Andrew Westmore, match manager for 40 years now, writes of this marvellous fixture which started as a ‘Blasters’ match and became a central part of LUGS life
2025 marked 40 years since the inaugural fixture and it was celebrated in a style that LUGS do to perfection…… not only were the breakfast accompaniments of port and brandy consumed with alacrity but this year we supplied English fizz at the half way hut. Whether the latter aided the golf was, of course, debatable. The essential element of this fixture is the camaraderie that has built up over the years and it was very evident today.
It seems a long time ago (October 1985) that my phone rang and Nick Kershaw (university captain 1985/6) enquired whether I’d like to play at Berkhamsted on Saturday. My response was instant and so was his “ find 7 other players and you’re captain.” In theory the fixture was a “ Blasters Match” – the university second team, and the alumni stepping in was supposedly for 12 months with the fixture then reverting to the University. After the match John Chester the Berkhamsted match manager suggested that the Club would rather we return than the undergraduates and 40 years on we’re still going strong.
It was a different world in 1985; mobile phones didn’t exist, the average cost of a pint was 83p; it was the year of Live Aid, Everton won the First Division, Bernhard Langer was Masters Champion, Sandy Lyle inspired by winning the Berkhamsted Trophy in 1977 moved on to winning The Open and a 17 year old Boris Becker won Wimbledon for the first time. The biggest grossing film of the year was “Back to the Future” and Sir Clive Sinclair launched the first battery operated car – the Sinclair C5. The C5 was in production for a mere 7 months yet here we are in 2025 with around 23% of all new car sales being electric vehicles.
Ah yes – where was I……………..Berkhamsted is a wonderful natural heathland golf course and, with a new head greenskeeper, the greens were magnificent with the ball rolling at pace and never deviating from the line on which it was struck. The long hot summer has taken its toll on Hertfordshire golf course fairways with Berkhamsted and Hadley Wood being almost unique in the county in not requiring “preferred lies.” The matches were closely contested with all bar one lasting to at least the 17th hole and in the absence of the old dream team of Leo and Henry (but did they ever secure a point at Berko?) a new and altogether more formidable pairing took to the course. Raisbeck and Collingwood struck the ball with power and precision to bring home a welcome point with mutterings of 3 consecutive birdies – clearly a game with which many of us are not familiar. Sadly the overall match score was 3.5 – 2.5 in Berkhamsted’s favour but the good news is that we’ll be back next year.
| LUGS | Berkhamsted | ||
| Mark Wheelhouse/Ed Williams | 2/1 | Michael Walker/Stephen Wilkinson | |
| Andrew Westmore/Gorm Nielsen | Peter Hadden/Mark Williams | 2up | |
| Ian Raisbeck/Josh Collingwood | 2/1 | David Highfield/Gerald McKenna | |
| Mike Edwards/Jeremy Smith | Julian Omerod/Andrew Clarke | 2up | |
| Jonathan Lavelle/Kaihan Mobed | Andrew Pond/Stephen Jones | 5/4 | |
| John Magnin/Thomas Dvorak | ½ | Stephen Titford/Peter Flowers | ½ |
| 2 ½ | 3 ½ | ||
Berkhamsted win 3 ½ to 2 ½
London University Golfing Society 