Mr Thierry Porte, President of Harvard Club of Japan and President and CEO of Shinsei Bank kindly made Shinsei Bank’s magnificent 20th-floor Reception Hall available for this event. The hall overlooks Hibiya Park and commands spectacular views of central Tokyo. It also has an excellent acoustic, which was fortuitous as we had the pleasure of the company of The Choir of St Catharine’s College, Cambridge for the evening.
My day started with a flurry of phone calls from people who had looked out of the window and decided they would take the 'dinner only' option after all. Rain was indeed forecast for the entire day, the first time the annual C&O Takao outing had not been blessed with clement weather. (The first such outing was in May, 2002.) Still, the forecast was only for light rain, so I felt no inclination to invoke the torrential rain cancellation clause!
Following a tradition going back to the 1930s, the C&O Society’s annual golf tournament was held at Hodogaya Country Club in Yokohama. The date chosen for this year’s tournament was Saturday, 18th March.
The ‘final list’ for the Centenary Golf Match included eleven names, though two hard-working British businessmen had to cancel at the last minute due to pressure of work.
On Saturday, 15th March, fourteen C&O golf enthusiasts, joined by two guests, travelled across Tokyo Bay (most of them beneath the sea via the Aqualine!) to Fuji Country Club Ichihara for the Society’s Spring Golf Meeting. This was the Society’s first visit to Fuji Ichihara — a well-regarded Robert Trent Jones course — and impressions were positive regarding both the layout and overall condition.
A General Meeting, chaired by the Society’s President, Sir Stephen Gomersall (Queens’ Cambridge 1966), was held at the New Hall, British Embassy on Thursday, 13th March, 2003, starting at 6:30 p.m.
The day dawned fine and clear, with a gentle breeze, for the dozen participants at the Society’s third and final golf outing of the year. The venue was Kyo Country Club, close to Narita Airport — in fact so close that at times a well-flighted approach shot appeared capable of causing a major international incident.
"Cambridge draw level at Hodogaya"
C&O golfers were once again most fortunate to play the annual summer tournament at Hodogaya Country Club in Yokohama thanks to the several members who are also Hodogaya members. Hodogaya is a beautiful course that was generously laid out at a time when wide open spaces were available near the capital and is further distinguished by a fine club house designed by C&O member Hidehiro Takaki (Gonville & Caius, Cambridge 1927).
The rather peculiarly named Agnes Hotel (the owner's name spelt backwards, apparently) came with strong recommendations from the British Chamber of Commerce in Japan, so we booked it without hesitation for our March dinner. It's a small, elegant, modern place, and the high-ceilinged "Agnes Hall" fitted our needs perfectly. One felt that the manager and his staff had gone out of their way to provide us with good homely fare of a high standard at an extremely reasonable price (\5,500 including drinks - the menu is attached below).
"Cambridge romp home"
This year's Spring Golf Match took place in balmy Spring weather at the Taiheiyo Club, Gotemba Course, on Saturday, 16th March 2002, and was kindly organised by Guy Heald (Queens', Cambridge). The Cambridge's best four beat Oxford's by 30 (net) strokes thus bringing the abridged (records prior to 1989 are not available) history of the Varsity match to Cambridge 9, Oxford 10.