LGC 1960's

1962

The course measured:
1st 300 yds (bogey 4)

2nd 320 yds (4)

3rd 184 yds (3)

4th 323 yds (4)

5th 175 yds (3)

6th 370 yds (4)

7th 217 yds (3)

8th 310 yds (4)

9th 445 yds (5)

Total 2644 yds (34) Bogey 68 SSS 66.

The Ladies tees measured 2188, bogey 68 (LGU).

In 1962 the subscriptions were as follows:
Subscription were as follows:
Gents £5.5s. 0d
Non-competitive member £2.15.0d
Ladies £3.0s.0d
Social member £1.15.0d
Junior members £2.5s.0d
Country members £1.5s.0d
Lockers 5s.0d
Entrance Fee - Nil

1964

Qualification for the Captain's Prize was the top 16 competitors with the best 2 cards from 4 qualifying rounds. The 4 qualifying rounds to be selected by the Hon. Sec. and Captain from 8 pre-selected dates. (In 1967 this was altered to the best average from three of six qualifying scores).

1964 'drive-in' - Captain Harry Maxim opens the season watched by fellow members.

Can anyone help with the names?

Invitation Fourball's took place on the 1st Sunday of each month commencing in April and ending in September.

An Eclectic Competition was run during the season, with prizes for the 2 best net scores.

A 'Best Average' prize was presented to the player with the best average score over the season (12 completed cards required to qualify, and average taken over best 12 cards. (In following years this was altered to 10 cards).

In 1964 the subscriptions were as follows:

Subscription were as follows:

Gents £7.7s.0d

Gents over 65 years old on 1st January £3.13s.0d

Non-competitive member £2.15.0d

Ladies £3.0s.0d

Social member £1.15.0d

Junior members £2.5s.0d

Country members £1.5s.0d

Lockers 5s.0d

Entrance Fee £3.3s.0d

Rochdale Observer - Saturday 29 May 1965

'Four golfers and a proud captain. The quartet, Bert Rushton, Harry Maxim, Alan Collinge and Bob Tattersall, confounded competitors in the East Lancashire Golf Association team handicap at Pleasington, Blackburn on Saturday by winning the first prize.

So the name of Whitworth’s Lobden Golf Club was put on the map, and congratulations followed from captain Jim Crook. The Lobden four beat teams from top clubs in East Lancashire, and their triumph was mainly due to Harry Maxim’s round. His three colleagues had returned net scores of 72 (Tattersall), 76 (Rushton) and 77 (Collinge) to give Lobden the lead.

Maxim playing off a handicap of 18, hit a birdie three at the 18th for a round of 89 gross, 71 net. Lobden had won by a margin of eight strokes.'

Lancashire Evening Telegraph, Saturday 29 May 1965

The same event was given full coverage in the above newspaper ad started as follows:

' A Good many people had never heard of the place... the majority didn't know where it was...not one in ten could have told you how to get there.

That was the amazing situation at Pleasington last Saturday when Lobden won the East Lancashire Golf Association Shield. 'Where's Lobden', people kept asking me, but I was in the dark as much as they were.

I spoke to Mr Harry Maxim a chemist by profession and a former captain of the club. He accepted the Shield at the presentation from Dr T J Pittard, the East Lancashire Golf Association president, and also finished third himself with a net score of 71 in the individual competition, just one shot behind the winner, Frank Duckett, of Colne.

'The club is about half a mile out of Whitworth, you turn right off the road from Rochdale to Bacup and start climbing. In fact, our sixth tee is 1,000 feet above sea level.'

I found that in many ways, Lobden is a remarkable club. For a start, it may be the newest club in East Lancashire Golf Association, but, in fact, is the oldest in the Association, having been founded in 1888.

For many years, the clubhouse was just a wooden building with no water or electricity laid on. Gradually these services were installed, but the members decided that something more dramatic had to be done about their clubhouse if they were to make progress.

The trouble was, as usual, lack of funds, so they decided to 'do it themselves.' So from October 1961, to March 1962, the vast majority of the members spent their weekends at the clubhouse re-building their clubhouse.

The Lancashire Evening Telegraph, May 29 1965, quoted Mr Harry Maxim, a chemist by profession and a former captain of the club. "We had four joiners among the members and other skilled men, too, so that the only job we had to have done was the building of the front wall. It cost us £1,000 to renovate the clubhouse, but I calculate that it would have cost us £5,000 to get the job done for us. Members loaned the money to the club, but the measure of the success of the venture is the fact that it has all been paid back already."

The full membership fee is seven guineas, but before you start writing off for forms, I had better point out the list is temporarily closed at 150 men and 50 lady members.

The reason for this is that we are still a bit 'pinched' for locker and changing accommodation.

The decision to apply for ELGA membership, the culmination of the promptings of another ex-captain, Mr Roy Mills, who felt the club should widen it's horizons, was just another indication of the confidence and prosperity that has stemmed from the enthusiasm and enterprise of the members.

1966

The fixtures included a Sunday trip to Heysham Golf Club and ended with a weekend trip to Lancaster Golf Club.

Subscription for 1966 had risen to £10.10s.0d. for the Gentlemen with an entrance fee of £3.3s.0d and £5.0s.0d for the Ladies.

1966

Three former captains, Mr Donald Hill, Mr Harry Maxim and Mr James Crook, join this year's captain, Mr Arnold Ashworth (with club) the professional, Graham Derbyshire (who divides his time between Lobden & Tunshill) and vice-captain Mr Herbert Rushton.

The following article appeared in the Rochdale Observer, Saturday 9 April 1966.

Ancient Lobden, still acquisitive.

To one who had always understood that moorland wrestling between the local labourers, organised clog fights, and furtive pitch and toss schools were the sporting pastimes enjoyed by the late 19th century inhabitants of Shawforth, it was a surprise to learn that the village provided the setting for the Rochdale area's first golf club. That was in May of 1888 when the sophisticated minority in the Whitworth district and associates from Rochdale moved on to Shawforth Common to form the Rochdale Golf Club.

It is open to argument - which frequently occurs - whether the club at Shawforth became the Rochdale Golf Club with a course at Bagslate or the Lobden Golf Club at Whitworth.

The Lobden claim is based on the fact that when the Shawforth course was found unsuitable, and this decision was probably reached after only a year - did the wrestlers and gamblers prove too much of a distraction? - The new golfing fraternity moved to Lobden.

Additionally, at the suggestion of the Rochdale contingent, land was leased at King's Road off Kingsway, so that the Rochdale Golf Club could boast two courses.

It was only when the King's Road lease expired that Rochdale and Whitworth golfers went different ways, one group staying at Lobden and the other establishing a course at Bagslate. That was in 1906.

This year's Lobden president Dr John Tierney, backed by the club's first president, Mr Morrit S Cropper, claims that Lobden must have the more direct link with the Shawforth venture because at this 1906 parting the majority of the Rochdale Golf Club trophies were retained at Whitworth.

There is a ready answer to that one if today's Bagslate golfers know the reputation of Whitworth of yesteryear.

But the president can also point to the fact that 76 years after the first golf club was swung at Lobden the club’s honorary president is still, as it was in the 1890s the Lord of the Manor. The fact that the present Lord, Mr James Peregrine Dearden, is resident in New Zealand, must also make this presidential matter unusual.

Despite the Lobden Club's treasuring of old legal documents, fixture cards, photographs and, not least, the trophies 'acquired' 60 years back, the outlook of 1966 members is modern and progressive.

Incidentally, the Lobden members who played in ELGA events during 1965 indicated that they are no less acquisitive than their predecessors. They created many a sensation in ELGA circles, picking up so many awards that not only was Lobden's name put on the East Lancashire golfing map, but there has been a definite request for Lobden to stage a tournament in order that outsiders can test themselves on this moorland, almost mountain course.

'At the present time' says the secretary Mr Donald Hill, 'much as we would like to organise a competition for ELGA golfers we do not have the facilities to do so. We have, however, increased our annual subscription in order to build up funds and plan to use the money on such improvements as a modern locker room, mixed lounge and kitchen. When these are built we will be ready for a tournament.'

When the visitors do finally receive their invitations they will get a warm welcome to a nine hole course where the par score is 66, the views stimulating, the air bracing, and oxygen masks need not be worn even though the sixth tee is 1,025 feet above see level.

The Lobden Club buildings, though showing obvious signs of having been erected piecemeal and, consequently, not ideal, have been made attractive and comfortable inside.

The biggest major addition came a few years ago when the men’s lounge and bar were extended, the members carrying out the interior work after contractors had added the brick enlargement.

Round the walls are the trophy winner's boards and on almost every one appears the name John Lord, Lobden's best amateur and the course record holder with a 67 returned in 1964. (See card below)

Now he plays at Bagslate and leaves the 'pot' winning field more open. For those who take this matter seriously Lobden offers many rewards. The club has no fewer than nine men's trophies, and three for which the lively ladies fight. In fact, such is the Lobden array of prizes that secretary Hill admits that offers to add to the list can be embarrassing.

However, he and all the other members had no hesitation in quite recently accepting the Albert Hill Memorial Trophy and the Barrie Hill Memorial Trophy. Mr Albert Hill was killed when playing a round of golf on the course, and his son, Barrie, died in a car accident. These two trophies, and the fact that the second son Malcolm, now a professional, learned his golf at Lobden, keep the club very closely linked with an old Whitworth family.

Mr. Morrit Cropper & Dr. John Tierney

Trophy Note

To prove he is not superstitious, Dr Tierney is anxious that Lobden should obtain a thirteenth trophy. He has a particular one in mind. On 20 June 1896, Mr W A Scholes won the Frank Pilling Cup with a gross score of 85, returned at King's Road. That is the last record of the cup's existence, though all others played for that year are accounted for. 'If it should come to light the Lobden Club would be very ready to accept it,' says the president.

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Note:

Subscription's were increased from £7-7s in 1965 to £10-10s in 1967.