While racket sports are clearly the driving force behind the club, there are a variety of other sports enjoyed by the membership, including golf (currently), football (in the past), bowls (very occasionally), snooker and hill walking (Ben Vorlich in Perthshire was a regular in the 1980’s and 1990’s). If you think that ‘Pastimes’ should also be included, then shove ha’penny and Hold’em Poker should also feature, but perhaps in a future version. Click on any of the options shown below to enable the topic. Slideshows are included on each occasion.
Golf – has been an alternate sport for many years
Other non-racket sports – football (11-a-side) was big for a while, as was 5-a-side on the tennis courts until a dining room window was cracked. Snooker and bowls also feature.
Hill-Walking was very popular for a number of years, both with small groups of serious Munro-ists, annual expeditions led by late-1990’s manager Dave Thomas, and an annual Club pilgrimage to Ben Vorlich, but this article features our daredevil manager and his female accomplice as they start their love affair (with the Cuillins).
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Golf
The following are the various golf fixtures and competitions which have been known through the years.
- Singles golf championship. A trophy still exists for this event (but according to JJ has virtually disintegrated…)
- Annual golf outing – This was a group outing with some prizes, to a variety of courses including West Lothian and Kilspindie. It was last held in the mid 1990’s
- Muirfield match – The Club had the concession of a Thursday evening match for a minimum of twenty five players at a concessionary rate at Muirfield. Around the early 1990’s, it became impossible to recruit the necessary numbers, and the event was dropped
- Bruntsfield challenge for the LAAGD trophy. An annual match between ESC and Bruntsfield Links Golfing Society (BLGS) has been contested since 2011. Club member (sadly now former club member) Des Creasey donated and maintained the LAAGD trophy which has been keenly fought since 2013. The 2021 match report can be seen here. Sadly, no report exists for the 2022 match, held on Sunday, June 12th, but we know that BLGS triumphed (again), and we do have some photos which are available below.
- Archive results – 2017, June 2018, September 2018, 2019
The June 2025 event
Match organiser Ken P-B stated early that his Bruntsfield team was very much of a mind that ESC should be given a good chance at winning the trophy, having failed to do so on the last six occasions. On June 29th however, despite this earnest wish, the closest they came to that outcome was winning 1 1/2 points of a possible six, so onward and upward to 2026 ! If previous instances are anything to go by, match reports will be thin on the ground. We can however report that the top match was very much going the way of Mattie and his partner, who nearly went five up on the 9th, only to find themselves one down on the 18th tee. A fluky par by the elder statesman was fortunately sufficient to register a precious half. Many thanks to Ken P-B for yet another splendid piece of organisation, which was mirrored in the email observations the next day.
The match result can be seen by clicking the graphic on the right, and an unexpurgated set of photographs is available in the slideshow below. Click any of the images to enable a full screen slideshow
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The 2024 June event
June 30th saw the umpteenth holding of the event, with 24 participants fighting for the LAAGD trophy. Despite holding a two match lead after two matches, the ESC youngsters failed to hold the Bruntsfield ‘Oldies’, eventually losing by four matches to two. The match was followed by the customary posh lunch and prize giving, with fewer silly prizes than previously. Many thanks to Ken P-B for his excellent organisation, and Backer ‘David Bailey’ Mackenzie for his usual high quality photographic work. A full report is available here.
Click on any of the images in the gallery below to enable a full screen slideshow.
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The next slideshow is a collection from the 2022 match. Click any photo to enable a full screen slideshow.
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The second slideshow features the teams and team photos from the LAAGD events from 2011 onwards.
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The third slide show features a mixture of team players and post match social activities. Click any photo to enable a full screen slideshow.
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Other non-racket sports
Football (11 a side), snooker, hill walking and bowls have featured through the years, but sadly not recently. The Loch Mullardoch walking trip was described on page 3 of the 1997 Club newsletter. 7 a side Football played on the tennis courts was played for a few years around the mid 1990’s – the October 1996 newsletter announces the season start. This slideshow features some images from each of these alternative sports. Michael Campbell recollects the club having a snooker team in the Edinburgh Leagues in the past – although as from the 26th August 2022, the snooker table was no more, much to the chagrin of the half-dozen or so regular players. The space is now designated a ‘Studio’, hireable for a variety of purposes.
Note – navigation issues. If you are using a Microsoft PC, a recent glitch means that the only means of exiting the galleries is by pressing ‘ESC’ — Use the left and right arrow keys to move back and forward through the gallery
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A Managerial expedition to Scotland’s premier peaks
The end of the 2021 lockdown saw our intrepid manager and his better half embark on a splendid trip to Skye, where they spent three days in idyllic weather, including one where they scaled two of the serious Munro’s. The following slideshow includes excerpts from the Ordnance Survey map, and Cameron McNeish’s Munros ‘bible’. The approach to one of the areas modest peaks (Sgurr na Stri) was effected by taking a lift on the Elgol ferry to Lake Coruisk, from where they made the ascent, returning to Elgol by foot. Their main expedition started from the Glenbrittle campsite, where they had positioned their camper van. They took Route A – shown on McNeish’s diagram, and climbed Sgurr nan Eag and Sgurr Dubh Mor (Big Black Peak, and Peak of the Notches) respectively, Curiously, the Black Cuillins, which comprise 11 summits, are comparatively low in Munro terms, most of them just exceeding the required 3,000 feet, but by any measure most of them are at the pinnacle of difficulty in comparison to other Scottish peaks. JJ and Steph are no doubt planning an assault on others on the Cuillin Ridge, and we await delivery of the routes and photographs in due course. (last two images below are a further trip…)
Click on any of the images below to enable a full screen slideshow…
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Edinburgh Sports Club History 
