a hole-in-one on of each of Lytham’s par 3s, and he enjoyed the association with the society so much that he attended the dinner every year until he became too ill to do so in the early 2000s. He was invited once again to be the club Captain in 1986-87, the centenary year, and was the author of ‘The Lytham Century and Beyond’ in which the SGS gets a mention on page 181:

‘Stenhouse Insurance Golf Society, whose President is Sandy Sinclair, a Past Captain of the R&A, have had an annual week-end here since 1964’.

It seems that the relationship between Sandy Sinclair and Tony Nickson was fundamental in building the long-term relationship that the society has with the club.

During the 1970s and 1980s the society’s sponsoring company went through a number of mergers and acquisitions but support for the annual event in Lytham never waivered.

The SGS remained Glasgow based with the main organiser being Ian Gibson, with Ian Manson running the betting book and acting as starter on the first tee.  The firm’s senior management remained very supportive with Ian Faulkner, the Finance Director and Mike Raybould, the Financial Controller having permanent seats at the top table for dinner. Raybould used to sit at the end of the table next to the Club’s dinner gong, which he would bang at every opportunity!

In the early days there was a greater degree of formality about proceedings with the society’s Chairman having the task of organising a guest speaker for the Saturday dinner, notable ones include Seve Ballesteros (tribute) and Alex Hay, former BBC commentator and Director of Golf at Woburn.

While this practice no longer continues many of the early traditions have been maintained, including that the Chairman (nowadays the prior year’s winner of The Blyth Putter) be asked to take wine with those who had achieved some distinction or other (not just on the golf course) during the preceding few days.

As with many social and amateur sporting organisations the history of the SQGS is woven together by the individuals and characters who have passed through it.

A number of the trophies reference former society members, the goblets are named after John Young who was a Managing Director of the Stenhouse Group in the 1960s, with the salver being in honour of Sandy Sinclair - who is referenced above. The Blyth Putter refers to William Blyth who was a founding partner of Stenhouse Hope & Blyth, one of the many legacy sponsoring companies, and The Ron Amy Trophy was donated by the society’s current President, Ron Amy.

The Paul Freeley Cup was established in honour of Paul Freeley who worked for Aon Consulting and started his career at Stenhouse in Leeds, he had the attended the first SGS weekend at Ganton as a 16 year old and then every Royal Lytham event after 1964.  Very sadly Paul died suddenly in 2001 while playing golf at Moortown Golf Club in Leeds.

It is evident from many of the stories that Paul would tell that a key tradition of the SGS weekend had quite a lot to do with Lytham St. Anne’s proximity to Blackpool.  It would be true to say that a number of rounds of golf were less than competitive because of time spent in establishments purveying all manner of entertainment until the early hours of the morning.  Indeed, it was not uncommon for residents of the club’s Dormy House to see people arriving on the first tee having merely had time to change out of their evening attire before starting their matches.

By the mid-2000s it was clear that corporate sponsorship of the event could no longer be justified and in due course the subsidy was reduced and by 2011 it was removed altogether, leaving financing of the society and organisation of the annual event to the members.  Organisation and management of the society passed to Frazer Clark and Chris Aeschlimann, operating as society Secretary and Captain respectively, with ex-Aon Ltd Board member Ron Amy as President.  It was these three who proposed the reconstitution of the society as a members’ club to be known as the Stenhouse Quaich Golf Society, with membership open to all current or previous employees of Aon Ltd and its legacy companies, and other suitable nominees.

Advances in the demographics of the society mean that visits to The Manchester Inn, Yates’ or Too Hot To Handle in Blackpool are now no longer on the agenda but a vibrant social tradition continues to engage and generate new history every year.

While no longer in business, the local Indian restaurant was a firm favourite for the festivities on Wednesday nights, although much effort was required in navigating the menu so as to avoid suffering unduly the following day – the area behind the 3rd green may never fully recover from a particularly virulent ‘fish special’ served up a few years ago.  And it was a great disappointment to all when the local Thai restaurant closed down, it was known to attract couples for its romantic ambiance and many a date-night was loudly interrupted by the Quaich team draw. Fortunately the restaurant always had a few bottles of wine on hand with which the society could compensate any young couples who’s evening out had been unduly sullied.

But ever creative, members have found new venues to add to the evening rota and the addition of The Taps public house and The Duck’s Nuts (previously the No. 10 Ale House) provide ample new opportunities to engage and converse with the locals.

It is for reasons such as these that during the Friday night dinner the off-course exploits continue to garner as much interest and enthusiasm as do the on-course heroics.