​Like a disagreeable house guest who has argued with you all weekend and when you have finally got rid of him, rings the doorbell and shouts in your face “AND ANOTHER THING!”, winter came back and almost washed Captain’s Day away at Foxhills. So much so that a decision was taken not to hold a meeting before much later in May in future.
 
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.
 

​ 
Summer Tour
 
Marrakesh – 23-28 April 2018
 
Day 1
 
The first course played was Noria, sadly in rather cool and grey conditions and as a first introduction to Moroccan golf it was a surprise we were not playing in blazing sunshine. As always, the tour comprises five rounds, with the best four to count towards the Foster Plate.
A very wide range of stableford scores ranging from 20 to 36 against an average of 30.29 evidenced some inexperience of the fast greens and different conditions but nothing fazed John Ambery and Jan Rommer who both shot 36 points, John taking the honours on a countback. Close behind were Alex Heath and Vice Captain Allan Kerr, both on 34.
 
Day 2
 
With John Ambery taking a two shot cut and Jan Rommer one shot into the second day at Assoufid the scoring was quite a lot lower on this challenging course, with some long carries over stony patches of desert and very quick greens. The wether intervened with heavy downpours that flooded the greens and made bow waves in front of the buggies. No-one managed to score 30 points, but Steven Spencer took the day with 29 on a countback from David Ratcliffe and Frits Beek, who narrowly missed being cut a shot on a close countback. The average score was 25.71 and at the close the leader was Jan Rommer on 65 points with Frits Beek lying second on 62. Close behind on 61 were John Ambery and Martin Abbott.
 
Day 3
 
The third day took us to Ourika in, at last, some sunshine and rising temperatures, which showed in slightly improved scoring. The average for the day was 26.80. The day went to Alex Heath with 32 points, from Frits Beek, also on 32, on a count back. Close behind were The Captain, Edward Sawbridge, Martin Abbott and Brian Woodbridge, all scoring 31. The field was beginning to look a little strung out now and at the close of the third day the leaders on 93 points were Jan Rommer and Frits Beek, with Martin Abbott on 92 and Alex Heath and Brian Woodbridge on 90.
 
Day 4
 
With two rounds left, the party went to Samanah, a Rob Draisey suggestion and a very good one. The weather stayed fine again and the day’s average score was 27.14. Once again fast greens and some rocky ravines and hard fairways took their toll of some of the party. John Ambery had little trouble and ran out a clear winner with 33 points, which together with his victory on the first day saw his handicap cut from 13 to 9 for the last day. runner up was Jon’s old sparring partner, Jan Rommer with 32 points, with only Alex Heath managing to get to 30 points. At the close of the fourth day the outright leader was Jan Rommer on 125 from Frits Beek and Alex Heath on 120, Martin Abbott on 119, Brian Woodbridge on 118 and the Captain on 114.
 
Day 5
 
The final day saw the party back at Assoufid with everything to play for. Jan Rommer elected not to play the final round and risked everything on his 5 point lead. To erode that lead, taking into account their lowest scores to be discarded, was a big challenge but both Alex Heath and John Ambery made a valiant attempt. A late rally by the Vice Captain, Allan Kerr with a 34 was not enough either. Jan took home the Foster Plate with 125 points from John Ambery on 122 and Alex Heath on 121, the Captain, Martin Abbott and Frits Beek all lying on 120.
 
The party is indebted to local resident and Captain of Assoufid, Egbert Veldman, for helping sort out all problems on the ground and for his excellent company as he joined the party as a non-competitor. Thanks also go to the captain, Edward Sawbridge, for organising a thoroughly enjoyable tour, including excellent restaurants and a visit to the Souk that almost saw the Vice Captain returning with or on a magic carpet.
 

​The rain eased off but the wind blew – oh how it blew! Enough to move the ball on the greens and to make grown men stagger on the tee, but 40 players turned out for the day, with 15 guests – perhaps the biggest guest contingent of recent years.
 
For 90% of the players, conditions were very tough and even bogeys were hard to come by, but for a very few, scores in the 30s were achievable and leader among this hardy lot was Brian Collins, who hardly ever turns out these days but did to great effect this time, taking the Winchester Bowl. He shot 36 points which left him the clear winner by three points from Rob Draisey and Martin Pratt. Close behind came Brian Woodbridge, in a cloud of curses, and Bill Green on 32, Garry Jones and Steven Smith on 31 and Chris Edwards on 30 completing the top eight.
 
The guests could not quite compete but Terry Smith, playing with Steven Smith, shot 31 to take the guest prize from Thomas Traser and Tanya Epshteyn.
 
Nearest the pin went to Neil Poulter, Chris Edwards’ guest, and the longest drive – phenomenally long in the conditions, was hammered by Bill Green.
 
One important note – you MUST ensure that you check your cards before you sign them and PLAYERS MAKE SURE YOUR SCORE IS IN THE BOX PROVIDED. Several cards were handed in with the marker’s score in the box, which led to confusion in the prizegiving. The player is responsible for checking and signing his card and ensuring his score is in the box and is legible. MARKERS DO NOT PUT YOUR OWN SCORE IN THE BOX! The secretary or match manager only has time to check scores where a countback is required.
 
At the end of the traditionally excellent luncheon, President Martin Prevezer presented Ivor Foster, the retiring President, with a crystal bowl in commemoration of his outstanding service to the LMEGA for so many decades as Captain, Secretary and President. Ivor will be 90 in December.
 
After the prizegiving, outgoing Captain Yang Liu made a farewell speech encouraging everyone to spread the word in the metal fraternity and get members in to the LMEGA. She alone was responsible for seven or eight new members joining in 2017. Yang thanked her Vice-Captain, Edward Sawbridge for his support and the Hon Sec for his organisation and was given a hearty round of applause and thanks for her enthusiastic and committed captaincy.
 
That concludes the entertainment for the season and we wish you all a Happy Christmas and a Healthy and Happy New Year and look forward to seeing you all at the Annual General Meeting on 28th February in the boardroom of the LME at 2pm.
 
The Annual Dinner will be held at the Chiswell Street Dining Rooms on 22nd March, where the speaker will be John Hawksworth, ex-Walker Cup player with Colin Montgomerie, golf commentator, pundit and traveller who was once deported from Czechoslovakia at gunpoint.

Once again, the annual encounter with the BSMAGS (the Scrap!) was at Moor Park.
 
The morning fourballs was a suspiciously tight affair with the teams going in level at lunch. Perhaps we should have known something was in the offing. Alex Heath and Ashok Singhania went down 2 & 1 to Chris Pelosi and Mike Williamson, who did not miss a single putt from anywhere on the green – except for one putt from 3 feet. Then Garry Jones & Colin Griffiths lost 3 & 2 to Gary Holloway and Stephen Church. However, always up for this match Martin Pratt and his partner David Hardy had a hard fought win 1 Up followed by Neal Avent and Derek Raphael who also triumphed 1 up.
 
The teams went into lunch all square .
 
Sadly, that was the calm before the storm as out of all eight singles the redoubtable and determined Martin Pratt was the only winner by 5 & 4 over Robert Voss. Although four of the matches came down to the last 2 holes and Garry Jones down to the final putt, the LMEGA collapsed to a 7-1 rollover, losing the match by 9-3.
 

Somehow or other, the aftermaths of hurricanes Irma, Kate and Maria missed West Byfleet and the match took place under cloudy but bright skies and dry weather. The course was in all its early autumn glory with little difficult rough and closely mowed fairways, with winter rules in play.

However, despite all these advantages, the LMEGA contrived to lose all five of the morning fourballs. The opening pair of Rob Draisey and Steven Spencer went down 2 and 1 and it got no better than that. The deadly duo of the Captain and Jan Rommer failed as did David Hardy and new member Noel Harwerth, Colin Griffiths and Derek Raphael and Alex Heath and James Proudlock.

Five down at lunch left the LMEGA a hefty uphill task in the afternoon singles which meant that we had to win 8 of the ten afternoon matches to win the match. Sadly, only two wins came our way as James Proudlock clinched a 2 up victory and Derek Raphael won the last match 4 and 3, while Jan Rommer and Rob Draisey managed halves. 

The end result was a 12-3 defeat and the LMEGA v BEGS plate stays with the Old Lady once again.

​Porters Park was in great condition on Wednesday. After the fog lifted we had a dry day and pretty firm fairways and the morning fourballs kicked off with your Hon Sec and Ashok Singhania playing two of the longest hitters in the sugar team, Emilio Weldon and Richard Howes. However, the youngsters couldn’t quite edge it and the LMEGA won that fourball 1 up, even after Emilio’s eagle putt of 50 feet had trumped Steven Spencer’s birdie at the par five 10th.
 
The second fourball was a really tight match with Richie O’Neill and Steven Smith playing Ben Cawdron and George Barker ending in a half. The third match featured James Proudlock and Derek Raphael who didn’t fare quite as well, going down 4 and 3 to Howard Jenkins and Hugh Cronaker, so as the last of the fourballs was coming in the scores were level. However, Dr Colin Griffiths and John Ambery brought off a tight victory against Neill Beaumont and Richard O’Connor to leave the LMEGA ahead 2 ½ to 1 ½ at lunch.
 
The scheduled 15-hole afternoon foursomes had to be changed to a 9-hole fourball better ball because the club inadvertently let some fourballs go out ahead of the match. The first LMEGA pairing of your Hon Sec with Derek Raphael beat Ben Cawdron and Richard O’Connor 2 and 1 but Richie O’Neill and Colin Griffiths succumbed 1 down to George Baker and Howard Jenkins, leaving the match at 3 ½ to 2 ½ at the halfway stage.
 
It was Ashok Singhania, captain for the day, playing with James Proudlock who made the match safe with a win 1 up against Neill Beaumont and Richard Howes before the icing on the cake came with a 3 up victory by Steven Smith and John Ambery over Emilio Weldon and Hugh Cronaker.

This year's Past Captains was played at Seaford, where we had a truly wonderful reception over two days, a stunning course with magnificent views over the Channel and luckily very good weather.

Eight captains competed for the trophy, Jan Rommer, Alex Heath, Bill Smit, David Hardy, David Littlestone back from Spain, Steven Spencer, Clem Danin and this year's Captain, Yang Liu. Colin Griffith joined the party for the first day.

The Competition was played over two rounds, the first being the afternoon of our arrival. The outright leader at the close of Day One was the redoubtable Jan Rommer, who played off 10 and posted 32 points in blustery winds of up to 30 mph. Pushing him close were Alex Heath, playing off 12, Captain Yang Liu off 22 and Bill Smit off 12, all scoring 31. Summer Tour rules applied and the leader, Jan, was duly cut to 8, losing two shots, with the runners-up all cut by one shot. 

The accommodation was excellent, the bar comfortable and well stocked and the club served an outstanding five course dinner, as a result of which we will be returning to Seaford next year. As always with new and old Captains together, the nostalgia flowed in torrents almost as great as the wine and late into the evening. 

Day Two dawned bright, fair and sunny with the wind dropping to a strong breeze. As usual, the lowest four Stableford scorers went out first and the leader in the clubhouse was briefly David Hardy before the leading group came in. Alex was unable to repeat his Day One performance, but Bill scored 33, to post a total of 64, pipping Jan on 62 points. However, the outright winner was the Captain who added 35 to her overnight score of 31 to take the cup by two points.

We do hope more Captains will join the party next year.

​The Autumn Meeting returned to Sandy Lodge this year, where someone seemed to have lost the keys to the mower shed – or, as one wit offered, the strimmer shed. The rough was wet, clingy, long and punishing, with a high probability of losing a ball only a few feet off the fairway. The greens were very true and fairly quick but overnight rain had made the bunkers hard and the fairways soft.
 
However, one player found no problems at all and walked away with the Gold Cup with a score of 41, playing off 6. Yes, Chris Jones triumphed on just his second outing this year and as the first was Captains Day/Spring Meeting, where he returned 34 points, he also took the Aggregate Cup with a total of 75.
 
Runner up was Edward Sawbridge with 36 points, with Captain Yang Liu coming in third with 35 and the average score for the day was 29.63. The guest prize was taken by Richard Pelly of Foxhills on a countback from Paul Jupp.
 
The Captain won the longest drive competition and David Hardy was nearest the pin.
 
The Johnson Pot – for over 16 handicap – was taken by Edward Sawbridge (17).
 
After an excellent but enormous lunch, the afternoon greensomes over 11 holes produced a lot of scores in the low 20s, but the runaway winners were Paul Jupp (Guest) and Steven Smith (AMT) with 27 points from Edward Sawbridge and Allan Kerr second with 23 on a countback from Ashok Singhania (Simportex) and John Ambery.

We are indebted to Bill Smit, Match Manager, for this report
 
A Quad Anomaly
 
On 21 July 2017 the LMEGA participated in the annual Quadrilateral at Effingham GC. The weather was good and the course, although very dry, was in really good condition. Over the past winter, Effingham had Mackenzie & Ebert redesign and reposition the bunkers. White sand is now used in the bunkers and the effect visually enhances each hole. These are the same people who redesigned the holes at my club, the RAC in Epsom, and the holes are now infinitely better and more attractive to view.
 


​A brief history of the Quadrilateral.
 
In 2003 the first match was played between the LMEGA, Forex GS, Bank of England and the Baltic Exchange GS. We were stretching to get enough players for each individual match, and shortly after starting the Quad we abandoned the bilateral matches against Forex and the Baltic. In the early years, the LMEGA either won the matches or alternated with Forex who were second. The competition is 8 out of 10 individual matches to count in the morning and 4 out of 5 Greensomes to count in the afternoon. One year we only had 7 players competing and still finished second. The Baltic had difficulty getting players and always-finished last, way behind the others, and eventually dropped out.

At this point in the series we thought that it would probably end, as it was not being competitive. However, the Bank suddenly won everything for the next 5 years. Corresponding to this time frame the LMEGA stopped letting the match manger pick the team and admin chose the players from those who wanted to play. We promptly became the new Baltic, finishing last each year and not being competitive. It became so bad that the others asked if we could try and field a competitive team or the event will probably end.
 
Last year the LSE took the place of the Baltic and we finished last a long way back.
 
Results of the match for 2017
 
The match manager was allowed to have some input into the team this year and we went with some youth and some seasoned veterans. Captain Yang welcomed 3 players from the LME, Jake Doran, Bill Green and Paul Lillis whom played in their first Quad. No, we did not win and yes, we did finish last. But……
 
After the morning matches the scores were LSE 264, Bank 263, Forex 261 and LMEGA 240.
 
The results of the afternoon matches were LMEGA 154, LSE 147, Bank 146, Forex 136. Jake and Bill promised they would make up for their morning round and promptly came back with 43 points. LSE won 411, Bank 409, Forex  397 and LMEGA 394.
 
The Morning winner Alex Heath, LMEGA, with 40 points
 
The Afternoon Winners Jan Rommer & Capt. Yang Liu 46 Points
 
The LMEGA finished last but won all the prizes, go figure.

​The best that can be said of the day at Denham is that the course was in great condition, the lunch was superb and we avoided the forecast rain, as the Captain said in her post-match speech. Sadly, the London Stock Exchange prevailed once again.
 
The morning foursomes saw the teams go into lunch at 3-3, with good wins by Alex Heath and Steven Spencer (3 and 2), Jan Rommer and Martin Watkins (1 up) and Jake Doran and Bill Green (1 up).
 
With all to play for in the afternoon singles, the LMEGA saw themselves in the lead at the fifth of the twelve singles. Wins by Brian Woodbridge (7 & 6), double winner Jake Doran (2 & 1), David Hardy (6 & 4) and a half by Jan Rommer left the LMEGA on 6 ½ - 4 ½ with 7 matches to come. In a strong counter attack, the LSE won the 6th, 7th and 8th matches to go ahead by 1 before David Farrar won the 9th match by 4 & 3 to draw level again at 7 ½ each. A victory was not to be, however, as the last three matches all went to the LSE, who retained the trophy by 10 ½ - 7 ½.