New Blood On Show In Another Bumper Field
Robbie Dennison doing the driving while playing partner Andy Mutch selects what club is needed for pitching towards the flag.
It had to happen some day. In fact it needs to happen as a process of natural evolution.
Hand in hand with the sad absence of some old favourites from the Wolves Former Players golf day at Oxley Park was the welcome sight of different faces at a course barely a mile from Molineux.
Andy Mutch, a very competent 13-handicap member at Hillside – one of the qualifying courses for when the Open Championship is staged at neighbouring Royal Birkdale – made a rare appearance at the event.
Also in his group were tournament debutants Robbie Dennison and Dave Edwards, the latter a left-hander who commits to a weekly round at his home course, Hawkestone Park.
With the Ryder Cup taking place in America in three weekends’ time, it’s only a matter of time before someone reminds us that Ian Poulter was nicknamed ‘The Postman’ because of his habit of always delivering at the biennial clash. Well, in Robbie, we had the real thing here.
The FPA is in rude health and extremely safe hands under the chairmanship of John Richards but the organisation will need others in future years to take on the mantle from he and other 1970s stars in rallying their contemporaries into keeping the good work going.
And it may well be to the tight-knit squad of the early years of Graham Turner’s long reign that we look most optimistically for baton carriers.
Dennison has clearly been chewing over ideas away from his daily Royal Mail round and come up with the idea of a podcast hosted by their other playing partner from two days ago, Johnny Phillips.
The Sky Sports reporter committed some thoughts to tape with the two 1988 Sherpa Van Trophy final goalscorers in the Novotel on Thursday night and our readers can rest assured that we will be keen to further promote the venture when their chat is about to go public.
Colin Brazier and (behind him) Kenny Hibbitt.
Geoff Palmer has already had some recent media spotlight. His reunion with football and golf pals at his home club definitely isn’t the high point of his weekend. That, literally, will be the roof of the Billy Wright Stand, from which he is today plunging ground-wards in a repeat of the charity abseil taken on by Richards last year.
Palmer tends to team up with fellow Oxley members on tournament days but other colleagues from half a century ago linked up with each other. Richards was playing alongside Kenny Hibbitt and Colin Brazier while Mel Eves and Terry Wharton went out together in another group.
And, as so often in the past, there was an Albion team, this time made up of Joe Mayo, Nicky Cross, Mark Grew and Micky Fudge.
The presence of the Bilston-born Grew was good news for another of those attending this gathering for the first time. Bob Hazell, like the keeper, was part of the spine of the John Rudge line-up that challenged Wolves in many derby clashes with Port Vale 30-plus years ago and smiled: “I don’t think I’ve seen Mark since Cyrille Regis’s funeral. It’s great to see him but great to see some of these less familiar Wolves lads, too.”
At the Walsall-based defender’s side as he spoke were the usual trio of refreshment-area helpers, Norman Bell, Paul Walker and Gerry Farrell, who were overnighting in Wolverhampton before heading back up north.
While Palmer has expressed anxiety after checking in first-hand on Wolves in the early weeks of the season, Farrell is just happy that his home-town club, Morecambe – the one with whom he finished his playing career – are still in existence.
A team photo of sorts….from left: Paul Walker, Norman Bell, Bob Hazell and Terry Wharton.
“They’re doing all right considering they had only three players a few weeks ago and looked like they were going out of business,” he said. “I’ve been to one game this season and just hope they can survive in the National League this season. That is the target.”
Elsewhere in the field were Johnny Phillips, Richard Green from the Wolves FPA and Russell Jones, who recently resigned as Wolves’ general manager of marketing and commercial growth.
Richards, on behalf of the FPA committee, and main organiser Steve Daley, who has been a non-player since his prostate cancer operation, were thrilled that more than £7,000 was raised from the day for local charities and organisations, including Compton Care, The Haven, Crafty Gardener and Wombourne Singers.
There was a note of sadness, though, around the fact Phil Parkes, Willie Carr and Phil Nicholls were unable to be there for health reasons, Carr and his wife having gone out with the Richardses and Hibbitts the night before.
Fingers crossed they are back among friends at next year’s staging.