Information

In the beginning there were young men who loved sport and beer.

It was the mid-seventies, and I was working in the Commonwealth Department of Education undertaking the mind numbing tasks of assessing Tertiary student's living allowances. In attempting to seek relief from this drudgery I and a certain number of my colleagues were known to extend our lunch hour at the Fawkner Club Hotel in South Yarra and over many beers organise day trips and weekends away playing golf and having many beers.

I was also playing footy with North Melbourne Old Boys, a club comprising in the main descendants of Irish settlers and presumably some convicts. Drinking loads of beer pre-season, during the season, after training, after playing and in fact after anything and anytime was the norm. Several of us started to play golf and we eventually developed a routine of playing at dawn on a Saturday morning as a warm up to the Saturday afternoon match.

Eventually I had the idea of combining the two groups and have one big day of golf dignifying what was to be a big piss up by calling it a championship golf event, "The Bottles Open".

The Education boys had played at Warburton Golf Club, a scenic course in the Yarra Ranges.(smashing a drive on the eighteenth out into a mountain and watching it drop metres below to the fairway is one of golf's great shots) I also thought the location would be a great opportunity to get the NOBs out of their northern suburbs comfort zone. A drive of about 85k and 0.05 was not a consideration in those days of relaxed drink driving.

I enlisted the aid of NOB stalwarts Kevin Kavanagh and Terry Tregillis to organise the day and it was decided it was to be a scratch event (most of us were mug golfers struggling to break 100) with an entry fee of one 26 oz bottle of a Carlton & United Breweries beer.

The event was played on the 26th of November 1976, 12 players attended, the winner, John Dougal. (a mate of mine from Deepdene Cricket Club) scoring 94 off the stick.

The Bottles Open was away.

The next year 1977 the event had to be cancelled as many players were absent on overseas trips.

The "Committee" decided in 1978 to make it a handicap event.

An offer of using the Tregillis holiday home at Dromana saw the event moved to Rosebud public course, Carrington Park, with eventual accommodation moved to the Rosebud Hotel as it was determined that the risk of damage to the Tregillis home by inebriated/ smoking golfers was too great.

The Committee of myself, Kev and Terry continued to run the event into the nineties. I remember meetings going into the wee hours of the evening, deliberating on handicaps and on many occasions exhausting beer supplies to the extent of resorting to the wine cellar.

By the early eighties the playing group was extended to include the North Old boys cricket club and over the years many mates of mates have joined the group.

With my move to Bendigo and Terry's move to Rosebud it became a bit difficult to arrange meetings, Peter Roberts, Nick Shirley and Tim Fitzgerald agreed to take over and the administration was handed to the current Committee in 1993. When Nick left the Committee Robert Goss joined.

What a fantastic job Peter, Nick, Tim and Robert have done in maintaining the tradition, and numbers are as good as ever. I also think it is great that after the strong representation of NOBs in the early years the club is being represented again by current players of Brunswick NOBs footy club.

Over almost 50 years the Bottles Open has become a great opportunity for old mates to catch up at least once a year, play the game and have a few beers (albeit not quite as many as yesteryear!)

Long may it continue.