Gypsy Golfers Win European Championship

GOLF has a reputation, deserved in some cases, for snootiness. Given the choice between inclusiveness and exclusiveness, it can too often opt for the latter.

So how about this then for a blast of icy air up the sport’s complacent kilt? London Gypsies being crowned European champions. Joe Smith, a scrap metal dealer and former bare-knuckle boxing exponent and his 16-year-old son Rymer struck a blow for the outsider by winning the recent European Father and Son Championship in Spain.

“Coming from a Gypsy community, I’ve had to fight all my life to get acceptance and respect in the elitist golfing world. That trophy made the 28 years of hard work all worthwhile.”

In no way, shape or form do the pair fit into golf’s stereotype. Joe once turned out at Royal St George’s with the cross of St George painted on his shaven head. But the scorecard is a judge without prejudice. It does not care which school someone attended.

Joe did not go to school – he spent his childhood travelling round the south of England in a caravan as his father dealt in scrap and his mother sold lucky heather. His first introduction to sport was via rites of passage punch-ups in travellers’ camps.

"We are an English Romany Gypsy family and our sport is fighting. My granddad was a good fighter, but when he finished he took up golf,” said Joe, whose cousin is Coventry City striker Freddy Eastwood.