From Oz...............

The following report owes nothing to my skills but solely to those of our roving reporter Charles Whitwham and his report on the Bledisloe Cup Golf Match:

Wednesday 19 Aug

We met at the airport at 1345 hrs as agreed. Proceedings got off to a wonderful start with one member having to phone his wife to ask her to return to the airport as he had left his jacket on the back seat of the car! Another member decided to go through Customs soon after check-in and was then phoning on his mobile to find out where the rest of us had got to! A pleasant flight over with Emirates on a 777-300ER. Peter Law pulled a few favours with the airline and we were all seated together but only 2 people to a row of 3 seats - and we got champagne!! A mini-bus taxi took us to our apartments in Bondi Junction and it wasn't long before Mark Southall arrived from Melbourne and the full team was together. Evening meal was at a local WokMaster restaurant, where our large group managed to confuse the staff over how many more servings of food were still due to arrive at our table.

Thursday 20 Aug

The party were taken to RSGC (Royal Sydney Golf Club) for breakfast by Leon, a sleeping KGB agent stationed in Sydney. This gentleman was to be our personal chauffeur for the rest of our stay and he was superb - a Peter Guthrey find. We had organised 2 tee bookings as for some of the party this was their first look at the Royal Sydney layout. From my point of view I thoroughly enjoyed the challenge presented by the course. When RSGC wanted to host the Australian Open they could not lengthen the course, as they are land-locked. It was decided that to make the course more of a test they would surround the greens with several large and deep bunkers thereby creating visual intimidation when playing your approach shots. They also tightened up the fairways with yet more bunkering and created greens with undulating surfaces. The green on the 17th, a 183m par 3, made our 9th green look pretty ordinary. I even received a shot on this hole and could not score better than a 5 on both days!! (anyone heard criticising the fairway on our 6th for instance might like to try Royal Sydney some time….nightmarish bunkers and greens grace every fairway…..much to the concern of many of their members we might add) The weather was beautiful and the group was pleased to have a hit before the big day, although some were apprehensive about the state of their game. Evening meal was at The Temple Of Love in Darling Harbour, last visited in 2005. Excellent Asian cuisine.

Friday 21 Aug

We were at RSGC by 10.30am and down to the range for some last minute swing fixes!! At 11.45am all the teams assembled in the Lunch Bar where we were welcomed by Laughton Hegarty, the Club Captain. He explained the proceedings of the day, including the 'local' rule for the possible loss of ball due to the crows on the course. The crows fly away with golf balls firmly clamped in their beaks. Andrew Hopkins 'lost' his ball on the 9th hole on Thursday this way, witnessed by Mark Southall. The club has tried various measures to rid themselves of this nuisance and it took a long time before they were given permission to shoot them. However they can only shoot 2 per year. Laughton informed me that the man doing the shooting was not good at counting!! They also have a fake eagle that gets moved around the course to try and scare the crows. This was the 13th playing of the Bledisloe Golf Cup and home course advantage has usually been a telling factor in deciding the winning team, and so it proved again this year with Royal Sydney scoring 153pts from their top 5 players followed by The Australian on 147pts, Auckland 140pts, Metropolitan 137pts, Christchurch 133pts, Royal Queensland 126pts and Royal Wellington 121pts. Australia also won the Bledisloe Golf Trophy with their top 15 scores totaling 449pts to New Zealand's 400pts. Yours truly was the joint top scorer for NZ with 31pts along with Graeme Kershaw from Royal Wellington. Another 5 Christchurch members figured in the top 15 for NZ.
The Geoffrey Fusion Hartigan Memorial Trophy, awarded annually for the lowest score, was this year won by Mark Southall, on count back from Arthur Johnson (2007 winner) and Glen Barker. This is a trophy that is to be avoided at all costs….but makes for much hilarity at the prize giving. Many members will remember Glen Barker who was a member at Shirley during the 90’s….he passes on his regards to all who remember him.
The speakers at the evening meal, held in what must be one of the largest and finest clubhouses anywhere in the world, were former Wallabies Bill Ross, Paul McLean, Arthur McGill (now CEO of the troubled Bulldogs NRL team). RSGC has 15 members who are former Wallabies and 9 of them played in either the Barbarians Team or the Classic Wallabies Team.
Graham Vivian of Auckland ex NZ Test Cricketer holed in one on the 17th!! The Christchurch team was by far and away the best dressed and smartest looking in our red shirts and black trousers!

Saturday 22 Aug

A trip on the harbour was the daytime activity, destination Watsons Bay and Doyle's Restaurant. A competition was held to see who could spend the least amount of money at this world famous seafood eatery. The winner spent $7, including a 20c tip!! (the author omitted to mention that it was he, Charles Whitwham, who became probably the only person ever not to partake of any fish at all….unless garlic bread is fish in Yorkshire…in this most famous of fish restaurants) It was too soon after a hearty breakfast to feast large!.....(his excuse not ours especially those who had the $50 Lobster and Prawn salad) ANZ Stadium was the evening destination and a close fought game saw the AB's run out 19-18 winners in the Bledisloe Test. A crowd of 80,228 witnessed this game and the Sydney transport system handled this amount of people with aplomb. The end of another memorable and enjoyable Bledisloe trip. Until next year.............it should be noted in passing that one of our members returned home a day early on the Saturday to attend his brother’s 60th….after arising at 4am NZ time he was witnessed by various frightened church goers some 27 hours later staggering home still in his Red Indian costume including bow and arrow. Who said ‘what goes on tour stays on tour’!!!