July saw the East Kent Masonic Golf association host its most prestigious individual golf day for the Geoffrey Gordon Dearing Bowl at the Ridge Golf Club near Maidstone.

The event was extra special as it also hosted the rearranged fixture against Metropolitan Golf Society for the prestigious Russell Race Trophy which had originally been cancelled by the awful March weather.

In all, 36 players took to the fairways at the Ridge with both the East Kent and Met Grand lodge selecting their 12 finest players to compete for the Russell race trophy.

Any subscribing member of the province of East Kent were eligible to win the Geoffrey Gordon Dearing Bowl and 24 members of East Kent’s competed for the largest individual event.  We also enjoyed the company of some guests who were prospective members into the craft.

To ensure a level playing field, the format for the Russell Race Trophy was amended to be the total number of Stableford points scored by the 12 players of each side.  This would allow the members from East Kent to concentrate on their own performance rather than watching their counterparts from Met GL.

Following a successful day where the rain stayed away, the players enjoyed some camaraderie, a glass of beer and a light lunch at the 19th hole.

Its fair to say that the results of each team were varied.    Met GL players occupied the top four spaces in the individual competition of the day.    

Steve Brown of Metropolitan Grand lodge top the day with 36 points. He was closely followed by Michael Fox who also scored 36 points but had lost out on “countback”. 

Steve Martin and Kevin Jones from the metropolitan team also provided a great performance for their side with both scoring 34 points.

Whilst there were some great scores posted by the metropolitan team, they also managed to occupy the lower end of the results table, and this meant that East Kent won the Russell Race trophy with a total of 347 points to Metropolitans 335 points.

Moving to the individual competition, Captain Leon Zacharow of Royal Engineers lodge in Chatham, topped the table for East Kent with 34 points and so won the Geoffrey Gordon Dearing Bowl.    Runner up was David Kirby of Trinity Lodge in Margate with 33 points.

The captains fine bucket raised £100.97 for the captains charity.

East Kent Golf association fixtures are open to all subscribing members of the province of East Kent.   Members or other provinces, guests and prospective members are especially welcome to join in the light-hearted events which run monthly from February through to October.

There’s no joining fee and you don’t need to have an official handicap.  The only criteria is that you enjoy golf and fellowship.

For more information contact golf@ekprovince.org.uk

Full Results Click Here

East Kent Regain the Russell Race Trophy