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 first group of four players teed-off from No. 10 hole at 08:18 a.m. They were followed by the 2nd and 3rd groups at 6-minute intervals. Altogether, ten keen members sallied forth merrily and hopefully. Six were from Cambridge and four from Oxford. Unfortunately, our current President, Sir Graham Fry, an Oxford man, is not a golfer. We were told before setting out that the course condition couldn’t be better. However, the putting greens at Hodogaya CC are reputed to be exceptionally subtle and fast running – especially in the morning. No one could complain about the weather, though: it was warm and sunny, and there was no wind at all.

The first group finished the 18 holes at about 2 o’clock. Simon Dalby (Trinity Hall, Cambridge, 1977), a one-time Cambridge golf blue, returned home with gross 77 strokes (41 and 36), which no one managed to beat, so the winner’s trophy, presented by Dr Ohtawa, went to him. He would be the first to admit that Steven Thomas’s (Merton, Oxford, 1979) absence—he is in Hong Kong for the year—was a stroke of luck. Steven was an Oxford golfing blue and has long been Simon’s arch rival. Overall, Cambridge beat Oxford this year by a narrow margin of 4 strokes in the C&O Varsity match.

At the post-golf party it was proposed that we should explore, as a change, the possibility of an overnight outing for the 2006 autumn golf match. The idea was to spend a Saturday night at a country lodge and to tee-off early the following morning. The dates proposed were Saturday, 14th October or Saturday, 18th November. Peter T. Itoh (Pembroke, Cambridge, 1966) volunteered to find out what Nasu Country Club in Tochigi Prefecture might offer.

In addition to the two gentlemen referred to above, Simon Dalby and Peter Itoh, the following also took part in the 2006 tournament at Hodogaya CC (their scores are recorded in the C&O golf book):

From Cambridge - Takahisa Hashimoto (Gonville & Caius, 1967), John Sunley (Pembroke, 1973), Jun Kawahara (St Edmund’s, 1975) and Phil Robertson (St John’s, 1981)

From Oxford - Terry Nakamura (Worcester, 1964), Rupert Middle (Lincoln, 1978), Yasuzo Takeno (Worcester, 1990) and Yoshihisa Shimizu (Worcester, 1992).

(Reporter: T. Nakamura)