Bob Bubbins is the latest in a long line of Chief Snakes who have led The Glamorganshire Golf Club's popular winter competition through more than 52 rowdy and rumbustious years. Although Bob’s reign got off to a false start when the opening day was rained off he has quickly demonstrated the humour and withering wit, especially when dealing with hecklers, that traditionally lightens up so many lunch-time Sundays during the winter.
It is hard to estimate what the Snakes have done for the Club. In material terms the contribution to the bar takings over the years has been colossal but, more valuably, it has added greatly to the social atmosphere of the Club and provides an excellent way for newcomers to feel at home and get to know their fellow Members.
The nature of the competition doesn’t always appeal to the golfing purist. Each Sunday is a little like the third round of the FA Cup in which the big guns learn to step warily in fear of giant-killers and hackers can frequently emerge as heroes.
The first official reference to the Snakes in Club records was in 1956 but it was already in being then as a winter Sunday competition featuring only about 25-30 members. The original format was four-ball better-ball but as it grew in popularity it became greensome foursomes and then foursomes.
The first Chief Snake was Gilbert Gostage, later to become Club President, and he was followed by Douglas Reid who occupied the role until 1967. Douglas was a great Snakes enthusiast and it was he who saw our big wooden spoons displayed in a basket on the back of a donkey in Spain and promptly bought them and presented them to us as golf’s most feared prize.
The popularity of the event grew and by the time Graham Scarrett took over in the 1970s the Snakes and Ladders board in the men's bar had to be extended such was then clamour to play.
Graham's witty and wicked Sunday lunch-time speech about the morning's happenings set the tone for all subsequent Chief Snakes to follow.
There was one difference between now and then, however -- not everyone was back in the clubhouse in time for the raffle.
There were two starting points -- the 1st and the 9th and players had to queue at one or the other from 8 am on. The last games didn't get off until much before ten.
This was the situation when I took over from Graham in 1982. But not many Sundays after I started, we all turned up to find that Arthur Whaley, then greens chairman, had ruled the course unplayable because of frost.
He said we couldn't start until 10 am. There was no way we could get 72 games completed before lunch so it looked as if we'd have to call it off.
But I'd heard something about a shot-gun start and we decided to allocate two games to each hole and, somewhat reluctantly in some cases, we all trudged off to our appointed holes for a start at 10 o'clock prompt.
It worked like a dream and we decided to adopt the shot-gun start permanently for 9 am. The only problem was that some games started before the others. We needed a signal to get everyone off at the same time.
Someone had the idea of borrowing the starting canon from Penarth Yacht Club. It went off with a deafening bang but although it woke up half of lower Penarth, they didn't hear it on the 12th, 13th and 14th.
Then we had the idea of using a red flare and that worked perfectly. Unfortunately, a confused old lady saw it and rang the coastguard.
When the game I was playing in reached the clubhouse I was greeted by a policeman who introduced me to the two who were with him. One was the coxs'n of Penarth lifeboat and the other was the coxs'n of Barry lifeboat and they had spent all morning looking for a boat in distress and weren't very happy.
Thankfully, after a few beers they saw the funny side and no further action was taken.
Thanks to the klaxon we don't disturb anyone these days -- apart from those who take the game seriously -- and due to a succession of excellent Chief Snakes and the efforts of Ron Stower the event is in extremely rude health.
Peter Corrigan – Chief Snake (1982 – 1987), The Glamorganshire Golf Club, Penarth