Trophy name:Consolation Cup
First presented:1961
Inscription:Consolation Bowl - Presented by Dr W.J. Moody - 1961

The obituary entry within the 5th August 1989 edition of the British Medical Journal provides (towards end of page 387) some insight into the life of William Joseph "Bill" Moody, as follows:

Lieutenant Colonel William Joseph Moody, OBE, MB, BCH, FRCSED, who had worked in the Indian Medical Service, died on 21 April. He studied medicine at Cambridge University and The London Hospital, qualifying MRCS, LRCP in 1925. He was in practice in Newmarket for some years before joining the Indian Medical Service in 1933 and working in India. He served in hospital ships during the second world war and finally worked in Bahrain and Afghanistan.

Surgeons and other medical practitioners in the Indian Medical Service were given military ranks. The IMS ceased to exist with Indian independence in 1947. [Contrary to the above, he is recorded as having been posted to Kabul as "Legation Surgeon" in 1937, not after WWII].


Bill was appointed [Source] as the Medical Adviser to the Political Resident based in Bahrain in late 1947 and took up his post in January 1948. At that time he was addressed with the title "Major" as well as "Col".

Also, the Honours Board for the "Chairmen" at the British Club (at the time, the "Bahrain Gymkhana Club") shows that he held the post for the year 1951.

The British Medical Journal announced (13th June 1953) that he had been honoured in the "Coronation Honours List" with an O.B.E. (see here, last paragraph of Page 1 - and now with a rank of Lieutenant-Colonel).

He started working for Bapco at Awali Hospital in 1953. He appears in our prize winner records for the first time in the 1955/56 season, and served on the AGC Committee for the two seasons 1960/61 and 1961/62, as President.

The inscription on the Trophy includes the words "Presented - 1961", and we have records that Al Kidd was its first winner at the end of the 1960/61 season. However, this article was published on the event of his retirement in The Islander of January 2nd 1963 - so Bill presented the Consolation Bowl to the Club about 18 months before leaving Bahrain.

Traditionally, the Consolation Cup competition ends the formal playing season for Club Members and gives a final chance (in the current season) for all the individual "also rans" to have one last chance to win a trophy. The only players that are eligible to win are those that have not won a singles competition in the same season (or the Consolation Cup in any previous season). Nowadays, the Sponsors Trophy is typically scheduled after the Consolation Cup, and finally the Captain v President match-play to end the season.

The Consolation Cup has been played since the donation by Bill Moody of the trophy. However, the competition was the successor to an earlier equivalent, the Monthly Medal Winners and Runners-up competition. For example, the May 1954 edition of The Bahrain Islander mentions:
   Monthly Medal Winners and Runners Up Competition wrote the finish to a very successful season. 1 D.M. Kennedy – 66, 2 T.A. Moran 68

It is unknown in which season the Monthly Medal Winners and Runners-up competition commenced.