A mixed team of 12 RPGC players took part in the annual match against a team from the David Lloyd Hampton (DLH) club on Saturday the 4^th of October 2025.  This fixture has been played for more than 10 years against a team from DLH, which used to be known as Amida.  The DLH team held the honours for the competition winning at home last year and hoping to retain the bragging rights on their visit to Richmond Park this year. 

The match was played on the Duke’s course, with the women playing from the red tees and the men from the whites on what was a very windy day, as the tail end of storm Amy closed some of the public parks across London but not the Duke’s course.  To the credit of all players who had signed up for this fixture, and despite the yellow weather warning, they turned up for the challenge and after a morning roll and a hot drink we headed to the first tee at 9.15am to begin the first of 6 four ball better ball games.  It was thankfully a dry day but at times the wind was gusting very strongly which made standing still to hit the ball a bit of a challenge at times. 

The first Richmond Park team of Bella Mahale and Russell Stewart came out of the blocks really quickly and were 6 holes up at the turn finally winning 7 & 6.  The second game, played by Joan Mulcahy and Simon Russett, was much tighter for the front nine but they then dominated on the back nine and won 3 & 2.  The third team of Monique Hubaille and Sajid Khan had an even tighter game but won on the last hole.  Team four, Seema Sandhu and Ed Hall, had an easier time of it and were four holes up by the fifth, eventually winning 6 & 4.  Team five, Ellie Rhodes and Maher Sharma had a similar dominant round and finally won out 4 & 3.  Team six comprising Jayne Maxwell and Richard Owen were up against much stiffer opposition (including the DLH long hitting lady captain) and lost their game after 15 holes, so a drop of consolation was taken by the DLH team.  So, overall, a big win for Richmond Park taking 5 of the 6 games to win the day. 

Pizza was thankfully consumed at the end as we warmed up after the first real taste of chilly Autumn weather.   All games were played in good spirit and the DLH team were generally impressed with the course and enjoyed the challenge but perhaps, not the result!   

Home advantage was a big advantage in this match.  Again, well done to everyone for braving the elements to play.   Unfortunately, we were unable to get everybody in the picture (below) – this is the best we have.