Competition Introduction

Gentlemen, each year, OHG adopts a theme. This year, we turn our attention to a quietly essential piece of British engineering:

The Ballcock Valve. 

For those less familiar, it is the small but vital mechanism within a toilet cistern — a floating ball connected to a valve, rising and falling with the water level to regulate flow, maintain balance, and ensure the system neither overfills nor runs dry. Simple in design…   At its core, it reflects  a system built on balance, control and timing straightforward in principle…yet, as we all know, not always so easy in execution. Just like the game of golf.  Or more crudely it has the words ball and cock in it which makes it more fun for the organiser to fill every moment with crude puns which amounts to some form of toilet humour.

Across the week, performance will, of course, be recognised. Those demonstrating the highest levels of control will receive the ‘ball’ part of the ballcock. Those  operating somewhere in the middle will be acknowledged for their central role, with the “cock” of the  ballcock. And for those at the bottom, a more modest token of appreciation will be provided — a ‘cock &ball” proportionate, one might say, to the output observed. And if all this is too much for you…. Just go with ‘the organiser was a bit tipsy and decided to use this society to go on his toilet humour crusade, let him go on his merry way’