Grafton Morrish Trophy

This is a scratch six-man foursomes team event always played over 3 days at Hunstanton and Royal West Norfolk (Brancaster) Golf Clubs at the end of September, with a Regional Qualifier taking place for Scottish schools in May,  Mortonhall Golf Club currently hosts the qualifying event.

Heriot's have won this tournament on six occasions in 1994, 1997, 1999, 2002, 2009 and 2018 and were runners-up in 1989, 1996, 1998, 2010 and 2017. We are the most successful Scottish schools side in the history of the tournament.

Winning teams

2018 - Rory Smith     Steven Sinclair     David Campbell

David Rudd     John Archibald     Fraser Christie

2009 - John Archibald    C.G. Rae    John Liddel

Ron Bradly     David Campbell     Innes Christie. 

2002 - R.W. Bradly, J.I. Archibald, C. Paterson, B.M. Nicholson (Captain), D.R. Campbell and J.C. Liddel.

1999 - B. M. Nicholson     J. C. Liddel     D. R. Campbell.
C. Paterson     R. W. Bradly (Captain)     C. P. Dempster.

1997 - B. M. Nicholson, W. L. McClure (non playing Captain), J. I. Archibald, R. W. Bradly.
J. C. Liddel, H. M. Gilmour and D. R. Campbell.

1994 - D. R. Campbell, B. M. Nicholson and B. M. Marshall
H. M. Gilmour (Captain), J. I. Archibald and R. W. Bradly

History

The name Grafton Morrish by which the golf competition is generally known is derived from the Grafton Morrish Trophy which is the major trophy of the Grafton Morrish Golf Association. There are two other trophies played for each year, these being the Solihull Salver - the trophy of the Plate competition - and the Committee Bowl - the trophy for an extension of the Plate competition.

The Association is open to the golfing sections of Societies of Old Boys (which includes Old Girls) of schools the headmaster of which attends the Headmasters' Conference and other schools which are sponsored by six members.

The competitions are amateur scratch foursomes competitions for three pairs of former pupils of the school. There is a qualifying round in May/June, on one of eight courses to reduce the number of entrants - usually 105 / 115 - to the 48 which will take part in the knock-out 'Finals' in September/October each year at the Hunstanton G.C. in Hunstanton and the Royal West Norfolk G.C. in Brancaster. Most societies field a team of six single figure handicap players for this scratch competition - some societies with six very low single figure handicaps !!

The current arrangements for the ‘Finals’ week-end are that it starts with a practice day on Thursday. The Grafton Morrish Trophy knock-out is played from Friday morning to Sunday afternoon. The Solihull Salver, for three foursomes pairs on Saturday (Stableford scoring), is for first and second round Trophy losers and the Committee Bowl, for four teams from the Solihull Salver, is on a knock-out basis on Sunday.

Tides at Royal West Norfolk G.C. dictate which weekend we play the Finals - a high tide makes the clubhouse inaccessible - but it is always either late in September (when we try to avoid a clash with the Queen Elizabeth in Scotland) or early in October - preferably the first weekend.