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Neil_Crafter

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Caricature of Alister and Charles Mackenzie
« on: October 22, 2009, 06:55:51 AM »
Just thought I'd share one of my recent finds - a caricature of Alister and Charles Mackenzie from a page of caricatures drawn by "Mac" for "Tee Topics" and entitled "At the Ryder Cup Dinner" from the 1929 Ryder Cup held at Moortown. What is particularly interesting is the image of Charles as there are no photographs of him to my knowledge. I only have this as a single page and the magazine is "Tee Topics" from England - see the cover image I was able to find from another issue. I was not personally aware of the existence of this magazine.




Adam Lawrence

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Re: Caricature of Alister and Charles Mackenzie
« Reply #1 on: October 22, 2009, 07:48:54 AM »
Neil - If I remember rightly from 'My Life and Soft Times', Tee Topics was Henry Longhurst's first job in golf writing after he came down from Cambridge.....

<slight delay while Adam finds the book>

"After a few months of this there occurred to me a fantastic piece of good fortune and I am ashamed to admit that I cannot for the life of me remember how it came about or to whom to lift my hat in retrospect. Somebody introduced me to an amiable, easy-going character called George Philpot, who later had the irrelevant distinction of being in the only carriage in the London underground to be involved in a serious accident in forty or fifty years. George edited a little monthly golf magazine called Tee Topics, of blessed memory, and as a result of our meeting, the light of good fortune shone on us both. George, who was by that time old enough to look upon work rather as I do now, was enabled to stay for most of the afternoon playing billiards with his cronies in the Press Club, while I, a square peg in an absolutely cut-to-measure square hole at last, settled down to what every instinct told me was the kind of life I was going to love. Not yet, perhaps, the kind of living, for the arrangement was that I should be on probation for three months, after which, having practised at editing the paper while George was playing billiards or lunching with a potential advertiser, it would be ascertained what salary I should command, if any. In the meantime I had a family allowance of £4 a week and this, unbelievably, enabled me to move to the Connaught Club near Marble Arch and to dine as often as desired at the Praed Street premises of 'William No. 1 Harris, the Sausage King, also at Brighton' - sausages, chips, and extra shovel of onions, 1s. 2d. I was back in the world of golf where there was still so much to be seen and learnt, and so many people to be met, and where at least I knew basically what I was talking about and people still knew my name. As for this new world of writing and printing and editing and seeing the glossy results at the end of the month, I felt rather as a woman must feel when she picks up a dress and says, 'This is me.' Furthermore, it turned out that is was me, whereas the woman so often takes the dress back with, 'I knew the moment I bought it that it wasn't me.' The fact that elementary insight into the finances of Tee Topics showed that, however much the amiable George might wish to pay me, there was nothing with which to do so, did not seem to matter. This at last was my world and somewhere there would be a niche for me in it."

This must have been 1932 or 1933 - Longhurst came down from Cambridge in 1931. He did not stay long with the magazine, as he was recommended by James Braid for the vacant position as golf correspondent on the Sunday Times, a job he held for over forty years.

Adam
Adam Lawrence

Editor, Golf Course Architecture
www.golfcoursearchitecture.net

Principal, Oxford Golf Consulting
www.oxfordgolfconsulting.com

Author, 'More Enduring Than Brass: a biography of Harry Colt' (forthcoming).

Short words are best, and the old words, when short, are the best of all.

Neil_Crafter

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Re: Caricature of Alister and Charles Mackenzie
« Reply #2 on: October 22, 2009, 10:09:55 AM »
Thanks Adam for the quote from Longhurst's book - which I have to say ashamedly that I don't have - been too busy concentrating on Darwin I guess. The Tee Topics magazine was around at least as far back as 1921, so it was around for a while.

Bill_McBride

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Re: Caricature of Alister and Charles Mackenzie
« Reply #3 on: October 22, 2009, 10:46:44 AM »
I bought a copy of Longhurst's memoir in a used bookshop in North Berwick and it has been a rewarding find.   He has a very nice self-deprecatory and breezy style.  On the road now and can't recall the name, but it's a good addition to the library.

Andrew Mitchell

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Re: Caricature of Alister and Charles Mackenzie
« Reply #4 on: October 26, 2009, 04:38:02 PM »
I bought a copy of Longhurst's memoir in a used bookshop in North Berwick and it has been a rewarding find.   He has a very nice self-deprecatory and breezy style.  On the road now and can't recall the name, but it's a good addition to the library.

Bill
It's called "My Life and Soft Times".  As you say it's a good read.
2014 to date: not actually played anywhere yet!
Still to come: Hollins Hall; Ripon City; Shipley; Perranporth; St Enodoc

Bill_McBride

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Re: Caricature of Alister and Charles Mackenzie
« Reply #5 on: October 26, 2009, 05:08:38 PM »
I bought a copy of Longhurst's memoir in a used bookshop in North Berwick and it has been a rewarding find.   He has a very nice self-deprecatory and breezy style.  On the road now and can't recall the name, but it's a good addition to the library.

Bill
It's called "My Life and Soft Times".  As you say it's a good read.

That's the one, thanks.