Two prestigious Surrey clubs are victims of burglaries

Two prestigious golf clubs, which both counted Winston Churchill as a member, have experienced burglaries recently, with one of them seeing £90,000-worth of its trophies stolen.

Coombe Hill Golf Club and Walton Heath Golf Club are both in Surrey.

More than 20 UK golf clubs had their trophies stolen in raids between 2012 and 2014, with the majority located in the south east of England. Silver trophies were particularly targeted as the price of silver rose from less than 10 pence per gram in 2000 to more than 90 pence per gram in 2011. The thefts stopped as the price slumped to less than 30 pence per gram by 2015 – but today it is back up to more than 60 pence per gram.

Coombe Hill has said it lost many of its prized cups and trophies in a brazen ‘smash and grab’ raid in September.

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Andrew Hooke, the club captain, said the robbery was upsetting, adding that some of the stolen silverware was over 100 years old and of high sentimental value to the club and its players.

Hooke said: “It’s a shame, the silver represented a huge part of our club’s history.

“We now face the question of how to replace it.”

The theft came as a nasty shock, as the club had never experienced a burglary of this nature before, he added.

Hooke said that the offence is becoming increasingly common and that golf clubs will have to devote more resources to deterring criminals.

Walton Heath in Surrey fell victim to a burglary also in August, according to South West Londoner, just three days before it hosted the AIG Women’s Open.

A Surrey police spokeswoman said a man in his 30s has been charged with commercial burglary, amongst several other charges, in connection with the incident.

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No one has been charged for the incident at Coombe Hill yet.

Both golf clubs are famous for having links with historical political figures.

Winston Churchill was a member of Coombe Hill, and even played rounds there against Herbert Asquith when he was prime minister before World War One.

Churchill was also a member of Walton Heath, as were other prime ministers David Lloyd George, Andrew Bonar Law and Arthur Balfour.