But it was to no avail. The Americans seem to have been defeated by a combination of the requirement to wear a coat and tie in order to eat and drink in the clubhouse and the ability of the Rest of the World team to consume liberal quantities of Pimms, claret, roast beef and treacle pudding and then to wash it all down with Kummel before the second eighteen holes. It was the first time many of them had been out-lunched and played 36 holes in a day, with or without buggies. There is talk of a rematch in the US next year at a venue to be agreed. It is hoped that next time there will be better control of the finances.
More informed observers know it was just a hot, but agreeable, day.
And celebrating alongside his colleagues was one of the founding partners, Nick Healy, still practising law in the firm he started in 1948 with Allan Baillie and, at that time, a third partner, O Taft Nelson. Back then, the firm operated from a small office at 52 Broadway with just two young women acting as secretaries, receptionists and book-keepers. As they say on Broadway, it has been a good run. Ian is the immediate past president of the Australian and New Zealand MLA and has moved from Finlaysons, where he spent thirteen years, to establish his own firm. Marianne Piris joins from the in-house legal department of UBAF Bank, a subsidiary of Credit Lyonais, and Jaques Le Vaillant has joined the firm to practise shipping and commercial litigation.