The History of MAGS

The Spring Meeting trophy was originally donated by George Baker and was known as the TV Times trophy. Sadly the trophy disappeared many years ago but we are fortunate to have had it replaced by a past captain Ken Buckley so we now compete at spring for the Scotsman trophy.

On Captain's Day we play for the Arthur Wood trophy. Arthur was one of the original members of the Society, a larger than life charismatic character and was Captain in 1979. Arthur passed away in 1999. The following year his son Graeme, also one of our members, generously donated the Arthur Wood trophy in his memory to be competed for on Captain's Day over 18 holes stableford.

The Invitation Day competition has always been popular as it allows the members to invite friends and business colleagues to enjoy the MAGS fraternity. The venue for the first invitation day was Mere and in subsequent years it moved from course to course until it found a more permanent venue at Royal Birkdale in 1970. For reasons primarily of cost the venue changed to neighbouring Hillside in 2002 where it remained for a further 8 years before returning to its nomadic roots. The current trophy was donated by GBM and presented by Malcolm Ealand in memory of former Captain Cyril Bond who passed away in 1998. Cyril joined MAGS in its first year way back in 1962 and 6 years later he was made Captain. He was highly revered as long serving Honorary Secretary, a position he held for well over 20 years.

The NABS trophy was the first of the MAGS trophies to be competed for. It is testament to the fact that MAGS has a long history of benevolence having supported the NABS charity from the first meeting in 1961. The trophy was donated by Lord Iliffe, the then co owner of the Daily Telegraph, major shareholder of several Midland newspapers and IPC Business Press, subsequently acquired by the Reed Group. It is a magnificent silver trophy that has to be hand engraved and is awarded to the golfer with the best aggregate score of the spring and autumn meetings. The Rex Stewart Salver, which was donated by David Fisher the M.D. of Rex Stewart Advertising used to be presented to the runner up to the NABS trophy winner. It has long since disappeared possibly because nobody remembers who came second.