
It started raining as the Captain teed off at 8am and did not stop, of course, until the players came in for lunch, when the sun came out. Optimistically, most of the brave souls who had survived the morning – an entire fourball disappeared somewhere and never came in to lunch or even announced their departure – went out again in the afternoon for the Charles Davis Foursomes Salver and a threeball competition.
Sorry to say that the courses were not in the best condition. Foxhills suffers very badly from rain and takes a long time to dry out, and it showed, with piles of wet cut grass lying on the rather deep rough and deep marks on the fairways where heavy machinery had been used. We had tried to have the day postponed, but it was not possible.
Back to the golf, and a huge drive on the 6th of the Bernard Hunt course saw Paul Lillis take the longest drive prize while Neil Poulter (Ocean Partners), who disappeared in the morning, took the nearest the pin prize on the 11th.
Chris Edwards (BLME) was the winner of the Silver Challenge Cup for the morning singles stableford with 35 points from Paul Lillis’ 33, while David Hardy (Man and LCH) came in third on a countback from Martin Pratt (Triland). David also took the Carr Sargant Cup for Cat1 and Cat2 members for Man, and added the Directors’ Cup and the Captains’ Cup to his haul.
The Scratch Prize was taken by Ryan Jackson (AMT), while the Guest Prize went to Harinder Sethi with James Taylor the runner up, and the King Cup was won by David Farrar (LCH).
Assured by the professional shop at lunch that the lower, Longcross, course was playable, which turned out to be rather economical with the truth, the afternoon competitions included the Charles Davis Foursomes Salver for LME Cat1 and Cat2 current and historical members, which went to your Captain, Edward Sawbridge, playing with Martin Pratt for Natixis.
Ryan Jackson and Steven Smith were runners up for AMT. The other afternoon competition was a threeball best two scores counting, which went to Chris Edwards, James Taylor and David Farrar, while Bill Green (LME), Phil Beck and Jake Doran came second.
Huge appreciation goes to the boys who suffered the M25 from Essex and battled on to the end of the day in a magnificent effort. We would also like to thank the seven Foxhills members who turned out to invite players as their guests, thus lowering the entry fees and last but not least the LME, without whose generosity playing courses like these and enticing working members out to play would not be possible.