“Happiness is a long walk with a putter”
The Stenhouse Quaich Golf Society (SQGS) can trace it’s roots back to the early 1960s when The Stenhouse Golf Society (SGS) was established. Membership of the original society was restricted to employees of A R Stenhouse Blyth & Co, a Glasgow based insurance broker founded in 1926 by Alexander Rennie Stenhouse (1876–1952). See attached link for the article announcing the establishment of the firm:
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.
Sandy Sinclair OBE
Image sourced from West Kilbride Golf Club
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 a wonderful association between the society and the club which endured for almost 60 years.
As with many social 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, while 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 event after 1964. Very sadly Paul died suddenly in 2001 while playing golf at Moortown Golf Club in Leeds.
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!
Views from the Dormy House at Royal Lytham & St. Annes
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 invited to toast those who had achieved some distinction or other (not just on the golf course) during the preceding few days.
Commemorative plaque of Hugh Stenhouse
By David McFall RA
The acquisition of Alexander & Alexander by Aon Inc. in late 1996 heralded an era of considerable change for the society as the Scottish influence waned and the senior management who had been so supportive since its creation ‘rode off into the sunset’. By 2005 there were very few staff from Glasgow attending the annual event.
Around the turn of the century organisation of the event was taken over by Mike Parker and Miles Whitfield, actuaries in Aon Consulting’s Harrow office. Both Mike and Miles made great efforts to make the society more inclusive so extended invitations to employees from all parts of the company – a quirk of the original society was that in the ‘Stenhouse Glasgow days’ only current employees of companies that had their origins in Stenhouse could attend. The Executive Board were encouraged to maintain financial support and attend and an Aon Limited Board team was entered for a few years. Unlike all other participants - with the exception of the holders of trophies - they did not have to go through the trials of the regional qualification process. However, successfully navigating the stress of qualification had its benefits as the company paid most of the costs of participating in the main event.
The 2014 group celebrating the 50th anniversary of the society visiting Royal Lytham & St. Annes.
It is evident from many of the many stories shared by member 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.
In the mid-2000s with the withdrawal of corporate financial support 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 their guests.
Advances in the demographics of the society mean that late night visits to into Blackpool and Scarborough are no longer on the agenda but, ever creative, the society’s members still seem capable of exploits worthy of mention over dinner on Friday. Indeed, the area behind Royal Lytham & St. Anne’s 3rd green may never fully recover from a combination of far too much red wine and a particularly virulent ‘fish special’ served up by the local ‘curry house’ in St. Annes a few years ago.
And it was a great disappointment to all when the local Thai restaurant in Lytham closed down, for 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.
With the society returning to its roots in Yorkshire for the 2024 event all manner of new routines are being tested to supplement the traditions which have made the move across the Pennines. With Giannis in Scarborough already seeming to have secured a lock on future Thursday night festivities given they made their entire second floor available for the exclusive use of the society for the Quaich draw, which must have come as a relief to the other patrons.
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.
“If you think its hard to meet new people, try picking up the wrong golf ball”