ORIGIN OF THE EGGS

                                                                         

Notes from Gordon Dunningham

 

 

"As a slightly broken Egg, you asked me to jot down a few notes and recollections of this august body. I am not absolutely sure of the origin of the name but suspect that  it was decided to describe the oddities of some of the founding members, such as:

 

Hard boiled

Past sell by date

Thick skinned

A bit crackers

Not very fresh

Plain rotten.

 

Eggs was started by Dick Cumberledge of Leisure Isle about 36 years ago. Dick joined SA Breweries in the UK and came to SA as the manager of SAB properties, hotels and pubs owned by SAB. Needless to say beer flowed freely at his home! He defined the rules of EGGS:

 

A get together of like minded people who enjoyed each others company during the game of golf. No fancy betting, each participant putting a few Rand into the Kitty which went to the winners – who paid for ONE drink. Occasionally, the poor winner had to fork out a few more Rands to cover the shortfall.

 

Other early members were:

•  Nat Royds, a sugar grower from Natal, who, not withstanding his remarkable swing, was EGGs champion on more than one occasion. I remember him with envy – he drove a very elegant Lotus sports car. Jealously got us nowhere!

 

• John Edmonds, a Channel Islander, living on Leisure Isle, who came from Zimbabwe, a wonderful friend and host and a great supporter of Dick Cumberledge.

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• Dennis Simpson, one of natures gentlemen. An engineer who, as I recollect ran the reinforcing stel division of Hunt Leuchars, He built a house in Belvidere, [now owned by Chris Bourlay].

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• Mike Bush, a civil engineer and director of Grinakers, one of my closest friends. Mike’s clain to fame was that he lost 190 golf balls on the evil 9th during his career in Knysna! Mike had a caddy William who had X-ray eyes – one had to keep up wind of William on Mondays to avoid the fumes of stale wine!

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• Dennis Carroll - hailed from either Zambia or Kenya. He was renowned as someone who vociferously objected to paying William a tip when he was caddying in his 4 ball! Dennis was a winner on at least one occasio

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• Archie Naysmith. A late joiner of Eggs. Probably a better golfer than the rest of us. An ex SAA airline captain who moved toPort Elizabeth.

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• Keith Fraser. AChartered Accountant fromDurban. He became chief EGG shortly after I moved to Knysna permanently. A jovial and hospitable colleague who with his wife Janet entertained the EGGs and their wives at their home in Belvidere. We were sad when the Frasers returned to Durban.

 

I should add that I was only elevated to full membership of Eggs when my wife and I moved to Knysna in 1996. As a regular visitor to Knysna prior to 1996, I was admitted as a country member of Eggs under sufferance and on condition that I did not come here to take their money! Little did they know that they had inherited one of their more distinguished hackers!

 

 

THE EGGS BRIDGE

March 2015