25th anniversary of the Midland Scratch Golf LeagueDinner at Sandwell Park GC in February 2001Published in the Solihull News - February 2001Chief Executive of the PGA at the Belfry, Sandy Jones at 25th anniversary of the Midland Scratch Golf League at a Dinner at Sandwell Park GC in February 2001. John Shaw has been organiser of the MSGL since its inception in 1975, and he gladly took the plaudits at the evening’s dinner. He also received a commemorative glass trophy, engraved with the logos of the Founder Member Golf Clubs, namely Handsworth, Sandwell Park, Robin Hood, Great Barr, Olton, Maxstoke Park and Sutton Coldfield. Sandy was very appreciative of the opportunity to pass on recognition of John’s outstanding commitment in running the League over such a long period, with 44 teams competing in seven divisions in 2001. Sandy’s humorous after dinner speech was based mainly anecdotes around the recent Ryder Cup Captain, Seve Ballesteros. Sandy had to deal with a Ballesteros who was clearly seething at times. Spanish Golfer Manuel Angel Martin was injured but had qualified automatically and insisted on playing in Seve’s team, "Martin is trying to screw everyone," he said. "He is like a machine- gun, shooting every way. He is a kamikaze going all the way for the ship. He has been badly advised. I thought he had more intelligence. He is trying to be a hero for the week, a hero for himself." Ballesteros was scornful of any suggestion of Martin getting back on the team. "He was not welcome before," he said. "Do you think he will be welcome now? We would be out of our minds to change the decision to leave him out of the team." Sandy had also refereed Seve at a Ryder Cup match. We shook hands on the first tee. Seve said ‘Are you the best referee in the world?’ I just ignored it and started counting his clubs. ‘You think Seve cheats?’ I said ‘no, I’m just checking your clubs to make sure you’ve not made a mistake’. “And he keeps saying ‘so are you the best referee in the world?’ I eventually said ‘well, Seve, I think you are the best player in the world, so they wouldn’t put the worst referee in the world with you’. He shook my hand and said ‘you’ll do for me’. He was great.”
MSGL Dinner 2011 at
Sandwell Park GC 35 Years of the
Scratch Golf League
This photo, copied from ‘The Express and Star’ was taken
to commemorate 35 yrs of the MSGL.
Special Guests (R to L)
John Shaw – Guest of Honour, Eric Horne – President SPGC, John Welch - After Dinner Speaker,
Peter Cole – Team Captain
of 6 time winners of Division One SPGC Scratch Team ,
Jon Deakin – Club Captain SPGC.
Forty Years of the Midland Scratch
Golf League 1975 to 2015
Sandwell Park GC are proud
to be founder members of the MSGL from 1975, along with Maxstoke Park, Great
Barr, Robin Hood, Sutton Coldfield, Handsworth and Olton.
Fellow co-founders and
winners of the MSGL have assisted in the past with contributions for 25, 30
& 35 year anniversary presentations at dinners, from 2001 onwards,
organised by SPGC for Mr John Shaw, founder, and still running the MSGL, more
or less single handed, supported on the Internet by Mr Frank Welch.
Quite a feat of
organisation with 55 teams playing in the League in 2015.
We plan to make a
presentation to Mr Shaw and Mr Welch at the MSGL fixtures meeting at SPGC on October
8th 2015, and we would like to request a cash contribution to this presentation
from co-founder clubs and Division One winning clubs. In fact, a band of only
fourteen golf clubs.
We plan to present to
John, a momento of his forty years at the helm, similar to a previous event in
2001, I still have a letter of thanks to SPGC from Graham Crawford at Maxstoke
Park GC for arranging a superb glass vase, still in Mr Shaw’s possession,
displaying the crests of the founder member Golf Clubs.
John Shaw and his MSGL ‘Web Wizard’
assistant for some years, Frank Welch.
Frank sadly passed away in 2021, after a long illness.
