THE WORLD'S WORST GOLFER

4th April 1959: For the first time, a club scored double figures in a Division 4 match – Hartlepools United (they had that extra "s" in their name in those days!) also setting a club record League victory when defeating Barrow FC 10-1 at the Victoria Ground. Here's some more.......

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I have written about these two clubs in the past and the reason I am using Barrow again is that I have just returned from Sheffield Vue Cinema where the "Phantom of the Open" has been entertaining a smallish audience in Meadowhall. The "Phantom" happens to be Maurice Flitcroft, who one way and another managed to play in the British Open Golf Championship, having never played the game properly before! Maurice Flitcroft ... was a chain smoking, shipyard crane operator, from Barrow-in-Furness, whose persistent attempts to gate crash the British Open Golf championship produced a sense of humour failure among members of the golfing establishment.

Mark Rylance leads and he is supported by actors who played Flitcroft's family, friends and some fruity members of the various golf clubs involved. The film is to be recommended.

I was excited to see in the story that Flitcroft worked at the Vickers Shipyard in Barrow-in-Furness (founded 1871), an "industrial" site that over the years, many Charterhouse A Level Geographers have visited, on the Dept annual pre-Easter Field Trip to Cumbria. One way and another we managed a half day industrial visit to the works, where the students were party to the inner workings of the site, including areas where the nuclear submarines were being built. We also had half a day in Sellafield! That might account for my loss of memory?

The second half of the day was spent on the coastline near Barrow-in-Furness, where we investigated beach "processes", you know, Long Shore Drift etc and especially sand dune formation, which involved us sneaking on to Maurice's golf course near Barrow, with our measuring tapes etc. Marram grass is tough rough! 

Well it was meant to be nearby, although the golf scenes were shot at Bedgebury Manor, Littlestone Golf Club and the industry at The Historic Dockyard Chatham. Bedgebury Manor is a former boarding school set in 200 acres of parkland in the Weald of Kent.