"The LMEGA held its opening event, the annual Spring Meeting, at Porters Park on Wednesday. Spring arrived at last and anyone who did not play missed both one of the best days' weather this year and also a wonderful course in near perfect conditions. Injuries and pressure of work kept far too many people away from what was an excellent day's golf.

The winner of the singles stableford and the Silver Challenge Trophy (which dates from 1905) was Derek Raphael with 34 points, pipping Alex Heath by a point, with Bill Smit coming in 3rd. Bill and Barry Watson won the afternoon greensomes, which were played over 15 holes, with 32 points.

"The annual Committee Challenge Trophy was played for at Langley Park GC last week and despite a roaring gale and storm the night before, the course was in excellent condition. The traditional dinner the evening before was sadly an all-Committee affair and we do hope more members will attend next year.

Never an easy place to get to, the pairings were disrupted by closures of the M25 both before the dinner the night before and on the morning of the match. However, eventually the morning fourballs got under way with Michael Farmer leading the Committee with victories by Chris Jones and Rob Draisey and also Yang Liu and Ian Taylor. This was outdone by the Members side, led by last year's Captain David Ratcliffe whose Brian Collins and Alex Heath, Daniel Spencer and David Tierney and also David Littlestone playing a single made the lunch score 3-2 to the Members. 

The afternoon singles were very tight, the Committee drawing level with wins by Ian Taylor, Chris Jones and Yang Liu, while only Neal Avent and Alex Heath won for the Members out of the first five pairings. This left the last three pairings to decide the match and David Tierney and David Ratcliffe's two points against Ashok Singhania's half with David Littlestone left the Members winners by 7 1/2 to 5 1/2. 

Next week 18 of us go to Killarney for the Summer Tour and the week following sees the LMEGA Annual Dinner at the Little Ship Club. Tickets for this are almost sold out, so please send Sophia your application immediately if you haven't already. We look forward to seeing you there."

Note from Sophia… I am delighted to say that Yang took some wonderful pictures of the day and these can now be viewed online here… http://www.flickr.com/photos/lmega/

Members working at the LME will have noticed the absence from the display cabinet of the BSMAGS v LMEGA trophy for the last year.

This is not because it was sent off for engraving but because we failed to retain it last year and yesterday was a repeat performance, once again at the glorious setting of Moor Park GC.

Despite leading at lunch after the morning fourballs 3-1 over the West Course, with victories by Ian Taylor/Ashok Singhania, Grant Gilmour/ David Farrar and Bill Smit/Martin Pratt, the afternoon singles showed a complete reversal of fortunes. Only Bill Smit and Neal Avent managed victories over the High Course, with Ian Taylor securing a half, which left the Scrap winners by 6 1/2 – 5 1/2.

The only consolation we have is that Gary Holloway will be paying for the engraving!

Following a hugely enjoyable and successful LMEGA Annual Dinner, the Past Captains hauled themselves out of bed next morning for their annual competition at Coombe Hill.

As usual, the greens were about as friendly as Normandy Beach on D-Day, though the course was in excellent condition. Those returning from the Summer Tour in Ireland had their work cut out adjusting from windy links to green and pleasant parkland, but Nigel Stern almost managed it.

The rain, which came down unexpectedly early in the morning, held off until the round was over, which mean that Bill Smit (2006-07), with whom steady rain does not have a close working relationship, ran out the winner by a point from Nigel Stern (2001-02), with Ian Taylor (2009-10) and Rob Draisey (2000-01) tying for third place.

Following a great day yesterday with perfect weather, great company, the course in excellent condition and the famous Tandridge lunch I am pleased to report that, for the first time since 2002, the LMEGA side came out with a 7.5 to 4.5 WIN

The details follow :-

Morning Greensomes
Paul Shuter & Ian Taylor Halved 
Barry Watson & Steve Waugh Lost 2/3
Edward Sawbridge & Conor Sharpe won 3/1
Rob Draisey & Yang Liu. Won 6/5

Afternoon singles
Ian Taylor. Lost 1down
Barry Watson. Lost 2 down
Conor Sharpe. Won 4/3
Edward Sawbridge. Won 4/3
Rob Draisey. Won 4/2
Paul Shuter. Won 1 up
Steve Waugh. Lost 3/4
Yang Liu. Won 2 up

Photographs courtesy of Yang Liu may be viewed and downloaded here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lmega/sets/72157634236637204/

Match Report by Rob Draisey

The annual match between the LMEGA and the Stock Exchange was held at Hankley Common GC, near Farnham last week. The course was in superb condition and the lunches at Hankley, by common consent, are beginning to rival Tandridge, which is about as good as it gets.

There is good news and bad news - the good news is that the LMEGA will not require a new stock of silver polish as the bad news is that the LSE ran out winners by what may be a record margin, although most of the matches went down to the last hole. For those that don't know it, this is a devilishly tricky par 4 of 424 yards protected by a massive ditch in front that claimed a number of victims.

At lunch, the LME's only winners were Bill Smit and Neal Avent, while Steven Spencer and Yang Liu halved their match. Sadly, the afternoon produced just two winners from ten matches – Bill Smit and Rob Draisey – leaving the Stock Exchange winners by 12 1/2 – 3 1/2.

The annual City Quadrilateral Competition between the Bank of England, the FOREX GC and the LMEGA was played out on Wednesday at Effingham GC on a perfect golfing day as the heatwave receded temporarily. How pleasant to be able to write that after the last two summers!

The LME squad that turned out to try to regain the trophy was Jan Rommer, Neal Avent, David Hardy, Patrick Birley, Ian Taylor, Rob Draisey, David Ratcliffe, David Littlestone, Barry Watson and Steve Waugh. Ian Taylor posted the outstanding round of the day with 41 points, taking the singles prize, with other significant contributions from Neal Avent, Rob Draisey, David Hardy and David Ratcliffe which left the LME lying second at lunch on 268 points, just two behind the Bank of England.

Sadly the afternoon foursomes, which were disrupted by the club allowing members onto the course at the same time as the competition, resulted in a runaway performance by the Old Lady, who scored 137 points in their three best foursomes, compared to 133 by FOREX and 127 by the LME, despite a sterling round by Jan Rommer and Ian Taylor with backup from Patrick Birley and Neal Avent.

The final result left the LMEGA in third place, a point behind the FOREX and twelve adrift of the winners, the Bank of England – a heartening result for the new Governor!

Your Captain, Michael Farmer, hosted Captain's Day at Sandy Lodge GC on Monday where 29 players turned out and by a miracle almost all avoided the worst of storms that broke out, the day ending with a stupendous downpour that left the course flooded during the prizegiving.

Sandy Lodge is the nearest thing to an inland links course that you will find in England. The fairways were hard and the greens fast, with the kind of thick penalising rough and deep revetted bunkers common to Open venues. As a result, some of the best players on the day found conditions tricky and there were few stableford scores in the 30s. However, even after suffering a 2-point cut in his handicap, Alex Heath ran out the Singles Stableford winner with 39 points and also won the Past Captains' Cup and, with a gross 80, also took the Scratch Prize, before competing with Barry Watson in the afternoon Greensomes and winning that as well on a countback from David Ratcliffe and Allan Kerr. Alex is automatically cut a further two shots for the remainder of this season's meetings!

The runner-up in the morning Singles Stableford was Patrick Birley with 38 points and Edward Sawbridge came in third on 34, beating Conor Sharpe by a point. Allan Kerr took the King Cup for 24 handicappers with 32 points.

The afternoon foursomes, competing for the Charles Davis Salver, was won by Jan Rommer and Bob Stevens for Natixis, with your Captain and Nigel Stern runners-up on a countback from Paul Shuter and Peter Tuesley. 

Patrick Birley won the "Nearest the Pin" and Conor Sharpe hit a stupendous shot to win the "Longest Drive" by some 40-50 yards from the nearest competitor.

Michael Farmer generously provided all the prizes for the day and paid for wine and drinks for the whole day. Our grateful thanks go to him.

“The match against The Bank of England was held on the 17th September at the prestigious RAC Club in Woodcote Park. The beautiful manicured gardens and the impressive buildings set the scene early in the morning.

It was decided mutually by the match managers that the morning competition would be Greensomes due to the possible time constraints of serving lunch. It proved to be a good decision.

Alex Heath with James Haines and David Ratcliffe with Mathew Adams were our only successful pairs leaving us 3 - 2 down at lunch. However, everyone was back in good time to enjoy the excellent lunch and prepare themselves for the afternoon singles competition.

The clement morning weather deserted us and we set off on the Old course in torrential rain. Our rugged team, unrecognizable in all the wet weather gear they could muster, went forth under a panoply of multi-coloured umbrellas. The miserable deluge lasted some 7 holes before it stopped, but left wet conditions. Despite this, our team returned with a victorious score, after some very close matches.

Our winners were Ian Taylor, Bill Smit, David Manners, Alex Heath and Mathew Adams with James Haines, Rob Draisey and David Ratcliffe securing important halves. Thus the LME won 8 1/2 to 6 1/2 and kept the trophy from last year. In all, apart from the weather, it was a very pleasant day, played importantly in a most convivial spirit.”

The annual Autumn meeting was this year held on the 23rd of September at Thorndon Park. This is, without doubt, one of the nicest courses available to play in Essex. It did not disappoint and neither did the weather.

With the usual format, we played a singles Stableford in the morning for the Association's most valuable trophy, the Gold Cup. This was followed by an excellent carvery lunch before we headed out again to compete in the afternoon's event of Greensomes played in fourballs. This was with the exception of Barry Watson who exuded confidence and offered to play on his own due to a late drop out. 

There were prizes for the first, second and third in the morning singles competition as well as a prize for the first placed guest of whom we had seven this year. Guests are welcome at all meetings except Captain's Day.

In first place, and the winner of the Gold Cup, was Edward Sawbridge with an amazing 40 points. With a handicap (until now) of 19, Edward also takes the Johnson Pot for best score by a 16 or over handicap.

The runner up was Danny Maylin with 38 points and in third place came Barry Watson with 36 points winning on count back from Jan Rommer.

For that performance, Barry Watson also takes the Aggregate Cup for the best combined score at the Spring and Autumn Meetings, with his 36 points added to his 30 from April.

The prize for the winning guest of the morning was Mr Peter Crump with 38 points.

In the afternoon the sun came out to play even more, with the greens speeding up and the fairway giving a lot more run after the moist course had dried from the previous night's rain. 

The prize for first place went once again to Edward Sawbridge playing with Adam Sussmes with 22 points over 9 holes. In a close second place was Barry Watson, playing alone, with 21 points.

Report by match manager – James Haines