The Lawrence & Lovatt Broadsheet
Episode 4: June 21st 2026
The Amateur Golf Match
This is prime season. There is a staggering array of sport on offer for the armchair enthusiast. Tennis at Queen’s Club. Royal Ascot. Test match cricket. Women’s T20 World Cup cricket. The US Open golf. And, the biggest of the lot: the football World Cup. Each of these warrants a broadsheet of their own and may very well do so, but tonight I’m writing about an amateur golf match. The type of sporting event that happens at golf clubs up and down the country on a daily basis.
Whether one’s handicap is 3 or 23, golf matches against opponents familiar or unfamiliar sharpen one’s senses and add to the enjoyment of a round of golf. A formality is added by the competition. Rules must be respected. Opponents must be respected. Even partners and teammates. The course too.
Last week’s opposition were the Bluemantle’s Cricket Club Golf Society. A bunch of washed-up old cricketers that are no longer able to play their favoured sport and have thus retired to golf! It’s not that they can no longer play, more that they can no longer play to the standards of yesteryear. Fielding is often the real giveaway. It looks innocuous standing in the field picking up the ball when it comes your way and throwing it back to the ‘keeper. The reality is so different. I can barely put my socks on in the morning, I am that stiff. (Quiet at the back!!) So, bending down when a cricket ball is crunched at me along the ground is no longer the swoop, pick-up and throw in one motion, that it once was. Often the ball would be bouncing and miss my ‘bread-basket’ hands and crack me on the knee or shin, much to the amusement of my teammates.
Batting and bowling are affected too but we learn to adapt. We become ‘cannier’ bowlers and improvise when batting: less power, more guile. When fielding though, there is nowhere to hide.
Anyway, this was a golf match. My team were also comprised of cricketers. Cherrypicked because of their love of the game. John Arlott, that cricketing wordsmith, said “All cricketers are cricketers. None the less so for not being ‘first class’ which is no more than a statistical distinction.” I think he was right and this shared bond – a love of cricket and all that it represents - was evident at this golf match.
We were to play foursomes. A game played in pairs, taking alternate shots – one for the traditionalists where a sense of humour is a serious requirement. All but one of the matches were close but the home team prevailed. The highlight of the day then followed: a pint of Harvey’s to rehydrate and a hearty lunch - beef and onion pie, and treacle tart and custard, in case you wondered! Cheese and port too, ensuring we didn’t leave the dining room hungry!
There was much discussion about a further nine holes in the afternoon but with old friendships rekindled and new ones forming, not to mention the clubhouse hospitality, it seemed wiser to savour the moment with another glass of claret.
Floreat amateur golf.