At Market Harborough Golf Club we recognised the need to raise members’ awareness of our activities, especially when so much of what we are trying to do is, by definition, low profile or has a lengthy lead-in or incubation time. One way of doing this, and at the same time raising some funding, was to organise a new club competition.

A slot on the golf calendar was identified and an open, all-member, singles Stableford Competition was set up. All we needed now was a name. After Sir David Attenborough declined (“I know nothing about golf” was his handwritten reply) we concluded that the American environmental campaigner Rachel Carson would send exactly the right message. Rachel Carson published her famous book “The Silent Spring” in 1962 and almost single-handedly brought about the change in the use of synthetic pesticides such as DDT. 

So, now we had a competition and a name: the next requirement was a suitable trophy. To fit our ethos we tried to find a trophy to recycle or recondition, but without success. We then decided that perhaps a wooden trophy might be appropriate and something that was not just an ornament but might also be used. And so the concept of a wooden bowl emerged. After contacting several local wood-turning groups, we discovered that one of our own club members was an expert wood turner, and soon a design was agreed. 

The result is a beautiful turned wooden bowl, elm-sourced from a local estate and with a simple engraving band at its base.