Sport

Christmas Eve at the Front

An interesting letter has just been received by Mrs Packer, of Broadclyst, from her husband, Corpl Packer of A Company, 1st Battalion Devonshire Regiment, who is serving with the Expeditionary Force in Northern France. In the course of a letter he describes a remarkable incident which occurred on Christmas Eve between the British and German trenches.

Played five, won five, is the notable record of Langtree County Primary School Netball team for the Easter term.

The team wears the same colours as the school’s footballers and, like them, the girls appeared in new kit for their final matches. With the team is Mrs E Stone, a member of the school staff. Mrs E Stone, Josephine Huxtable, Pamela Ford, Winnie Box, Rosalind Gent, Eileen Vanstone, Patsy Sutton, Marilyn Gerry

Gazette article dated 7 April 1961

One of three Bideford boxers who made the journey to Kingsbridge on Saturday, light-middleweight Graham Fishleigh, won his tenth bout in succession.

He twice sent his opponent J Flower to the canvas for counts of nine before the referee stopped the content in the third round. Six of Fishleigh’s verdicts have been secured inside the distance and he remains unbeaten.

David Found, having his second fight, also did well to get a judges’ unanimous decision in a lightweight bout against H Holden. L Cudmore, the junior member of the Bideford and District Amateur Youth Boxing Club party, shaped promisingly in his first fight for the club, narrowly losing the decision to G Kroll.

Gazette article published 3 April 1959

Northam, Home of John Henry Taylor and 75 Other Professionals

In the golfing world, Northam has gained its own small niche in the game’s history books as the home of John Henry Taylor, one of the Great Triumvirate who was British Open champion no less than five times.

But Northam licensee Peter Long believes that Northam has an even greater claim to fame golfwise by having provided more professionals for the game than anywhere else in the country. With the help of his customers at the Kingsley Inn, Northam, Peter has so far traced 76 golfers who left Northam to join the professional ranks. The list, an impressive one in size alone, includes two Open champions; the famous ‘JH’, and Denmore Shute who in more recent times won the American Open. George Cawsey, John Rowe and Bert Way were presidents of the Professional Golfers Association in this country and Bert Way was also president of the USGA. Peter Mills was a Ryder Cup player....one of the Way brothers, Jack, won the United States senior championship in 1962 at the age of 84. The list includes several sets of well known brothers including the Andrews, the Fulfords, the Gibsons – well known for their club making skills including a set for Queen Victoria’s dolls house - the Hearns, the Shutes and the Taylors.Again Mr Long’s researches have shown that 23 sons of Northam went to the United States, three to Canada, two to France. And others went to New Zealand, India, Switzerland and one, Albert Jenkins, even went to Lundy, where a nine hole course was formed. Newest professional is Jim Long, the 24 years old son of Mr and Mrs Long who joined the professional ranks five years ago and who is now assistant pro at the West Herts club. Here’s the list as it stands today: Arthur Andrews, Bryant Andrews, Amber Andrews, Phil Andrews, Walter Andrews, Cecil Ash, Tom Bellworthy, Eddie Bond, R Braund, William (Bis) Curtis, George Cann, George Cawsey, Jack Cawsey, George Cawsey jnr, Eddie Davis, Jack Dingle, Batt Fulford, Harry Fulford, Tom Fulford, Horace Fulford, Jack Fuldord, Bobby Fowler, Eric Gibson, Charles Gibson snr, Charles Gibson jnr, Jack Gibson, Robert Gibson, Bill Gibson, Ben Goss, Fred Griffey, Alfie Hearn, Jim Hearn, Monty Hearn, Stanley Hearn, Nelson Hamlyn, William Hoare, Albert Jenkins, William Lock, Nick Laws, Jim Long, Frank Lock, Frank Lewis, W Lewis, ... Lilley, Tom Mounce, Peter Mills, M McNamara, Jack Moore, J Ogate, John Olde, George Oke, William Oke, Fred Pye, George Pennington, Fred Pennington, John Rowe, Charles Rowe, William Rowe, Harry Shute, Denmore Shute, Cyril Shute, Herman Shute, Fred Saunders, Albert Saunders, Harry Snell, Jumbo Slocombe, Ernie Slocombe, J H Taylor, J J Taylor, Charles Taylor, Reg Taylor, Josh Taylor, Bert Way, Jack Way, ... Way and Norman Wickett. Read the full Gazette article for more information 2 March 1973