Ichihara 2010 Panorama The scene that welcomed our eleven participants as they blinked into the rising sun from the clubhouse early on the morning of Saturday November 6th at Fuji OGM Golf Club Ichihara summed up all that makes golf in Japan at this time of year so magical: a crisp bright morning, a broad vista of lakes, sculpted fairways lined with trees boasting every conceivable shade of Autumnal hues – copper, rust, gold-vermilion - with the sun just starting to burn off gossamer wafts of mist, take the edge off the 7am chill and dry out the dew that carpeted the practice putting green. “Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness” and it would not have been surprising to have seen John Keats himself stroll around the corner in his plus fours whistling a merry tune, mashie niblick in hand….

Ichihara 2010 Woods The course was in good condition despite the hot blast of August which had put paid to many a more prestigious course’s greens this year. The early start had raised the eyebrows of at least one of our members but once the golf began in earnest all thoughts of sleep were soon forgotten.

We were glad to welcome back Stephen Gomersall whose keenness at golf is now clearly matched by his alacrity at digital photography. Thanks Stephen for your set of photographs which wonderfully capture the spirit of the day. At lunchtime there were few people boasting good scoring apart from Oxford’s Steven Thomas who had stroked it around in a nonchalant one over par gross. The lunch break clearly improved performance with some beer-fuelled comebacks, some imperious striking off the tee from our Hon Sec Terry Nakamura, and random adventures in the countryside from public affairs entrepreneur John Sunley.

Ichihara 2010 Group Photo 1 In the end it was a close-run thing with three players (Steven Thomas, Simon Dalby and Yasuzo Takeno) sharing the same score of 76, and Simon Dalby from Trinity Hall Cambridge just shaving the victory on the basis of a better back nine…and lower handicap.

Alas for Cambridge, the next best five scores all hailed from Oxford which gave them a thumping win in the Varsity Match and an overall lead of 22-15.

Ichihara 2010 Group Photo 2 All enjoyed a special day and we look forward to the Spring Meeting which will be held on Saturday 26 March 2011 at Hodogaya CC.

Simon Dalby (Trinity Hall, Cambridge 1977)