How many counties could boast a County Championship with a field containing three England international stars from other sports?
Well, this happened in 1967 when, co-incidentally, the Cheshire Championship also took place at The Wilmslow Golf Club which is hosting the 2025 championship. This Championship was also memorable for the fact that it was won with a record margin of a staggering 20 shots by Hazel Grove’s Arnold O’Connor.
The golfing sports stars in question were very well known and each was also a Cheshire Union of Golf Clubs county team member:
Bill Foulkes, Manchester United and England defender, survivor of the Munich air disaster and European Cup winner. 8 Cheshire appearances (1970-74)
Dick Uren, England Rugby Union international. 9 Cheshire appearances (1966-68)
Nigel Howard, England and Lancashire cricket captain. 51 Cheshire appearances (1958-71)
Uren and Howard were drawn to play with each other in the first two rounds of the 1967 championship and all three finished towards the top of the leaderboard.
Nigel Howard: best known for his cricketing exploits but now an almost forgotten past England captain. He played for Lancashire and was the last amateur to captain England on their tour of India in 1951/2.
Nigel was a member of Mere, Wilmslow and finally Delamere Forest before he moved to the Isle of Man. He died in 1979 aged just 54.
Wilmslow GC have the distinction of having not one but two members who captained England, Howard and current member Michael Vaughan. Paul Allot, past England player is also a members and David “Bumble” Lloyd was also a Wilmslow member.
Bill Foulkes: the famous Manchester United footballer who played for the Busby Babes team of the 1950s, and also in the 1960s.
His favoured position was centre-half. He played 688 games which places him at number 4 on the all-time list of appearances behind Ryan Giggs, Bobby Charlton and Paul Scholes. He also started in every single United game in the 1957–58, 1959–60 and 1964–65 seasons. He scored a total of 9 goals in his 18 seasons at United and helped the club win four First Division titles, one FA Cup and, famously the 1968 European Cup against Benfica at Wembley. He was capped three times for England in 1954–55. Bill, a survivor of the Munich air disaster, played at Sale GC and later became a member of Wilmslow GC.
Dick Uren: Richard Uren was born at West Kirby, on the Wirral, on February 26 1926, the youngest of seven children. Sport ran in his blood. His father, Harold, played football as an amateur for Liverpool before turning professional and moving to Everton (Dixie Dean once called him “my boyhood hero, the Gentleman Footballer”). When his footballing days were over, Harold managed HJ Uren & Sons, a food merchants founded in 1895.
His son Dick was educated at Caldy Grange Grammar School on the Wirral. He then took a diploma in Agriculture at Midland Agricultural College, near Loughborough, before joining the family business.
Playing at full back, Dick Uren represented Waterloo Rugby Club. He also played for the Cheshire county side, and in the semi-finals of the county championships once kicked a penalty – from the halfway line and a few yards in from the touchline – with only minutes remaining. The kick put Cheshire in the final – which they won, a remarkable feat for a minor county.
He was capped four times by England between 1948 and 1952; his brother, Harold “Boy” Uren, also turned out for England at full back, in 1946. Dick was picked to play for the Barbarians in 1947-48, and was invited to join a Lions tour to New Zealand but declined owing to his business commitments.
Uren, a Royal Liverpool member, also represented Cheshire at golf on nine occasions between 1966 and 1968 and came to play off scratch. Once, early in his life as a golfer, a store in Liverpool was running a promotion in which a well-known professional was offering a “one-minute lesson”. Uren went along one lunchtime, and when he arrived at the front of the queue the tutor watched as he took the one swing allowed.
He then asked Uren: “Handicap? And how long have you been playing?” Uren replied: “Four. Two years.” The pro said: “Take another swing,” which Dick did. “Well, if you can get down to four in two years with a swing like that,” observed the pro, “there is absolutely nothing I can do for you.”
If you have images or details of interesting characters involved in Cheshire golf I’d be delighted to hear about them. I am always looking to extend our county online archive which is currently being re-developed.
Jerry Dixon
Cheshire Golf Archivist
