Moles Match - Royal St Georges

16th March 2025

Match Managers Report - Austin Roberts

The brief from the Recorder was brief! Field the strongest team you can. The last match we played was 2019, where with a strong team we were well beaten.

There is quite a history to the fixture. The societies first played in 1926/27, there is a difference in the records. We played each other 12 times before WW2 not counting the quadrangular match of 1937. Following the War, fixtures only resumed in 1990 at The Berkshire where it has been played on an ad hoc basis since. 

Minnow Powell confirmed that they would be putting out a strong team. Fortunately I did not have much trouble raising a team due to the obvious attractions of playing at Royal St Georges. The average handicap of our team was 0.9!!

The fixture was to be played on Sunday 16 March over 36 holes. Minnow very kindly arranged for us to play a friendly on the Saturday followed by the rugby; Wales versus England and then a black tie dinner. We had a lovely Saturday afternoon in glorious sunshine however it was only 5 degrees with a brisk easterly wind at 20 knots. Testing conditions indeed. The course was in magnificent condition and the greens surprisingly good for mid March.

I had previously discussed with the Captain(Richard Disley) our strategy which I felt would be important knowing how strong the Moles would be. My feeling was to put myself and the Captain as the sacrificial lambs and keep the middle and tail very strong. The Captain advised the opposite; take them head on and attack.

We sent our Denham Bowl victors out first; Richard Hooper and Mark Lewis. They won 7&6. I overheard one of the Moles who played, speaking to Minnow after the match, and he truly was in a state of shock. He said they hadn’t played badly but he didn’t really know what had happened!! We managed to win the morning 4-1 which felt very significant.

After a magnificent lunch, the Moles came out firing on all cylinders in the afternoon and we managed to win that 3-2. So the overall result was 7-3. It felt like a very important victory for the Erratics.

We were marvelously hosted, as ever, by Minnow and the Moles. Everything was perfect; the company, the golf, the food and the wines. A truly unforgettable weekend.

Lastly, my thanks to the Recorder and the Captain who were a great help in all to do with the fixture.

Team - Austin Roberts (MM), Richard Disley (Captain), Mark Lewis, Richard Hooper, Will Evans, Harry Evans, Richie Evans, John Matthews, Dan Pickering, Dan Evans