Inter-Livery Mini Golf

Where Every Stroke is an Adventure- We Putt Up or Shut Up!!! 

Photo credit: The Author

Livery Companies were originally established as an approach to protect their craft from 'rogue traders' and ensure anyone practicing the trade were producing quality goods. The Founders' Company began its existence as one of the early medieval "guilds" formed by members of various crafts or trades in the City of London. Their main purpose was to defend the craft against unfair competition, to assist its members in their work, to help those in distress and to promote and control education. Founders were workers in brass and brass alloys or tinplate known as "Iatten" or "laton", producing small cast articles such as candlesticks and pots and pans. 

Well, a few Founder members put away any notion of brass pots and bronze bells, to become ‘rogue traders’, replacing metal for plastic heads of a somewhat dubious golf club at the minigolf venue, The Puttshack.

Yes, the annual Inter-Livery Minigolf tournament  had arrived, where no quarter was given, the competition fierce and rivalry unmatched.  Blood on the plastic greens was there for all to see, mainly from one of the Founder members who (yes, Aj) promptly tripped up on the course, almost landing in A&E!!! 

Harvey, Les, Harry and Aj rolled up their sleeves and went into battle for the honour of the Founders.  Located in bustling Central London, our Bank venue was beautifully surrounded by the grand architecture of the historic No. 1 Poultry building.  This set the scene for the Founder’s charge.  Who needs the Ryder Cup! I think even Sam Ryder would have been proud, as we navigated the crazy, tech-infused mini golf course, named Ruby. It was high stakes and 9 holes of sheer drama, battling the giant Beer Pong hole and even attempting hole 7 ‘Pop the Question’ trivia hole where you’d gain or lose points based on correctly answering very very random questions!  We even had a hole where you could write a new song for Ed Sheeran on the drums and symbols, by bouncing your golf ball in a totally random way, in an attempt to get a hole in one!  The Founders team were magnificent winning plaudits, from all those who bothered to watch us! 

The results

We got the news in the hours following, we had won! Surely not.  The Founders, winning the Inter-Livery competition. Could it be?  We knew we had done well, as all four of us had scored well and consistently with an overall score of 1464, only to be told two hours later, sadly, that the Worshipful Company of Insurers had questioned the result, showing an image of the electronic score stating a score of 1481, but no score card had been handed in! In normal golf, a golf player is disqualified for submitting an incorrect scorecard in a few ways: signing for a score on any hole that is lower than the actual score, failing to sign the scorecard, or failing to have the scorecard signed by the player's marker. They can be disqualified for no scorecard at all too!!!  The Insurers were awarded the win by the organisers in good faith, beating the Founders by just 17 points.  So close but alas so far, finishing second on the podium was no mean feat.  We fight another day.  Back to training for next year, as if you could really train for minigolf.  Congratulations to the Insurers and well deserved. Needing insurance is like needing a parachute. If it isn’t there the first time, chances are you won’t be needing it again. The old ones are always the best ones!  Thank you to Chiles and all the organisers for a great evening and thanks to the Founders Team, a creditable second place of 22 teams!

Dr Ajay Sharman and Harvey Pearce, Founders