Sad to report that 1968 club champion Oliver Clutterbuck died in tragic circumstances on Wed 22 June and was found by police lying next to his beloved hedgehog Turtle. He was eighty-six.
Police believe he was feeding the creature when he was hit unawares by a runaway shopping trolley abandoned by local vandals. They placed blue exclusion tape around the scene which included a saucer of milk but Turtle has not been seen since and is believed to be holding out in a nearby thicket.
Oliver James Clutterbuck was born in Buxton, Derbyshire in 1934 where his parents ran a tea room. He took a degree in Aeronautical Engineering and moved to Nempnett in 1964 after getting married, to pursue a career in helicopter manufacture in Yeovil. He joined the club in the same year and had varying success for the first two years prior to his epic 1968 performance. One memorable encounter was against the late Arthur Chesterfield who recounted the experience many years afterwards.
"It was a ten round event and I was the starter in the first game. Right from the offset it was a narrow encounter and no one could really guess who was going to win. We called evenly, each succeeding in our first three calls and then crucially both failing on call four. It was down to the last pair. Oliver called heads correctly leaving me with a dilemma. In the end I chose heads for my call as well and when the coin landed it was correct. So in fact neither of us won as the match ended in a 5 all tie!"
Club Chairman Colonel Peppar remembers Oliver from the 1968 Championship. She was six at the time. "I remember this very tall thin man. My father lifted me up and said look, Collie, they're about to start. I don't really remember much else except everyone cheering afterwards. And then I never saw him again."
Oliver suffered from nerves, nowadays it would be called stress, but in any case the pressure was too much for him and though there were hopes for many years that he would return these faded, His career was successful and he had a happy family life in retirement. He leaves behind his wife Dorothy, two sons and four grandchildren.
Here is the score of the famous match which Mr Clutterbuck won by a joey:
| 1 | Clutterbuck, O | Tadpole, T | H | H | 1-0 |
| 2 | Tadpole, T | Clutterbuck, O | T | H | 0-1 |
| 3 | Clutterbuck, O | Tadpole, T | T | T | 1-0 |
| 4 | Tadpole, T | Clutterbuck, O | T | T | 1-0 |
| 5 | Clutterbuck, O | Tadpole, T | H | H | 1-0 |
| 6 | Tadpole, T | Clutterbuck, O | H | T | 0-1 |
| 7 | Clutterbuck, O | Tadpole, T | H | H | 1-0 |
| 8 | Tadpole, T | Clutterbuck, O | T | H | 0-1 |
| 9 | Clutterbuck, O | Tadpole, T | H | T | 0-1 |
| 10 | Tadpole, T | Clutterbuck, O | T | T | 1-0 |
| 11 | Clutterbuck, O | Tadpole, T | H | T | 0-1 |
| 12 | Tadpole, T | Clutterbuck, O | H | T | 0-1 |
Score Table
| OC | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 8 |
| TT | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 4 |