With the last appearance of the Woodpeckers RFC on the rugby field at the Middlesex Sevens tournament of 1960, the Woodpeckers' pioneering days were over. Many active players were turning to a sport more suited to their age - golf!

 

Mike Lusty took over the conversion of old and new members to golf with equal enthusiasm to that of Mike West for rugby. He was a character you could not refuse - universally liked and respected. He was insatiable in his promotion of "Old Woodpeckers" gatherings and his introduction of new members who met the old qualifications. He worked tirelessly from 1960 until his death in 2018 on his "connections", once on the rugby field, now on the golf course. 

 

Old rugby players often took up golf, often joined prestigious golf clubs and often became influential in them. There were a wealth of possibilities and Mike followed them up tirelessly.​

 

In those early golfing years, Mike's rallying call was a tour centred on the Beetle and Wedge pub in Moulsford near Pangbourne in Berkshire. The club gathered over two to three days there. Many were the tall tales emanating from that pub and recalled at subsequent golf lunches in neighbouring clubs. Henley, Huntercombe and Streetley were popular venues.​

 

It was Mike who tirelessly promoted continuation of the Club Dinners held on significant anniversaries of the club with wives and partners present, and always a smaller event on the eve of the annual Varsity match. A 75th anniversary lunch was held following this year's fixture at the Royal Wimbledon GC.​

 

Mike was helped in later years by Bill Downey, a former Captain of the Cambridge University Rugby XV, who provided an organisational and recruiting impetus. Bill was a long time member of the Royal Wimbledon Club and was able to cement our relationships there. When he sadly died early he was succeeded by Ernest Chapman, an old Queens College Oxford rugby man, who created some official club roles, introduced a "fixture card" and other much needed "modernisations." He was succeeded by Jeremy Thompson, from Cambridge and The Royal West Norfolk GC who now fulfils the role of Chairman - "The man who runs the Club."​​

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