Historians - Mike Thomas/Philip Gorfett/Rob Williams/Richard Brockway
The idea for a golfing society was hatched by Cyril Brockway, Richard Brockway and Rob Williams whilst on a golfing holiday at Burnham & Berrow Golf Club in Somerset in the very late 1970` - this was developed the next year when Richard Clayton and Philip Gorfett joined Cyril, Richard and Rob at the St Mellion Golf & Country Club in Cornwall.
The formation of this small friendly society was further developed later on in the bar, at Llanishen Golf Club.
Unlike some golfing societies where the drinking and the socialising takes preference over the golf, the emphasis would be on playing golf,
Then Mike Thomas appeared and the rest is history.
However there is some confusion as to when the Falcons actually was formed - it was either 1981or 1982, although the Championship records show the first trophy winner in 1982 as Richard Clayton and Mike Thomas.
Now a trivia question -
Who invented the game called Subbuteo and when?
What's that got to do with the Falcons I hear some of you cry!!
Read on and all will be revealed!!
The answer is in1947 by Peter Adolph, a keen ornithologist.
He wanted to patent his board game as 'Hobby' which was the name of his favourite bird, the 'Eurasian hobby' or to give it its proper name, the "Falcon Subbuteo"
The "Hobby" trademark was not granted by the Patent Office but they agreed to the name "Subbuteo"
The head of the hobby, A falcon/kestrel bird, has been used as a logo on all subbuteo products since.
Where is this leading to I hear, keep reading.
Where did our society name originate, the answer, it was chosen by Mike Thomas, a self confessed Subbuteo fanatic.
For those who do not know, our President officiated in National and International Subbuteo tournaments for many years.
Since its conception the Championship has been only been contested amongst the small number of members who made the annual tour.
That is until 2005
At the end of the 2004 season the Falcons decided a fairer way would be to complete for the Championship via the day events.
The number of events would be increased to six games using the Stapleford system, with the best four scores counting towards the Championship.
The highest aggregate would be crowned the Champion.
The new format was piloted throughout the 2005 day events and Dave Williams was eventually crowned the "Shadow Champion" with 139 pts but further changes were about to happen.
After a 25 year reign as Captain/Secretary/Treasurer/Chief bottle washer, Mike Thomas decided to take a well earned back seat and retired from full Falcon duties.
Then our Vice Captain, Rob Williams decided to leave the fold and Mike again took the helm as Captain.
To cap the end of his reign, Mike travelled to France on the May tour and very fitting, became the last of the old style champion of the system that he had set up all those years previously.
New officials were appointed and David Evans became our Captain with Mike Evans and Tom Ferguson taking over as joint Secretary/Treasurer.
Unfortunately heath problems beset Tom and he had to relinquish his position and subsequently resigned from the society.
Moving on with more Falcon facts-Hobby, Falcon, Kestrel-these are all birds of prey that have already been mentioned.
Well, Nick Perry (AKA Butch) has his own pet bird of prey - an "eagle" on 29th March 2002 when playing the 13th at Llanishen - he scored the
very first Falcon Hole in One.
Nick, a former Llanishen member, now a Radyr club member, joined the Society in 1986 and became a Champion in his debut year and has subsequently won the Championship a further 5 times-1986-1987-1991-2004 & 2007
(Click here for Championship Winners)
Up until the 1988 season, the society consisted of Llanishen members only, however in 1998 Mike Evans was invited to join and became the first non Llanishen player to join and also became the Champion in his debut year and retained it in 1990 in addition. In 2006 he became the first winner of the Championship in the new and present format and has since won a further three titles in a row - 2008/9/10
On the 9th August 2002 he became the 2nd Falcon to score a hole in one at the 14th hole at Monmouthshire.
As mentioned before, Richard Brockway was one of the pioneers of the Falcons along with his dad Cyril, however due to work commitments he did not join the Falcons until a few years later, but he made up for lost time by becoming the Champion four times 1998,1992,1996 &2003.
In addition, he became the third Falcon to score a hole in one at the 14th hole at Llantrisant in October 2004
Sample of information sent out by Mike to the members of the Falcons Society.
