The Midland Challenge Cup was an annual professional golf tournament played in the English Midlands. The event was organised by the Midlands Region of the Professional Golfers' Association and ran from 1903 to 1961. For most of its existence it acted as the Midland section qualifying event for the News of the World Match Play. Sectional qualification was discontinued after 1961 and the event was not held again.

History

The Midland Professional Golf Club held its first meeting in late 1897.^[1] Initially four tournaments were held each year, one being a championship. The first championship was held in May 1898.^[2] However, in 1900 the schedule was reduced to two, a championship meeting in April and an open meeting in October, open to professionals from outside the Midland region. the first open event, at Sandwell Park, was won by Robert Munro.^[3] There was another open meeting at Olton in 1901, won by James Sherlock.^[4] In 1902 the Midland Professional Golf Club amalgamated with the Professional Golfers' Association, which had been formed in 1901, becoming the Midland section of the PGA.^[5] The 1902 open tournament saw Harry Vardon, JH Taylor, and James Braid competing and was won by JH Taylor.^[6]

In 1902 the Midland Counties Competition, an organisation that ran some important amateur competitions in the Midlands and a predecessor of the current Midland Golf Union, passed a resolution recommending that clubs in the region subscribe a maximum of two guineas towards prize money in the two Midland professional tournaments.^[7] Some of the money raised was used to purchase a new trophy, the "Midland Challenge Cup", which was first awarded at the 1903 open meeting at Hollinwell.^[8] The first News of the World Match Play tournament was also held in 1903. Each section was allocated a number of places in the final stage, the Midland section having 5 of the 32 places. The open event acted as the qualifying event, the leading five midland players progressing to the final stage.^[9] The tournament was a 36-hole stroke-play event, contested in a single day. Tom Williamson won, four strokes ahead of James Sherlock.^[9]

The same system was used for a number of years. The Midland Professional Championship was held in April with the open event played in September, at which the Midland Challenge Cup was awarded and places for the midland golfers in the final stage of the News of the World Match Play. Sandy Herd won the Midland Challenge Cup in 1904, six strokes ahead of George Cawsey, the leading midland player.^[10] Tom Williamson won for the second time in 1905 with George Cawsey winning in 1906.^[11][12] Philip Wynne won in 1907 with George Coburn the leading midland golfer. In 1907 the number of News of the World qualifiers was reduced to four.^[13] Coburn won in 1908.^[14] 1909 produced the first tie in the event, between Charles Mayo and Wilfrid Reid. The pair played another nine holes in the evening, Mayo winning by two strokes. Frank Coltart tied for third place and was the leading midland player.^[15] 1910 produced another tie, between two midland players George Tuck and William Jeffries. As in 1909 a 9-hole playoff was arranged, Tuck winning by several strokes.^[16]

1911 saw the introduction of a second event for which was sectional qualification was required. the Sphere and Tatler Foursomes Tournament. Qualification was based on individual stroke-play, qualifiers being drawn randomly into pairs for the finals stage. The Midland section was allocated 9 of the 64 places. The Midland section took the opportunity to switch the events; the Midland Challenge Cup being played as an open event in April, serving as the qualifying for the Sphere and Tatler Foursomes in May, while the championship was held in the autumn and acted as qualification for the News of the World Match Play, for which five places were now available.^[17][18] The reversal of the events caused some confusion in the press. Wilfrid Reid won the event three years in a row from 1911 to 1913. In 1911 he finished two strokes ahead of Jack Oke while in 1912 he was a stroke ahead of Tom Williamson.^[19][20] In 1913 he was tied with Laurie Ayton Snr but won the 18-hole playoff the following day by five strokes.^[21] Tom Williamson won in 1914. He was tied with Jack B. Ross but won the playoff the next day by six strokes,^[22]

In May 1919 the Midland section held a "Victory Tournament". Tom Williamson tied with Archie Compston after the 36 holes and they were still tied after a further nine holes. Williamson won after a further nine holes were player.^[23]

Although the Sphere and Tatler Foursomes was not revived after the war, another event, the 72-hole Daily Mail Tournament, replaced it in the calendar and also involved sectional qualifying. The Midland Challenge Cup continued to be played in April acting as the qualification event for the Daily Mail tournament. At Hollinwell in 1920 the cup was won by Hugh Roberts, a stroke ahead of Tom Williamson.^[24] Len Holland won in 1921, beating Arthur Ham and Alfred Matthews in an 18-hole playoff.^[25] From 1922 to 1924 there were big wins, James Adwick winnin9g by five strokes in 1922, Michael Bingham by four in 1923 and Holland by five in 1924.^[26][27][28] Williamson won three times in a row from 1925 to 1927, each time by one stroke.^[29][30][31]

The Daily Mail Tournament was not played from 1928 to 1935 and the opportunity was taken to separate the News of the World Match Play qualifying from the championship. The Midland Challenge Cup was awarded to the winner of the News of the World qualifying event, as was the case before 1911. The number of qualification places for the News of the World event varied from year to year but in this period was either 9 or 10. In 1928 this was held in June with the championship in September but from 1929 the order was reversed, with the championship played in the early part of the year and the News of the World qualifying in September. Tom Barber won the cup in 1928, after a playoff against Charles Pixton, and retained it the following year.^[32][33] There were two multiple winners in the 1930, Bill Martin winning in 1934 and 1935, while Jack McMillan won in 1936 and 1939.^{[34][35][36][37]}

In early 1940 the cup was awarded to the leading qualifier in the Midland section of the Daily Mail Tournament, and was won by Tom Haliburton.^[38] For a number of year the winner of the cup was not widely reported but it seems that was also given to leading Midland qualifier in the Daily Mail event in 1949 and 1950, the last two year of that tournament. From 1951 it was awarded again awarded to the winner of the News of the World Match Play qualification event. From 1956 the Midland Professional Championship and the Midland Challenge Cup were played on successive days at the same venue. Ralph Moffitt won the Midland Challenge Cup three times, in 1954, 1956 and 1960.^[39] In 1956 the winner of the event was Alex Tibbles, then working in Peru. He was not eligible to win the Midland Challenge Cup, which was won by Moffitt, the runner-up in the event.^[40] Frank Jowle was another multiple winner, winning in 1955 and 1959.^[41][42] George Maisey was final winner of the event, winning in 1961.^[43] From 1962 sectional qualification for the News of the World championship was replaced by local qualifying on the two days prior to the knock-out stage.

In 1980 the cup was reused as the trophy for the Midland Matchplay Championship which had started in 1972 and ran until 1999.^[44]

Winners

Year	Winner	Score	Margin of victory	Runner(s)-up	Venue	Ref
Midland Challenge Cup
1903	Tom Williamson	151	4 strokes	James Sherlock	Hollinwell	[9]
1904	Sandy Herd	146	6 strokes	George Cawsey	Sandwell Park	[10]
1905	Tom Williamson	145	1 stroke	John Hutchings	Kings Norton	[11]
1906	George Cawsey	152	1 stroke	Harry Cawsey Jack Oke	Handsworth	[12]
1907	Philip Wynne	146	3 strokes	George Coburn	Olton	[13]
1908	George Coburn	148	1 stroke	George Cawkwell	Streetly	[14]
1909	Charles Mayo	149	Playoff[lower-alpha 1]	Wilfrid Reid	Kings Norton	[15]
1910	George Tuck	146	Playoff[lower-alpha 2]	William Jeffries	Castle Bromwich	[16]
1911	Wilfrid Reid	153	2 strokes	Jack Oke	Harborne	[19]
1912	Wilfrid Reid	148	1 stroke	Tom Williamson	Hallowes	[20]
1913	Wilfrid Reid	150	Playoff[lower-alpha 3]	Laurie Ayton Snr	Walmley	[45][21]
1914	Tom Williamson	148	Playoff[lower-alpha 4]	Jack B. Ross	Northampton County	[46][22]
1915–1918: No tournament
PGA Midland Section Victory Tournament
1919	Tom Williamson	152	Playoff[lower-alpha 5]	Archie Compston	Castle Bromwich	[23]
Midland Challenge Cup
1920	Hugh Roberts	156	1 stroke	Tom Williamson	Hollinwell	[24]
1921	Len Holland	150	Playoff[lower-alpha 6]	Arthur Ham Alfred Matthews	North Shore	[47][25]
1922	James Adwick	149	5 strokes	W,J. King	Burton-on-Trent	[26]
1923	Michael Bingham	144	4 strokes	Ted Douglas Willie Robertson Frank Weston	Coventry	[27]
1924	Len Holland	146	5 strokes	Cecil Hobley	Sherwood Forest	[28]
1925	Tom Williamson	149	1 stroke	James Adwick Ted Douglas	Leek	[29]
1926	Tom Williamson	144	1 stroke	Harry Walker	Sandwell Park	[30]
1927	Tom Williamson	156	1 stroke	Tom Barber George Buckle Ken Hooker Jim Morris	Hollinwell	[31]
1928	Tom Barber	150	Playoff[lower-alpha 7]	Charles Pixton	Little Aston	[32][48]
1929	Tom Barber	145	1 stroke	Freddie Beck	Sherwood Forest	[33]
1930	Frank Weston	145	Playoff[lower-alpha 8]	Jack Seager	Birstall	[49][50]
1931	Bill Firkins	140	Playoff[lower-alpha 9]	Alfred Matthews	Walmley	[51][52]
1932	George Buckle	145	1 stroke	Tom Green	Harborne	[53]
1933	Tom Green	143	1 stroke	Ernest Cawsey	Burnham Beeches	[54]
1934	Bill Martin	134	10 strokes	George Buckle	Hollinwell	[34]
1935	Bill Martin	140	1 stroke	Charlie Ward	Copt Heath	[35]
1936	Jack McMillan	139	3 strokes	George Buckle	Handsworth	[36]
1937	Ken Hooker	137	Playoff[lower-alpha 10]	George Buckle	Copt Heath	[55][56]
1938	George Johnson	141	1 stroke	Bill Branch	Leicestershire	[57]
1939	Jack McMillan	138	2 strokes	Bob Pemberton	Moseley	[37]
1940–1945: No tournament
1946	Tom Haliburton	152	4 strokes	Herbert Manton Charlie Ward	Little Aston	[38]
1947	Not known
1948	Not known
1949	Norman Roffe	140	3 strokes	Freddie Beck Charlie Ward Bert Williamson	Cotswold Hills	[58]
1950	Jack Seager	146	2 strokes	Jack Hargreaves Alex Tibbles Bert Williamson	Woodhall Spa	[59]
1951	Bert Williamson	138	2 strokes	Jack Green	Abbeydale	[60]
1952	Bernard Hunt	142	2 strokes	Henry Coleman	South Staffordshire	[61]
1953	Jack Hargreaves	140	1 stroke	George Johnson	Sherwood Forest	[62]
1954	Ralph Moffitt	137	4 strokes	Norman Roffe	Finham Park	[63]
1955	Frank Jowle	134	5 strokes	Charlie Ward	Copt Heath	[41]
1956	Alex Tibbles[lower-alpha 11]	140	3 strokes	Ralph Moffitt	Walsall	[40]
1957	David Snell	151	3 strokes	Jack Hargreaves	Seacroft	[64]
1958	Charlie Ward	136	5 strokes	Peter Butler	Hawkstone Park	[65]
1959	Frank Jowle	141	2 strokes	Peter Butler	Luffenham Heath	[42]
1960	Ralph Moffitt	140	2 strokes	Peter Butler Ron Moses Charlie Ward	Ladbrook Park	[39]
1961	George Maisey	139	1 stroke	Peter Butler	Hawkstone Park	[43]

From 1903 to 1910, from 1928 to 1939 and from 1951 to 1961 it was the Midland section qualifying event for the News of the World Matchplay. From 1911 to 1914 it was the qualifying event for the Sphere and Tatler Foursomes Tournament. From 1920 to 1927 and in 1946, 1949 and 1950 it was the qualifying event for the Daily Mail Tournament.

References