​England was struck by Monsoons in the early part of October, which created a sense of foreboding about the LISEGS match, scheduled for the afternoon of October 8th at Denham.
 
Sure enough, the heavens opened during the morning and the ground was well and truly soaked on the one-way walk into the clubhouse. However, Denham was well organised, and after drinks in a large, heated, marquee we entered the clubhouse for a fine lunch. Denham is famous for its car very, which clearly couldn’t t happen in these COVID times, but the three course lunch was an excellent replacement, and we ventured forth feeling truly replete into a now dry afternoon for a squishy 18 hole battle, played as four 4-ball better ball games.
 
It is possible we were a little too replete. The LMEGA pairings of Bill Green and Steven Spencer, Martin Abbott and Allan Kerr, John Ambery and David Farrar, and Edward Sawbridge and Dr Colin Griffiths has a tough time, and eventually lost the match in a whitewash, with our best less being 2 down.
 
This is the LISEGS 100th anniversary year, and more than one LMEGA player noted it would have been rude to spoil LISEGS sense of occasion, but in reality we were soundly outplayed.
 
LISEGS president Richard Barber was gracious in his victory speech (the trophy was delivered to LISEGS by LMEGA vice captain Martin Abbott a week later at Bowood golf club in Wiltshire, but that’s another story).
 
In particular Richard singled out his memories of playing against Derek Raphael in matches past, and noted Derek’s integrity, humour and fine sportsmanship as characteristics he would never forget. He was also kind enough to add that such qualities typified the atmosphere of LMEGA LISEGS matches over the years.
 
We look forward to our rematch next year, and may we carry such a reputation, polished by our finest members, for years to come.

​On what turned out to be a perfect day for Autumn golf, your intrepid combatants assembled to do battle with the Bank of England in this long-standing annual encounter.  We were at West Hill GC: this was a new venue for the match, after being ousted by West Byfleet, which is guarding all available tee times for its members until the New Year.
 
West Hill has adopted a serious approach to COVID precautions, without it becoming intrusive, and all praise is due to its attentive clubhouse staff for making everyone welcome.  We were provided with an excellent lunch, sensibly taken in the marquee erected over the terrace at the back of the 18th green.  The course offered a stern challenge and was presented in first-rate order by the greens staff.  Happily, the day remained dry, but there was a sufficiently brisk wind to keep everyone on their toes.
 
At lunch, the result of the morning fourballs was tied at two and a half points apiece.  Alex and Yang held off one of the Bank’s single figure players and its lady Captain for the half.  Steven Smith and John Ambery, together with Seamus O’Connell and the Hon Sec, were victorious.  The usually reliable dream team of Hardy and Smit were overcome on the 18th by the Bank’s other single figure player and perhaps the very best 16 handicapper on the planet.  David Farrar and Colin Griffiths had a slightly earlier bath (or would have done had the locker rooms not fallen victim to the pandemic).
 
Fully refreshed and with all to play for the afternoon greensomes over holes 3 to 13 (because of the fast diminishing daylight) yielded a series of closely fought results.  Together with Steven Smith, Yang recorded her second halved match of the day while Hardy & Heath and Ambery & Griffiths came out on top of tight games.  David Farrar and Steven Spencer were seen off by two of the Bank’s wilier competitors.
 
Bill and Seamus were defeated by one hole, but this result deserves closer examination and a learning moment.  The bank team, led by the single figure player who had overcome Bill in the morning, announced on the opening tee that they would be giving Bill and Seamus two shots. He had mistakenly used the foursomes handicapping approach of ‘half the combined difference,’ which should anyway have given three shots. But he went further to declare that, as the match was over 11 holes, they should only get two shots and, that as index 1 was the 14th, in effect they should only receive one shot. 
 
This is wrong on several levels: the greensomes rule of a side’s handicap is to take 0.6 times the lower handicap and 0.4 times the higher, at the end of which the difference is taken at the stroke index holes as they fall on the course, regardless of which holes are to be played.  This should have resulted in a difference of 3.6 rounded up to four, in which case Bill and Seamus would have won by one hole rather than losing by one due to accepting the Bank’s incorrect foursomes-based approach.  Even if using the foursomes rule correctly, the result would have been halved. Bill is still firing up his blockchain computer installation to further refine what his result should have been!
 
However, the result was not challenged, and the upshot was another shared session with an overall match result of all square. This fixture was won by LMEGA in 2018 but cancelled because of the heavy rains of Autumn 2019, with LMEGA retaining, and now with this tied match, LMEGA continues to hold the, still strangely unengraved, silver platter.  Given the slight handicapping kerfuffle, this does not seem an unreasonable position at the end of another well humoured encounter with the Bank.
 
The presentation would have been made by our special guest, the President of West Hill GC and World Golf Hall of Fame member, Ken Schofield.  However, as the trophy is locked away in COVID secure conditions at the LME, the presentation was replaced by a few more drinks from West Hill’s well-stocked bar.
 
By unanimous vote, the fixture will return to West Hill next October.  West Byfleet’s members may yet regret the decision arbitrarily to cancel all corporate and society commitments in deference to the tee time demands of all those presently WFH!

    ​                      “Oh I do like to be beside the seaside”
                                          Cartoon by Clem Danin

​​Thirteen Past Captains turned out at a very windy Seaford GC on Wednesday 23rd September and after a bar lunch set out in extremely breezy but dry conditions with the forecast being for a few showers in the afternoon.
 
An enormous black and purple cloud did not look like the forerunner of a few showers, nor was it. It was in fact all the showers rolled into one cloudburst that lasted the best part of 15 holes. Seaford drains so well, however, that everyone completed their rounds on good fairways and beautifully true paced greens.
 
The wind gusted up to 40mph with a steady 25mph governing the afternoon making even standing still to putt a challenge. It was not surprising, therefore, to see scores averaging around 26 points with Bill Smit (2006), last year’s winner coming in alongside Ian Taylor (2009) with 31, being the leaders of the pack. The pack, however, was somewhat outdistanced by the 2019 Captain, Allan Kerr (2019), who waltzed in with 40 points thanks to some outstanding putting - no luck involved – with 21 points on the front nine and ten points in the first four holes of the back nine, to the amazement of his playing partners.
 
The club produced an excellent dinner and after a tribute by the President, Martin Prevezer (1988) glasses were raised to Derek Raphael (2008) who died recently.
 
The following morning dawned blustery with heavy rain and more forecast so the competition was abandoned and Allan takes home the Past Captain’s claret jug.

​The Past Captains' Competition is entirely self funded and takes no subsidy from LMEGA funds

The 13th hole. A 162 yard par 3 surrounded by bunkers on which Ben Horton had a birdie two to follow his eagle three at the 471 yard 12th.

A gripping encounter took place at Worplesdon in glorious early autumn golfing weather.

Worplesdon being a two ball course on Thursday mornings, the teams fought out a set of foursomes in the morning, the format perhaps not suiting the Sugar team as the LMEGA won the morning 3-1. Alex Heath and Brian Collins won 1 up, Steven Spencer and James Proudlock won 2 and 1 and Allan Kerr and David Farrar won 4 and 3. Only Dr Colin Griffiths and Seamus O'Connell went down and by 6 and 5 to a pair led by Ben Horton of Stonex, which should have sounded a warning bell. Ben is off scratch and had contemplated turning professional.

The afternoon singles were a nail biting affair. Alex heath went down 4 and 3 to Barry Cunninham but James Proudlock beat Des Monteith 1 up. Then two swift reverses came with David Farrar beaten 4 and 3 and Steven Spencer, tackling Ben Horton who shot a gross 66 including 4 birdies and an eagle 3 losing by 4 and 3. The scores were now level.

Seamus O'Connell then beat Howard Jenkins 4 and 3 but Brian Collins was beaten by the same score. All was hanging on the last two matches.

Dr Colin Griffiths managed to halve his match and then last year's Captain Allan Kerr scraped a vital point with a win by one hole to seal a narrow victory for the LMEGA.

In honour of the late John Paine, whose inspiration created this fixture back in 2004 over an extended lunch (what else) at the Hyde Park Hotel, it was decided to create a new trophy to replace the Commodity Cup to be called the John Paine Trophy. This will be played for at Worplesdon in September next year.

Captain’s Day and Spring Meeting at Walton Heath – 4th September 2020
AT LAST!
​The LMEGA season got of to a very much delayed start at Walton Heath on Friday with the combined Captain’s Day and Spring Meeting competition. This is only the second time that a Captain has served two terms and we thank Jan Rommer for stepping in to fill the gap when Martin Abbott was forced to delay his captaincy for a year.
 
In good golfing weather on the Old Course but, on fairways that were being scarified and with fast greens, scoring was not easy. With carries over heather of up to 170 yards and with heather intruding into the fairways in and around a profusion of bunkers there was a premium on long and accurate driving and on approaches to well guarded greens. Not for nothing is Walton Heath an Open qualifier and host to the Ryder Cup in past years.
 
RIP Derek Raphael
Before the prizegiving a minute’s silence was held for Derek Raphael who died last week and Past Captain Allan Kerr gave a eulogy. Derek is seen here second from the left in a photograph taken on a Summer Tour to France in 2011.

From left to right: Alex Heath, Derek Raphael, David Hardy, Martin Prevezer, Brian Woodbridge, Frits Beek, Seamus O'Connell, Michael Farmer, Steven Spencer​

The results:
The Silver Challenge Trophy dating back to 1905 and which can be seen in the cabinet in the LME gallery, was won by Jack Burns of Stonex at his first attempt with a score of 38 points. ​

​As a result, Jack also wins the Scratch Competition for handicaps of 12 and under, and the Carr Sargant for Category 1 and 2 companies. Jack now takes a two shot cut to his handicap for next year’s competition. The runner up was the LME’s Yang Liu, a past Captain, who also takes the Director’s Cup and the Captains’ Cup.
 
The King Cup for the best 24+ handicap goes to Ashok Singhania.

​Yang was also presented belatedly with the Knockout Cup which she won in 2019 but which presentation was delayed by the Covid crisis. Rob Draisey took third place with 34 points on a countback over holes 10-18.

The afternoon competition was played as foursomes over 12 holes of the New Course. Category 1 and 2 companies played for the Charles Davis Salver which was won by Jack Burns and Malcolm Leonard for Stonex with 21 points, beating Alex Heath and Steven Spencer for Lonconex into second place. The remainder of the party played a foursomes competition which was won by John Ambery (ex PWC) and Rakesh Gupta (BNP Paribas) with 26 points. The runner up was Bill Green playing as a single as injury prevented his partner David Hardy from taking part.

The 2019 season came to an end on Thursday 21st November with a grand farewell to the outgoing Captain, Allan Kerr. 41 players, together with Peter Pemberton, who came as a lunch guest, thanked Allan for a superb year as Captain.
 
Looking back on the season, Allan recapped the wonderful venues at the RAC Club for Captains Day, Walton Heath for the Autumn Meeting and The Buckinghamshire, where the inaugural International Competition was held and which was won by a Chinese team. He thanked Martin Pratt and Yang Liu as the main organisers and we hope the event will be repeated in 2020. He also recalled with delight the Summer Tour, which was in Portugal this year. Another first for his captaincy was the LMEGA Knockout Competition, which was won by Yang Liu from Tanya Epshteyn in the all lady final. In matches, the LMEGA retained the Beckermet Trophy against the Iron and Steel and the Commodity Cup against the Sugar Association but lost to the Stock Exchange and the Scrap and also failed to hold on to the City Quadrilateral plate. Sadly, and for the first time, the match against the Bank of England was abandoned in the deluge of mid-October.
​ 
The weather turned very cold for the Xmas Fayre, with 4C the highest temperature for the day with a 10mph breeze providing further air conditioning making the “real feel” sub zero. It was also lightly foggy on the day and although the greens were true and firm for the time of year, the fairways were slow but played well despite the stupendous amounts of rain that had fallen in the last few weeks.
 
Rob Draisey pipped Colin Griffith for the Nearest the Pin prize and Steven Smith outdrove Dominic Boyle to win the Longest Drive.

​In the competition, the average score in difficult conditions was just 27 points. The Guest Prize went to Richard Pelly with 34 points by one point from Nick Cartwright.
 


​Melanie Wells, Alison Ellman and Tanya Epshteyn suitably swaddled against the cold

​Third place went to Adam Sussmes with 35 points, Edward Sawbridge coming second, also with 35 points on a countback over the back nine holes but the outright winner with 37 points was John Ambery, who declared in his thankyou speech, clutching the Winchester Cup and two bottles of champagne, that this was the first trophy he had ever won.

​The Captain presents the Winchester Cup to John Ambery

​The last presentation of the day was the Harry Scott Trophy, inaugurated by Triland in memory of Harry, for the highest score by a player who had worked on or around the Ring. This went to Steven Smith with 34 points, despite labouring under a handicap of just 12 following his victory at Captains Day. Martin Pratt, CEO of Triland, presented the trophy.

​The fixtures come thick and fast as we try to cram the Autumn schedule in before the clocks change and the weather worsens.
 
Fortunately, the match against the Sugar Association at Denham was spared the worst of the aftermath of Hurricane Humberto despite heavy overnight rain. Even as we sat in the clubhouse over coffee and bacon rolls, a cloudburst broke over the course dumping half an inch of rain in just twenty minutes. Denham drains like a sieve though, so we teed off on time off two tees in a fourball better ball with just a sprinkle of a shower as we set out.
 
The morning matches were tight for a time, but eventually resulted in wins for Captain Allan Kerr and Chris Edwards over Emilio Weldon and Ian Stephenson, and for Steven Spencer and Rakesh Gupta over Barry Callingham and Howard Jenkins. Things got trickier in the other matches with David Farrar and Seamus O’Connell scraping a half with Alex Homer and Francesco Vincenzini while James Taylor and Dr Colin Griffiths went down 4 and 3 to Harry Harland and Cato Davis.
 
At lunch – and what a lunch! The writer saw at least half the company go back for surreptitious second helpings – the LMEGA led by 2 ½ to 1 ½
 
The afternoon format was greensomes and again started out in a sharp shower. The opening match saw the Captain and Rakesh Gupta halve with Ian and Francesco while Chris Edwards (the only LMEGA member to score two points) and James Taylor recorded a handsome 4 and 3 win over Barry Callingham and Harry Harland. The LMEGA now led by 4 to 2. All was not well in the last two pairs, however. David Farrar and Colin Griffiths fell at the 16th by 3 and 2 to Emilio Weldon and Howard Jenkins and Steven Spencer and Seamus O’Connell went to the 18th green before succumbing 2 down to Alex Homer and Cato Davis, who drove several times more than 300 yards including driving the blind 17th green over the trees.
 
All’s well that ends well, though, as the LMEGA retained the Commodity Cup with the final scores 4 all.

Eleven Past Captains presented themselves at Seaford on 18th September for this entirely self-funded competition. Clem Danin (1989), David Hardy (2005), Alex Heath (1996), David Littlestone (2007), Martin Prevezer (1988), Jan Rommer (1992), Bill Smit (2006), Steven Spencer (2004), Bob Stevens (1997), Brian Woodbridge (2011) and this year’s Captain, Allan Kerr.
 
The afternoon round on 18th September, with the Seaford course basking in glorious late summer sunshine, resulted in a wide range of scores with the leaders on the day being Bob Stevens, Jan Rommer, David Hardy, Brian Woodbridge, Bill Smit and way out in front with a six point lead, Allan Kerr, who suffered a two stroke reduction for the next day.
 
A splendid five course dinner, a peaceful night in the clubhouse and a hearty breakfast saw ten of the players back out on the course refreshed and determined – some to make up for their previous day’s scores and a few with an outside chance of overhauling the overnight leader.
 
The Captain proved a redoubtable adversary and only Bill Smit looked in with a chance of catching him as the sun continued to beat down and a lone Spitfire soared above the white cliffs as the Newhaven to Dieppe ferry steamed across the Channel.  One by one the contenders faded away as Martin Prevezer, David Littlestone and Alex Heath came in without competitive scores, closely followed by Steven Spencer, Bob Stevens and Brian Woodbridge who likewise failed to make up sufficient points.
 
The last fourball saw David Hardy and Jan Rommer produce nothing to compete with the leaders, the Captain and Bill Smit who mounted a late charge. With seven points to make up on the overnight leader, Bill pipped the Captain at the post to steal a well-deserved win, the Captain sadly unable to overcome the two shot handicap reduction. ​

​The weather at Walton Heath proved unseasonably cold, with scudding drizzle, the odd shower and a stiff breeze, which seemed always to be in one’s face. In addition, the greens were fast but true and the fairways were hard, allowing the ball to run, which made it difficult to avoid the myriad bunkers lying in wait for drives and approach shots. Not for nothing did Walton Heath host the Ryder Cup in 1981 and the British Masters recently.

​Third place in the morning singles went to Adam Sussmes (AMT) with 34 points, just two behind the redoubtable Rob Draisey, but the winner with 37 points was Tanya Epshteyn (SocGen), who takes the Gold Cup and who also won the prize for Nearest the Pin. The prize for Longest Drive was won by the Captain.

​The Aggregate Cup, the combined scores for the Spring and Autumn Meetings was won by Steven Smith (AMT) with 72 points and the Johnson Pot for 16+ handicaps went to Tanya Epshteyn.

.

​​The afternoon competition was played over twelve holes of the New Course in teams of four with the best three scores to count. The runners up on a count back were Steven Spencer, The Captain, Jan Rommer and Rob Draisey with 76 points from Alex Heath, Edward Sawbridge, Peter Watkins and Brian Woodbridge but the winners by pone point on 77 were Yang Liu (LME), Rebecca Liang (BH Resources), Neil Poulter (Ocean Partners) and guest Tom Richardson

Photo: Brian Collins and the Hon Sec prepare for the afternoon foursomes, umbrellas and waterproofs at the ready

​The three Ws struck at Effingham on Friday – windy, warm and wet – making the rapid change of golf gear look like the action at Portrush in the Open. Dragged away from the television in the clubhouse, all the talk in the morning was whether Rory or Tiger would make the cut.
 
The friendly morning fourball, in which each team fielded one player off full handicap, resulted in an almost unbelievable range of scores.
 
The lowest two scores for each team of 10 are dropped in the fourball. In wet and windy conditions, with greens showing variable pace, the Bank of England posted 205, the lowest total for some years, and the LMEGA and the Stock Exchange posted 242, but the FOREX posted an impressive 275 with a highest score of only 37. That equals the record held by the LMEGA in 2018 but which then included a 41 and a 39. The range from highest to lowest of 70 points was also a record for the competition.
 
The afternoon round was a foursomes competition and in this the LMEGA did very well adding 143 points from their best four pairs, an average of about 36 points, but it wasn’t quite enough to catch the FOREX, who added 140 points to their morning total.
 
So the trophy goes away again after its brief sojourn in LMEGA hands.