Team members: Roseanne H. (Rosie) Bailey (née Niven) (2005), Rosie O. Everett (2014), Emily C. Feibusch (2016), Emma E. Howie (née Seton) (1992).

Okay, we didn’t manage to win the Halford Hewitt for a record fourth successive time. But you can’t keep Loretto golf out of the news for long, as our Ladies team - at the first time of trying - won The Silver Tassie!

The Silver Tassie is the premier ladies golf competition for alumnae of independent schools that are members of the Independent Schools Joint Council. Held at The Berkshire, the competition dates back to 1961 and initially featured major girls’ schools, but has more recently included many top co-educational schools such as Marlborough, Millfield, Uppingham, Oakham and Cranleigh.

A little bit of background; the Headmaster and I were collared at the Halford Hewitt in April 2023 by Jo Giddins, the organiser of The Silver Tassie. ‘If Loretto is so good at golf, why don’t you participate in The Silver Tassie?’ she asked. We didn’t have an answer but resolved to enter a team for the 2024 tournament. Roseanne (Rosie) Bailey (née Niven) (2005) had joined the OLGS Committee a couple of years ago to look to encourage more lady members but, having had two children since, matters were at an early stage.

Rosie spent the early months of 2024 finding suitable candidates to represent Loretto and, with the help of the School, managed to finalise a team just a few weeks before the competition in June. The tournament is held at The Berkshire, where Rosie happens to be a member - though as a new mother, she hadn’t played 18 holes for over two years! And remarkably, the team only met each other for the first time on the morning of the tournament. So while Rosie was able to claim a few friendly members’ bounces, the team did not have the advantage of established pairings.

The competition is a pairs better ball handicap Stableford, with one pair playing The Berkshire Red and the other The Berkshire Blue course. The better ball scores for each course are added together. There is also a Cup for the best Scratch better ball score across the two courses. Previously, the Silver Tassie (handicap) winners could not also win the Scratch Trophy. However, this year, for the first time, the rule was changed so that one school could win both. And that is exactly what first time participants Loretto did!

The two Rosies played the Red course and Emily and Emma played the Blue. The Berkshire is one of the famous heathland courses to the south-west of London, founded in 1928 and laid out by the famous designer Herbert Fowler. The two courses are of a similar style, though The Berkshire Red is famous for its structure of holes: 6 Par 5s, 6 Par 4s and 6 Par 3s. One of the biggest challenges is the heather, something which Rosie Bailey, as a member, and Emily, who is a member at nearby Hankley Common, were familiar with. There is a fairly simple tip about how to deal with the heather at The Berkshire - don’t go in it.

Both Loretto pairs had better ball gross scores of 77 - extremely good scores on these tough courses. With handicaps, that translated to 38 points for the two Rosies (a couple of monster putts for 4 points by Rosie E helping!) and 43 for Emma and Emily; 81 points in total. Loretto were out early so these set the early clubhouse lead, but there were many schools still to come in. At that stage I had a quick look at last year’s winning score - 78 - and suddenly realised something special might be happening. Although two other schools, in particular, looked to be a danger; last year’s winners, Wycombe Abbey, and Millfield, who are always competitive. Wycombe Abbey scored an impressive 39 points on the Blue but their Red pair could only get 32. Then Millfield came in with 39s on each course. Good scores, but three behind Loretto’s combined score. No other school got closer than this – and so The Silver Tassie was Loretto’s!

In fact, it was a clean sweep of almost everything: 81 points for The Silver Tassie, three ahead of Millfield in second, and a combined gross of 154, three better than Millfield on 157. Loretto’s 77s were the best gross on each course, and Emily and Emma’s 43 was the best Stableford score across both courses. An incredible performance for a team who had only met that morning.

This win gives us a tremendous opportunity to develop women’s golf within the OLGS, so watch this space for further events. A lunch to recognise the team’s achievement is planned for the autumn and it is hoped that, following this, many more ladies will participate in OLGS events.

Should you wish to submit an interest in playing at future women’s events, Rosie would be delighted to hear from you at roseanneniven@gmail.com.

Andrew J.R. Brown (1977)

President, OLGS