The M u tha i g a Country Club M agazi n e
July – September 2018
Front Cover Detail from ‘MCC Call to Arms’ from the set of “Out of Africa,” Courtesy of Monty Ruben. Muthaiga Country Club was turned into a Military Hospital for the South African Forces in 1917, but Club life continued throughout the War years, albeit in a different location. (Pages 22 & 23)
pages 14 & 15
C o nt e nts page 1
Letter from the Chairman
page 2
Letter from the Secretary
page 3
Membership Matters
page 4
Balloting Report & Finance Report
page 5
Roving Eye
page 7
page 6 House Wines & Messing page 6
page 7
Staff News
page 8 Events page 10 Forthcoming Events Chart page 11
Bird Quiz
page 12 Muthaiga Sports Round-Up
page 12
page 14 Derby Day page 16 Members’ Achievements page 9
page 17 Members’ Honours page 20 Opera & Ballet page 21 Library Book Reviews page 22 WWI East Africa – 100 Years On page 24 Reciprocating Clubs Reviews
page 13
page 25 Competition page 26 Obituaries
page 18
The Muthaiga Country Club Magazine is published by MCC for Members Editor - Yoyo Volak Magazine Production - Matthew Rudd, Lucy Muregi, Mercy Wanyeri, Diana Waithaka, Eunice Mulwa, Yvonne Magambo Shumy Ahmed, Vincent Ford, Martin Musyoka Contributors - Stephen Mills, Julia Lawrence, Peter Usher, Edita Camm, Barrie Thomas, Sophie & Peter Fernandes, Jonathan Sutton, Phillip Snyder. Design & Layout by Shelleys the Printers Printed by Graphite Lounge
Muthaiga Country Club July–September 2018
page 20
www.mcc.co.ke
Letter from the Chairman Let ter from the Chairman Letter from the Chairman
Dear Members
Dear Members, Members, Welcome to yet another celebration of the successDear of our communication efforts to Members. Welcome to our second Newsletter of 2017. Welcome to our second Newsletter of 2017.
concluded the selection of our Club Secretary late yearnext Club Secretary late last year Wenext concluded the selection oftimely our Our quarterlyWe magazine has become a regular issue for us to look forward to. last Its could not announce it of until the formalities wereit, completed. but could not itparticularly until all It the formalities were completed. It regularity is abut testament to the dedication the all volunteers whoannounce produce is therefore with great relief and pleasure that we welcome Rupert page 17 given the challenges they face extracting materials is from therefore with the likes of great yoursrelief truly. and Manypleasure that we welcome Rupert Elliot to Muthaiga and to the leadership of our Management Team. Elliot to Muthaiga and to the leadership other Members volunteer to organise other social, artistic, musical, sporting and myriad of our Management Team. other activities that provide vibrancyhotelier and variety to our Club life. As I write this, the Committee to host our understa Rupert is a seasoned with an eye for quality and welcome of financial y q Rupert is a seasoned hotelier withunderstanding an eye and welcome y for isquality q about annual lunchresults. to thankHe all is oftherefore you volunteers may the continue. Club pursuit an n eexcellent xand ceelllong eresults. nt ffind indHe tto o ttake ktherefore e tthe he C lu an isatradition Club nforward eexcellent xceellenint ffind ind tto o ttake aofkethe tthe heexcellence C lu forward in pursu that you as Members Club. Muthaiga diverse errs rrequire equire off oour ur C lu ub. M uth haiga hass a d iver Membership and we must
that you asaMembers Club. Muthaiga diverse rs rrequire eqon uirthe e offDining oour ur C lu ub. M uth haiwith ga has s aOfficers d iver Members Thinking about traditions and Club culture reminds me of recenter lunch Room patio the have a common simple one might well be: on understanding undersstandingg of ohave f thata pursuit. pcommon ursu uito.nAunderstanding sim m ple e o ne m i g h t pursuit. simple might nders standing g of of that pursu uithappened . A sim mpleover e oone nethe m ight well be of the Club. Looking out into the garden reminded me of some ofuthe welcome changes that have ‘delivering to the best of our ability day and on every occasion without ever being n g t o th h e b e st o f o u r abi i l i t y every d ay an n d o n ev v e ry y oc c c as s i o n w ‘delivering best ability and occasion ng to tlooks o the th helike bestitof ohas f our ouowned r abi ilithe ty every dfor ay eternity. an nd on on every ev veryyGym occcassion - witho w years. Memories of the rear car park have gone and the lawn space day The satisfied with ourselves’. e d w i th o u rse e l v e s ’ . satisfied with edsitting with ourselves’. oon urse elvepatio s’. and looking up at the roof canvas, it looked and Pinks are accepted pretenders to graceful aging. Yet that like nothing has sat there. And there we Theechanged Committee Officers every confidence that use that Comm min ittethe e and a40 nd years Officsince ers have hIavfirst e e v e r y c o n f i d e n ce e t h a w ha Teaspects eraym tnofoftake Thee Committee confidence we Comm mitte and and Officers Oftare fwe iceemany rhave sahave hveaother vthe e every evTeam coto idMuthaiga ence tto hathe tthat we have ha ave the Team Team have elected not change and changed. Occasionally (and only occasionally), we have taken on bold next eternal exto t level lev vel of of our ou ur others eteernathat l pursuit. pu uwe rsuhave it.next ext level levvel of of our ou ur eternal eteernal pursuit. pu ursuit. alterations and suggests We owe gratitude Fritz Wethe owhealth e tons toonsofofthe graClub titude tto oF ritthat z Walchli Wawe lchare li for fthe or his hbetter is stewardship stefor warit. dship off the the Club Club as as Interim Inteeri Secretary.
We Fritz We owe owe tons toons of gratitude gratitude tto oF ritz Walchli Walchli for for his his stewardship stewardship off the the Club Club as as Serving for over nine months, he was capable, sensitive and available to Members. He raced S erv v i n g f o r ov v e r n i ne m o n t h s , h e w a s c a p a b l e , s e n s i t i v e a n d avai i l a b le t o M em m ber r s . Serving for over nine months, he was capable, sensitive and available to Me S erv v i n g f o r ov v e r n i ne m o n t h s , h e w a s c a p a b l e , s e n s i t i v e a n d avai i l a b le t o M e One inevitable change is Membership. We have a robust system for new applicants, which is operating very satisfactorily around the Club the teenager he no longer is and upon finishing assignment, he a ro o u n d th h e C l u b like th h e t e e n a g e r h e n o l o n g e r i s a n d u p o n f fi nish h i n g the Club as s s i g around the Club the hee n no upon aro ound th he C lub like th he tteenager eenager h o llonger onger iiss aand nd u pon fi ffinishing nish hing the C except perhaps for the very young Members as my recent experience demonstrates. has been a good rest! We wish him well and a quick return to the beeen asked askked by his Doctor Doctor to to take thas ake been g o o d r e s t ! W e w i s h h i m a n d q u i ck k r e tu u r beeen asked askk d by his Doctor Doctor to to take take a good good rest! rest! We We wish wish him him well and and a qu qu I have two granddaughters sevenem and consider themselves grown up, tranquility retirement. Fritz. trranqquiilityy ooffaged his retire enfive t. Thank Twho htranquility arnaknq youiuility F tzf.his retire retirement. Fritz. tr qyou yrioof ement. Thank Thespecially ank you you when F ritz.it suits them. Their parents are both Members and the young girls often accompany Mum and Dad to Pinks to swim, eat more ice cream than Based Outreach Based on the the feedback f edback off our fe our ssuccessful ucBased ssed sfulon O uthe reefeedback h Day Day in iof nfNanyuki Nour anyuki ylear r,uwe w pclhan nDay tay repeat Outreach in lastt year, Bceahelp thtalive facedback fe obetween ur ssuccessful uccelast sstfuyear, O twant reeaplan Dto in Nanyuki N yearr, Mum would allow at home and unknown to them, keep the debate those who children atanyuki the the same will be largely but the social social at at around the sa ame ttime imthe eheooffsocial tthe hcial e yyear. eat at raround . The The format fothe rmasa tm larg getthe lyethe th heearsame bu same time of year. The format will be largely t s o a a e t i m e o f h y . T h e f o r m a t larg g e ly th h Club and those who don’t. hopefully supporting the from our Nairobi town base. hop pefu fully there there will be more Members Mem b e r s s u p p o r t i n g th h e event f fr om r N airo o b i to o w n b hopefully the hop pefu fully there there will be more Members Members ssupporting upporting th he event from f om ourr Nair fr Nair I am not sureGiven began but theGiven girls wanted to know why they cannot have dinner in the Main Dining the membership, choosing not easy dice is with Ghow iventhe thconversation e spread spread of our membersh h ip, ch h o o sing the next venue was n o t ea a s y but the e d membership, choosing not easy Given the the spread spread of our membersh hip, ch hoosing the next venue was n ot ea asy Room. I explained children seven years of age are not allowed in the Club Dining room. The inevitable Gilgil on 30 September 2017. Further details will follow in the coming months but Gilgil that on Saturday Sa aturdaybelow . F u r ther f fo llow n t he comi i n g m o Gilgil Gilgil on on Saturday Saaturday 30 September 2017.. Further Further details will follow f llow in fo n the the co question came, I defended theforward Committee. children below are not enough please date we look aswe many Members possible from Rift toMembers plee“why asse save sasuch ve the th haerule”. date and fplease fo tvoe welcoming Me bthat errdsage ossib bleold the look forward to welcoming as many ple erward asse dsave sato th h“Because e date date and fem fo rward taas os p Meemberrs aass hold themselves the ndinner not be aM nuisance other diners”. “But we are grown I was reminded. Valley, Kenya andand of course Members country are very Vallquiet ey, Western Watstern We Kenyatable eWestern mbstern ersnto ffrom fr om other ooff tthe heM co un nbters ry ar rup”, eom Valley, Kenya andparts of course Members coun Valley, W We K enya eom ffrom fr other parts ooff tthe he co oun n I stood my ground but knew I had not satisfactorily settled the matter. welcome. welcome. welcome. welcome. approaching as reported on page 5. have Th e Security proj o ecct Iis isinvited approothe achThe inhgeconclusion cSecurity oto nctea lusiatoproject nPinks aos ec rceand oonacpm, As soon as theThe elder girl wasproject seven, family at d7.30 announced others approaching conclusion reported page 5. The T proj tpis ios rted appro hingshe coThere ncluseioh n as astobeen rethe ported d on onthat page 16 necessary to which wee aapologise your ceessary inconvenienc ces Room to Members Mem m bce edinner. hich w pocleosgto yyou unot she and I were going to inconveniences the Club Dining for Her sister threatened war ifeshe necessary inconveniences which wee aapologise erssffor aoryr w inconvenienc tioseMembers Mand em mbthank rs ffor owas row hffor ichincluded w polin ogthat ise and thank yyo o dinner and we indeed close utorrent one. with But children and she soon cooled down and got on with forbearance. Concurrent the has been a very deliberate re-focus of attention to eaarancame ce. Concu wi ithchildren thforbearance. e project prea oajare eracnt always h a s b e e n v ery re-f f o c u Concurrent ce. Concu urrent with wiith the the project project has has been been a very very deliberate re-foc re-ffoc dinner at Pinks her andw Dad. thewith Club which magnificent despite the delayed rains. Our b grounds, grMum ounds, hich are looking magni i f i cent despit t e t h e d elaye e d r a i the Clubb grounds, which grounds, w hich are looking magnificent magniificent despite despitte the the delayed delayeed rains rai congratulations who passion tiions tto o the sstaff taff w ho cclearly learlyy havetiiaonp asstto soiothe n ffor osstaff rafttheir heir eemploy. m parly lo y have a p congratulations who clearly passion for their employ. s t f w h o c l e as s s i o n f o r t h eir e m p l o That dinner with the seven-year-old is one of my most memorable. She behaved way beyond her age and the subjects the AGM lastand the need some t November, Novery veminstructive ber, we discussed dAt istocu ume. sseeAGM dAnd thethe neted dNovember, fovrehas fo som e form fwe orm the last discussed form Nfor m bm diof scu uan sseeendowment d the thwho e need neunderstands ed d for f trust fo r some som methe form of an end covered wereAt incredibly wide Club aer, potential Member dedicated to the longterm our Club further is inheritage. Som terrm sustainability sustaindedicated ability of to llongterm ub aand nd theC sustainability of our Club ter rmoour susheritage. tainabilitySome C lub work aand nd oour rules from the beginning. progress with assistance from Roger Fowler and the Officers of the Club Roprogress ger Bebbington, Bebbwith ingtoassistance n Oliver O from Roger Fowler and the Of Roger Bebbington, Bebbington Oliver O If you have children qualify junior Members, I recommend you introduce them to Club etiquette as early and wethat hope to seeasthe project take thesee end ofproject the year. Once again, Members andoff webefore hope to the take off before the end ofare theasyear. Once aga possible for both their sake and your fulfilment as a parent. I could never have imagined how enjoyable a two-hour, encouraged to consider bequeathing appropriate gifts to bequeathing the Club even as we prepare encouraged to consider appropriate giftssuitable to the Club even as w one-to-one, legal fine dinner with a seven-year-old can be so enjoyable and I am looking forward to hosting the younger structures to hold the assetslegal and/or interests Members’ views andthereof. structures tothereof. hold theAnd assets and/or interests And Members’ v granddaughter to dinner when she is seven in December. experiences on similar endeavours are alwayson very welcome. experiences similar endeavours are always very welcome.
page 9
page 12
With best wishes,
ce Mulwa,
Ngugi Chairman N ug Ng u i Kiuna, K una, MCC C Ki
tchell
www.mcc.co.ke www.mcc.co.ke
www.mcc.co.ke
Ngugi N Ng u i Kiuna, ug K una, MCC C Ki Chairman
July–September 11 June 2017 April– June2018 2017 Muthaiga Muthaiga Country Country Club Club April–
From the Secretary Too many raisins in the muesli and an overly bendy gym mat…. These were the overnight catastrophes which lurked in my inbox this morning for solving and salving. “Never dull,” I declare to those who ask me what I think of this role! As one came from an HLM, extra care had to be taken! One year and 93 days has passed since I carried my satchel into the Secretary’s office for the first time, or so my calendar tells me. The figures tell me the From Secreta r y count is growing and we can finally put an complaintsthe are fewer, the footstep election yearthebehind us and look forward to a new financial year. Iappalling am delighted to announce
appointment of Rupert Elliott as the new Club Secretary from There is no taking doubtover that theourdemocratic adventures put a hole in the hospitality interim secretary Fritz Walchli. business in this city and Rupert's indeed country. We will shake off the shortcomings permit has finally been approved and he of 2017 look forward toeffect. great occupancy in the shape of, for now, six will take upand his post with immediate new bedrooms under refurbishment as I write. Seasonal room rates will In welcoming Rupert to the Club I would With the windi like to thank Fritz for all he has done in his show significant discounts for Members in the off-season and, to keep your of an opinion interim role where his steady hand guided strength up, we now include Continental Breakfast in all our room rates for issues, express an excellent performance with both cash Out-going Secretary Walchlinon-Members’ with some of the Members. We budget. hope that good trade from overseas onFritzthe rates your mind, an and quality above MCC Staff at his leaving party. The staff presented him withtoo, a splendidfrom cake and a carved wooden elephant. Rupert Elliot we has moved to us from the Capital Club will mean can protect MCC Membership price increases. With Nairobi and prior to that was running a large 4-Star great occupancy comes more ‘bums on seats’ and people attract people. In Hotel in Botswana. He has an excellent track record in short wequality are looking forward busier Club all round. delivering and financial resultsto anda was formally trained in London’s 5-Star market with international experience in I mustBahrain acknowledge that got Afternoon wrong. France, and Africa. Hiswe commercial experienceTea includes UK We really thought that, country houses of excellence. overall, you would prefer a handmade, to order, Afternoon Tea. It seems that Rupert joined his fiancée Heidi. pick the contents of your tea are preferable and speed isand thebyability to hand It is an exciting time with many new challenges and projects and I hope RECENTLY, A D we shall soon make a 180 degree turn and bring back the Tea Time buffet you will join me in wishing our new Secretary the very best of good OF F ER B REA KFA table. fortune. Breakfast at Pinks I cannot close without mentioning the highly controversial Snooker table the chafing dishes move. Members have reported depression and anxiety as well as downright to be. TP
at Pin
furyTheobald, at theChairman take-over of the Bimb of Committees
Drawing Room by this table. Others have leapt for Appalled by people joy that this fine facility has been located where people can see it and use it, disappointed to ha out of obscurity. It has been interesting to hear all the feedback, all of which an overseas Memb Icounts, am thrilled to take over ashow Secretary Muthaigathe Country Club, and to have been before the Club, not to come and to note very ofpopular room seems delighted to join a team of like-minded professionals and enthusiasts move. We are looking atMembers it. I certainly slot machines in the front hall While I agree with who, together, strive to ensure can take hope pride inthe their Club. only one venue for are more popular. My last job was with an excellent club in Nairobi and before that I ran a prestigious hotel in Botswana. I firmly believe that Muthaiga is one of the Please support next visiting chef, a Frenchman; Jordane brightest stars acrossour Africa in the hospitality sector, and I look forward to exploring ways to keep enhancing this historic place for the benefit of all 22 July. Members, whether they joined long ago or more recently. IApologies am very grateful to Members and Staff already as usual to those whoalike findwho thehave mag toomade long!me feel so welcome. My door is always open and I will welcome your feedback and suggestions. I am excited to get to work on the next stage of the Club's Until the next time. evolution, while ensuring that we preserve the values and traditions that make this Club such a great one.
Jacoby, here 18-
the argument that dispensing with br child-free environ
No waiters, tables no logic to layout, table not cleared as disgusting.AB
Rupert Elliot, Club Secretary
Rupert Elliott, Club Secretary
2 Muthaiga Country Club April–June 2017
2
Muthaiga Country Club July–September 2018
www.mcc.co.ke
www.mcc.co.ke
www.mcc.co.ke
MEMBERSHIP M AT T E R S With the down of a communications committee, thisreally page is devoted beingthere more are no Members to complain? Or are Club What? Nowinding controversy? Is Club “utilisation” so lowtothat of an opinion page, where prevailing moods and sentiments of Members on current Club “standards” so high that Members only have compliments? We can issues, expressed in comments and mails, are echoed. As always, we want to know what’s on only take things as we find them, and apologise for mind, and willdiet always your feedback. an your unrelenting ofwelcome (abridged) acclaim and (anonymised) applause.
PLATITUDE
INEPTITUDE
- Wonderful food… - Fantastic service… - Amazing ambience…
I don’t want gawkers watching me when I play (bad) snooker. Move the table back to where it belongs!
RE CE NTLY, A D E C I S I O N WA S M A DE TO O O F F E R BRE A K FA S T O NLY AT P IN K S … MAGNITUDE
LATITUDE
at Pinks
Breakfast at Pinks only is a mistake. Do away with the dishes and cook to order as it used chafing - Pinks is sensational… to be. TP
- Terrific Club… Appalled by people’s behaviour at Pinks, and be back - I so enjoyed my stay and will disappointed to have to have breakfast there… I am again next year… an overseas Member and come to the Club for the Club, not to come to an average hotel. FP
GRATITUDE
While I agree with the economic reasons for having only one venue for breakfast, I do not agree with the argument that economy justifies What alone lovely waiters we had dispensing with breakfast in the old restaurant in a today... child-free environment. RS No waiters, not laid, multiple trips required,and The Maintables Dining room is so peaceful no logic to layout, food in chafing dishes cold, lovely. The Visiting Chef was the best I’ve table not cleared as food finished, coffee disgusting.AB ever experienced. This is the best dining
in town. Monday nights’ three course meals (not forgetting complimentary wine) are the best value-for-money lunches and dinners in Nairobi… SOLICITUDE www.mcc.co.ke
I was looking at the magazines of reciprocating clubs and they are dull, dull, dull. Muthaiga’s quarterly is the best and most interesting Club magazine I think I’ve ever seen – funny, glossy, newsy, interesting, informative and relevant. Keep it up! [Ed: That’s more than enough, er, Repetitued. We get the picture.] But not everything is quite so rosy… [Ed: Phew. Some controversy after all.]
Where’s my cue? Who moved my billiard table?... M O R E G EN ER AL LY
I am appalled to find a billiard table in our drawing room, a place full of the
Your German has not seen Germany history ofsausage this club… and the saurecraut [sic] was not cooked. It When have back tasted ok ascan I waswe very hungry. PE the use of
the fireplace? Return the billiards table to the
snooker room…
Why is it that there are never any ice-creams inWe the fridge? any low-fat RH wouldAlso, likenever it removed somilk. we can
use it as before: for a glass of port by the
fireplace!
Not the place it used to be. WR
EXACTITUDE There are only three things wrong with Pinks: 1. Service. 2. Service. 3. Service. DN May I respectfully remind the Committee that this is 2018, not 1918. It’s Sunday evening. The Main Club house is closed, dark, uninviting – as is the Dining room, the Cocktail Bar, the Garden Room. Yet I am informed there are enough staff to keep the Men’s Bar open. Shame on you… B UT IT WAS N ’ T AL L B A D … Thank you to the team for a wonderful Red SERVITUDE Room dinner… It made for a special evening and a great meal. DB
No Bovril or Marmite in Main Dining – essential breakfast item… …and waiters too slow,Country givenClub the 3number of them. April–are June 2017 Muthaiga FINGER FOOD
CERTITUDE
Bring back our Tea Time buffet table!
The security! The entrance! My guests! The delays! This is terrible!
I agree with the above! If you’re going to serve tea and “tiffin”, complete with menu, please serve them at tea-time, and preferably together. We found that by the time sandwiches and stuff arrived, we’d finished our pot of tea, had moved onto gin, and were thinking about supper.
[Ed: That’s more than enough, er, Attitude. We get the picture.]
ERRATUM – Apologies to Nik Nesbitt. We erroneously published in the last issue that Graham Shaw is the Chairman of the Kenya Private Sector Alliance (KEPSA) when in fact Nik Nesbitt is the Chair, while Graham is just a member of the board. www.mcc.co.ke
July–September 2018 Muthaiga Country Club
3
balloting c ommittee rights, it would also lead to unequal eavesdropper spluttered into his latte membership as Members outside (or on as an unrelenting torrent of whining the other side of) town realise that they complaint ensued about the absurdity or their spouse are not using the Club of the system, and was hard-pressed b al l o t i ng c o m m i t tee enough to justify two subscriptions. not to lean over and enquire why on Makes sense then that one of them earth the person wanted to join the involved balloting – there are noand years, and her terrific diligencesimply giveswith up their Membership Club in the firstmany place. (Intriguingly, short cuts. is probably what has made the is introduced by their other half on the when Candidates are asked during their chairmanship look so easy. The rest of Finally, crucially, we urge Members to introduction meeting whether they think the committee have enjoyed and are half-dozen occasions they visit the Club take the time to examine the names of the balloting system might befriendly, improved grateful for her forthright together. #sadbuttrue Candidates when they are posted on miss her. #whattodo? in any way, they leadership invariably– we’ll say it works the Board and,Bring if thereback is thefamily slightest BOGOF (in current perfectly. Clearly, youit’s can fool doubt about their ‘clubbability’, to So now me, andsome I’d likeof to begin membership? voice any concerns to the All few words about the waiting list It’s been a quiet few months. A lull marketing vernacular) orSecretary. something the people all ofwith the atime.) objections treated witharen’t the strictest for wouldn’t prospective melt, Members. perhaps, after last quarter’s fusillade, Or, are if Members using the Anyway, butter as IIt is long. similar? and are followed up can expect to wait at least enfilading battle-hardened, occasionally Club,confidence, accept that they will indeed just say, and forensicCandidates analysis reveals that diligently. We really do want to ensure 18 months between being proposed battle-weary, balloting troops. Time bog off? Answers on prospective a postcard, please. the whiner is indeed now a Member. the selection bar for and being invited to attend a balloting to take stock, resupply and, where Clearly, you canmeeting fool all– of the people Members is maintained at a very high and will then wait a further level. twoasmonths necessary, re-arm, in anticipation of some of the time, well. while their names are It’s important, when handing over the made known to Members. future onslaught. foryour resupply, our year-on-year reins of any committee, toAs assure pointby to note Candidates and new Members have overall increases just is that there wide-eyed successor that “It’s a Membership doddle: The second no short cuts.20Members are fun, doesn’t takeunder much time, all been on best behaviour. huge Butter 1%.allThatare means, with strongly advised not to use their straightforward odd really”. wouldn’t melt, and all that. pretty Pricelessly, people joining every month that, influence to have Candidates move up Yeah,booth right. in a Member was in the next-door regrettably, sometheoflistusmore are quickly. passingHowever on friendly a coffee shop, overhearing aGail Candidate as many passing up. An early Paul has done an while outstanding job are Matthew Rudd your relationship might be with the Matthew Rudd committee is forcoming Chairman Balloting Committee Secretary or with anyone else being coached on how to filloverseeing in the the Balloting prediction to –pass that, while Chairman Balloting Committee application form for Muthaiga. Our equal subscriptions might lead to equal
house & financ e
finance
various initiatives that we hope will appeal to, and attract a better turnout from these sectors.
In terms of projects, we are as securing Membership entrance feesmaking Planning will commence this year and reasonable headway on our security as our annual surplus. Weexpect therefore we hope to break ground next financial project and to complete in early need to break even (after subscription May….on budget! The library projectyear assuming we meet this year’s has beenlevel. revitalised we hope to financial objectives. Several other ideas income) at operating Thisandwill present a plan at the next AGM later it take three years he and critical to this are also work-in-progress and we will year. will be the renovation of rooms to report on these in due course. Finally, we expect to complete the cater to all our Members, both local Mukutano Room this quarter, which The last financial year (ending 30th offer Members a state-of-the-art Wewillexpect to conclude The Club continues to and make overseas. good June) was a“ difficult year given I can complete the the Meeting Room. progress in our key strategic initiatives. this refurbishment programme in project under budget elections, which had a direct impact on So we have plenty of work in progress Revenues are on budget and our cash the next year, hopefully with minimal and ahead of schedule, but defining the desires and position is ‘safe’. We do however overseas occupancy. We are confident disruption. to add, high levels requirements of our diverse operate on very thin margins at three Needless that we are onbut theyou’ll rightneed tracktowith allocate additional time Membership remains paramount per cent profit on turnover. of occupancy optimise utilisation at all and road ahead remain our success Main will lie Dining in our ability to clarity on the ” and money fo to that. Our challenge remainsour how to increase including facilities, relevant to Members and sustainable satisfy these. utilisation of the Club, particularly the (which continues to struggle) and Main Dining Room and the sports for the future. Pinks. Feedback suggests that our food Dear Members facilities. and beverage offering has improved Gidoomal VVijay ij Gid The Main Committee had We a have identified certain sectors of the Membership that do not use we the Club and will continue to refineChairman this. House & Finance comprehensive strategy discussion frequently, and we are working on In terms of long-term strategy, in May that focused on the short and our focus will be to bring the Main long term direction of the Club. www.mcc.co.ke 4 Muthaiga Country Club April–June 2017 Clubhouse back to life. The modern In the context of three guiding library expansion (presented by the themes – clubbability, relevance Library Committee at the last AGM) and sustainability – the short-term Vijay Gidoomal will be a key in this development. financial destination was established Chairman Finance
4
Muthaiga Country Club July–September 2018
www.mcc.co.ke
roving eye
Wandering eye
Roving eye
No, not a poor movie of the same title about the petrifying consequences of illicit liaison. Instead, Eye wanders far and wide Television in search of more Operation Guide innocent delectation 01 Turn on the TV appeared since for discerning Members the emperor is on (with a capital M, of 02 To see live, according to the Siam right rear, choose after course). To China, in application, choose electric and opens at home, you can fact, where, if you think see straight occasional wise messages 03 If you want to see le point of view. According to the right or witty metaphors candidate Ling task into the, click straight lulu, reelection Yi within this Club are temporarily not the point. sometimes lost in translation, or plain misunderstood, well, try this TV operation guide for size…
Thinking of promises more honoured in the breach than the observance, what became of the lap pool? Or a Spa? Where’s our new Ballroom? Weren’t the squash courts going to move? Where’s our Wimmin Only, Flopsy Mopsy Cottontail and Peta Bar? What became of the revamped snooker room? When can we start advertising in this magazine? (Itinerant artists do, why can’t travel agents?) Mind you, some things sneak in, unnoticed. Eye dishtinkly recollecks firm rejection, over several decades, of floodlit tennis courts. Well, the lights are on, but no one’s at home. There are just two problems: they barely light the playing service and the courts are barely used. Funny, that.
Wondering eye Eye wonders what on earth became of the project to build a new Library within the Club. Wasn’t it going to become the nerve centre? A focal point for mums and kids, audio and digital books, coffee and warm fresh bread, beanbags and brollied terraces – the place we’d all want to hang out? Or, like putting your finger on mercury or seeking treasure at the end of a rainbow, is it something that comes up every year at AGM, inspiring a brief spasm of excitement before declining into more customary detumescence? Eye thinks we should be told.
www.mcc.co.ke
Roaming eye Eye occasionally has to roam in search of amusement. Once upon a time, Members used to tread the boards at the Club providing light entertainment and gentle merriment for other Members. Nowadays, Eye has to go poking under bushels (Braeburn ones, imagine!) to find the hidden lights of well-known Muthaiga Members, Cassini and Coulson, performing Constellations a two-hander, dahling. John Sibi-Okumo put them through their paces and the result was terrific, and well-received by sellout crowds. Mind you, “human kind cannot bear very much reality”, as Silvia proved to Members last year with her worldtouring, thought-provoking, A Man Like You. Perhaps that’s why footlights further afield were sought, for more cerebral appreciation. And, while one would very much want to see both luvvies performing again, this particular Member would prefer Coulson in Roger-whistling-Whittaker mode, and Cassini show-casing comedy.
July–September 2018 Muthaiga Country Club
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hou se wines & mes sing
Visiting Chef Jordane Jacoby 16 – 22 JULY Lunch & Dinner in the Club Dining Room Chef Jordane Jacoby from France has been working as a Chef for the last seven years and is currently Sous Chef at the Le Sud Gastronomic Restaurant in Luxembourg. Jourdane will be visiting MCC in July to share some of his favourite menus with the Club Chefs and to delight Members with a selection of his own traditional French culinary specialities. In addition to serving lunch and dinner throughout the week Jordane will be giving a Live Cooking Demonstration. Members and guests are invited to come and pick up a few helpful hints on how to produce exquisite traditional French food and to enjoy the three-course meal Jordane will be preparing for lunch. Jordane’s Live Cooking Session will be held on Saturday 21 July from 12.30pm – 3pm in the Ballroom with lunch.
PHOTO CAPTION COMPETITION Ladies’ Man? Mummy’s Boy? or Old Soak? The best caption for this photo of the Club Secretary bathing in attention at MCC Mother’s Day Brunch, wins dinner for two in the Main Dining Room, with a bottle of wine. Winner of last month’s Photo Caption Competition was Mike Jones. The unexpected, somewhat hysterical reaction from the little brat’s parents led Chef to quickly conclude that the sign was not meant to be taken literally.
Wines & Messing Bulletin MCC Water Plant In our continued and determined efforts to save the planet and ‘Go Green in 18’, the Club has invested in its very own bottling plant. We no longer supply any drinks in plastic containers, but filter Nairobi water, add fizz or not, and bottle it on site for your good conscience.
Laundry services With our recently acquired high-tech, industrial washing and pressing machines we now provide cleaning services for all household laundry and upholstery. Members are invited to use our state-of-the-art laundry facility but please allow 48-hours for curtains, carpets and upholstery.
Ground Clean-up
Cultivating the Unusual -
World Cucumber Week
MCC staff members embarked on a compound clean-up exercise to ensure that the Club’s environs are meticulously maintained and litterfree. Please let’s keep it that way.
MCC Duka
Cards and chitties became obsolete when cucumbers became the trending currency during World Cucumber Week. In celebration of the event MCC exchanged cucumbers for a Hendrick’s Gin and Tonic during ‘Cucumber Hour.’ 6
Muthaiga Country Club July–September 2018
The MCC Duka has expanded – to an extra shelf! This is to display the wonderful range of new MCC merchandise now available to Members. Goodies include, MCC logo tie pins, cufflinks and lapel pins; fun MCC socks, braces, striped ties, crested ties and bow ties, all in our signature pink and green and all excellent value. Ask at Reception to see more. www.mcc.co.ke
staff news
Long Service Awards A number of staff members received Long Service Awards recently. Congratulations to them all and many thanks for their dedicated and loyal service. They are pictured here with Club Secretary Rupert Elliott. From left:- Charles Owiso Banqueting Supervisor 15 years; Joash Anduvate Lagadiru Chief Steward 15 years, Roffin Kyule Mutambu Accounts 10 years, Milton Mungasia Barman 20 years, Richard Ngugi Kariuki Tennis Attendant 20 years, Moses Mugo F&B Supervisor 15 years.
New Employees The Club is pleased to welcome the following new employees. Rose Wanjiru Karanja Security Manager Rose has over 10 years’ experience in the security field, having previously worked at Radisson Blu Hotel and Intercontinental Nairobi.
Maureen Gakii Kirima Events Secretary Maureen has been involved in events planning for the last 2 years during which she worked at Bidwood Suite Hotel and Nairobi Java House.
Susan Atieno Otieno Private Dining and Functions Manager Susan has over 10 years’ experience in the Hospitality industry, both in Kenya and abroad including, Jumeirah Beach Hotel Dubai and Capital Club E.A.
Irene Wanjiru Migwe Human Resources Officer Irene has been being working in Human Resources for the last eight years in different areas that include NGO, Consultancy and Hospitality.
In Memoriam
Employees of the Month From left – George Njuguna – Gardens; Eunice Muli – F&B Dining (May); Peter Murigi – F&B Pinks; Daniel Mukwala - Housekeeping (April); Meshack Kiio – F&B Pinks; Paul Okoth – Maintenance (March)
All the candidates were proposed for their dedication to their duties and their cheerful teamwork. www.mcc.co.ke
It is with great sadness that we announce the death of MCC staff member Sammy Masila on 5 May 2018. Sammy had worked as a Driver for the Club for over 10 years. He was a popular member of the staff and he will be remembered for his cheerful, kind and willing personality. He is sadly missed by his many friends and work colleagues.
July–September 2018 Muthaiga Country Club
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events
Chairman’s Reception
FATHERS’ DAY AT THE CLUB MCC’s Father’s Day weekend was full of exciting activities for the Dads as they were invited to test drive Bentley Bentayga and Porsche Cayenne Platinum edition vehicles before getting down to some serious whisky tasting, generously sponsored by Glenfiddich.
MCC Chairman Ngugi Kiuna (pixtured left) recently hosted a Summer Reception for all Members to meet and enjoy a few cocktails and canapes and in the lovely Club gardens.
Special thanks go to Refinery Grooming Lounge, the Glenfiddich Team and Porsche Centre Kenya, who helped make Father’s Day at the Club a Big Daddy success.
Live Piano Recital British Pianist Hannah Emmrich gave a dazzling live piano recital at the Club recently to a rapt audience. Members were treated to an exquisite interpretation of intimate works by Ravel, Mozart, Schubert, Schumann and Rachmaninoff.
Mothers’ Day To celebrate Mother’s Day in May, MCC Lady Members were treated to a special, indulgent Mother’s Day Brunch and Fashion Show. After Hendricks cocktails our lovely Mums enjoyed a delicious buffet Brunch during which they were entertained with a fashion show by Mochez Models, live music and prizes donated by Serenity Spa.
Fortunately for those who missed her last recital, Hannah will be returning to the Club in August to perform again live with Opera virtuosa Agakura. Don’t miss her this time!
Hannah and Agakura will be performing at the Club on 16 August.
Ethiopia: The Living Churches of an Ancient Kingdom MCC Members Nigel Pavitt and Mary Anne Fitzgerald are pictured here after giving a fascinating talk about their travels through Ethiopia while researching and photographing the colourful Medieval history and spectacular churches of Ethiopia, the subject of their book ‘Ethiopia: The Living Churches of an Ancient Kingdom.’ After they signed copies of their book for Members. 8
Muthaiga Country Club July–September 2018
www.mcc.co.ke
events
Organic Farmer’s Market
Sunday 22 September 2018 Centenary Lawn 11.00am – 6.00pm
The last Organic Farmer’s Market attracted a wholesome crowd of healthy-living Members and a good turn-out of vendors offering Members and friends a wide range of natural, organic and home-made produce. The Club will be hosting another Organic Market in September. Any Members interested in reserving a stall should sign up with the events team, and all MCC Members and friends are welcome.
Pinks Film Night Pinks Film Night will be screening a special Double Bill of “Elizabeth’ & ‘Elizabeth the Golden Age.’ In the interval between the two films Members can regroup over an Elizabethan High Tea, before embarking on the second romp through the Golden Age of the House of Tudor.
MCC Outreach Luncheon Kenya Coast
MCC Summer Music Camp for Young Musicians and Artists 9 - 20 July (Monday to Friday) 9am - 12.30pm. MCC Summer Music Camp is being created to give music students aged between 6 and 18 a fun, supportive and secure camp where they will be coached by experienced academic musicians who have a wealth of performance experience between them. The instruments and equipment for training will be provided and include piano, guitar, violin, viola, cello and, where possible, for any other instrumentalists that register. Music Camp will offer different programmes depending on the level of study, age, interest and ability of the young participants.
The students will stage a live performance on the evening of 20 July. Music Camp costs Ksh 15,000/- per student and includes tuition and refreshments.
Summer Film Camp for Young Members
1 – 10 AUGUST
6 OCTOBER 2018 12 Noon Onwards
Young Members are invited to take part in Summer Film Camp, which will be held over ten days in August. This will be a creative, instructive and fun opportunity for aspiring young film-makers.
The much-anticipated Outreach Luncheon will be held on the coast in Kilifi this year. MCC Member Julian Cordingley has very kindly agreed to host the event in the glorious grounds of his tropical Creek-side residence.
The course will cover all aspects of film-making from directing, filming, lighting, stage management, sound engineering and, of course, script writing and acting.
All coast Members are cordially invited to Kilifi for the Luncheon and any up-country Members who would like to make the safari to the coast, are also welcome to join. Depending on numbers, the Club will be looking into arranging transport from Nairobi to the coast. The Committee looks forward to seeing many coast Members and to remind them, that although they don’t see them as frequently as they would like at MCC, they are not forgotten and that their Membership is valued. www.mcc.co.ke
The students will work in a team or teams to brainstorm ideas that they can collaboratively produce and shoot within the ten-day period. Guided by Jean Akinyi, who has many years experience in film production and teaching, the students will produce a complete film using the resources they have available to them, which they will screen at the end of the summer camp period. The package is aimed at 8-18 year olds and will cost Ksh 8,000. July–September 2018 Muthaiga Country Club
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forthcoming events
Muthaiga Country Club Summer Ball So MCC famously hosts the St Patrick’s Day Ball, the Caledonian Ball, the EAWL Ball, the Oxbridge Ball, the Poppy Ball, the NYE Ball but……this September the Club is delighted to be hosting its very own Ball –
The MCC Summer Ball.
With bubbles, live music and DJ, a sumptuous dinner, a fabulous venue and theme to cover all ages, this is the one not to miss. So sign up for the Ball of the year and enjoy MCC’s inimitable hospitality and get ready to dance till dawn with a heady ‘Romp Through the Decades!’
Fo r t h c o m i ng E v e n t s JULY 2018 Tennis Tournament
Young Gladiators (under 35s) - 1 July, Tennis Courts, 9.30am
Dinner Dance
The Central Jazz Band – 6 July, Club Dining Room, 7.30pm.
Tennis – Junior Members’ Sports Camp
9 – 20 July, Tennis Courts, 9.30am.
MCC Book Club Meeting
10 July, Blue Room, 7.00pm.
Film Night – Dian Fossey & Bob Campbell Documentary
12 July, Ballroom, 6.30pm.
Squash Tournament – MCC vs Nairobi Gymkhana Club friendly
14 July, MCC courts, 9.30am.
Tennis Tournament – MCC’s Wimbledon Open Championships
15 July, Tennis Courts, 9.30am
Visiting Chef – Jordane Jacoby
15 – 22 July, Club Dining Room, Lunch & Dinner.
Club Night – Happy Hour (50% off all drinks)
27 July, Popsy Bar, from 5.30 – 7.30pm.
Pinks Film Night – ‘Elizabeth’ (Double Bill) - with High Tea
28 July, Mkutano Room, 4.00pm.
AUGUST 2018 Opera Night – ‘La Boheme’
2 August, Ballroom, 6.30pm.
Live Piano & Opera Recital – Agakura & Hannah Emmrich
16 August, Ballroom, 6.30pm.
Film Night – ‘Nureyev – Dance to Freedom’
23 August, Ballroom, 6.30pm.
Magical Musical Movies – Oliver!
15 August, Mkutano Room, 2.30pm.
Film Camp – Young Members
1–10 August, Ballroom, 9.30am.
Pinks Film Night – ‘Loving Vincent’
25 August, Mkutano Room, 6.30pm.
Squash Tournament - MCC Squash Challenge Cup
29 August – 1 September, Squash Courts, 9.30am.
Squash Tournament - Nina Bell Trophy
30 August - 1 September, Squash Courts, 9.30am
Club Night – Happy Hour (50% off all drinks)
31 August, Popsy Bar, from 5.30 – 7.30pm.
SEPTEMBER 2018 Squash Tournament - Junior Cup (8-14 year olds)
1 September, Squash Courts, 9.30am.
Tennis Tournament – Muthaiga’s U.S. Open Championship
9 September, Tennis Courts, 9.30am.
Boot Camp - Intense Physical Workouts
8 September, Fitness Centre, 9.00am.
Opera Night – ‘Zorba the Greek’
13 September, Ballroom, 6.30pm.
Muthaiga Summer Ball
15 September, Club House, 7.30pm until dawn.
Magical Musical Movies – Sunset Boulevard
19 September, Mkutano Room, 2.30pm.
Organic Market
22 September, Centenary Lawn, 11.00am – 6pm.
Tennis Tournament - Herring Cup
22-23 September, Tennis Courts, 9.30am.
Herring Cup Dinner Dance
22 September, Ballroom, 7.30pm until first serve on Sunday morning
Street Bash
(details TBC) Chairman’s Lawn, 12 Noon onwards.
Pinks Film Night – ‘Bend it Like Beckham’
29 September, Mukutano Room, 6.30pm.
Club Night – Happy Hour (50% off all drinks)
28 September, Popsy Bar, from 5.30 – 7.30pm.
Dates and times of events were correct at the time of going to Press. They may change post printing so please check with the Events Office events@mcc.co.ke when making your bookings.
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Muthaiga Country Club July–September 2018
www.mcc.co.ke
bird quiz
Birds Eye View I recently visited Meru National Park. The tall grass, following the very heavy Long Rains made animal and bird spotting difficult. However, I was astonished by the number of beautiful butterflies that were everywhere. As a change from bird identification, can you recognise some or all of the ten butterflies illustrated in the montage?
1
2
3
5
4
6 9
7
8
10
Although I saw fewer birds than expected, I did see three that I had never photographed before. They are not often seen, so can you recognise them? I needed help from a raptor expert to identify one of the birds (3), so full marks if you correctly recognise all of them.
Answers on Page 29. www.mcc.co.ke
July–September 2018 Muthaiga Country Club
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bow ls
Bowls Club 2018 mark the 25th Anniversary of the MCC Bowls Green. This March marked the 25th year that the MCC Bowling Green has been in operation. Willie Watson, our current Green Keeper, was a senior member of the Bowling Green Building Committee back in 1992, overseeing the building of the Green. Work to clear the site began in August 1992 and grass planting was completed in November that year. The
Green was officially opened by the Club Chairman R.O.B. Wilson in March 1993. Willie Watson, with his assistants, has maintained the Green ever since and turned it into the best Bowling Green in Kenya and the envy of other clubs. To celebrate 25 years of play MCC Chairman Ngugi Kiuna, Club Secretary Rupert Elliott and Willie “rolled up” a bowl on the same Green.
Bowls Report Despite the inclement weather of late, a number of stalwart bowlers managed to get down to the Green and actually play some bowls! The Club Trips competition kindly sponsored by Maria Cunningham attracted four teams and the winners were Ian Stamp, Peter Scholes and Linda Richman. Oliver Fowler, Maria Cunningham and John Porter were the runners-up. Captain’s Day Competition was well attended. The long mat game winning team and also the Captain’s Day Bowls trophy was Peter Scholes, Rob Porter and Lesley Mullen. The short mat game winning team was Mike Barker, Willie Watson and Graham Timmis. The Club 2 Wood Trips competition was kindly sponsored by Sheelagh Zagoritis in May. We had 12 bowlers playing in this competition and Oliver Fowler, Gail Langton and John “JD” Dawson came away worthy winners. The runners-up were Maureen Burns, Rob Porter and Seamus Burns Jnr.
MCC Green Keeper for the last 25 years Willie Watson & MCC Club Chairman Ngugi Kiuna. Club Trips competition from left - John Porter (Captain), Maria Cunningham (sponsor) Linda Richman, Peter Scholes, Ian Stamp (winners.)
Club 2 Wood Trips from left - John Porter (Captain) Sheelagh Zagoritis (sponsor) Gail Langton, Oliver Fowler and John “JD” Dawson (winners.)
John Porter - Bowls Captain 12
Muthaiga Country Club July–September 2018
www.mcc.co.ke
tennis and squash
Les Grands Poissons A number of our Senior (55+) players were involved in this round-robin Mixed Doubles competition. Twelve players took part and after three hours of excellent, spirited tennis, the ‘Magnificent Marlins’ (Rupert and Tessa Maclellan) eventually emerged as the outright winners with the ‘Brutal Barracudas’ (Manlio Blasetti and Ilona Guenther) following closely as runners-up.
The Wilson Cup
Hopefully, in forthcoming 55+ tournaments, we will be able to attract more players – at The annual ‘Wilson Cup’ was the very least, a few more members may have held once again at Karen Club. grown into qualifying! Muthaiga’s Tennis team consisting of six mixed-doubles pairs, had the challenge of retaining the ‘Wilson Cup’ which we won last year. Six pairs in two Pools engaged in fierce, competitive tennis throughout the morning. It was very close but, disappointingly, when both sets of results from the two Pools were added together at the end, Karen came through with a final score of 20 sets to Muthaiga’s 16 sets. Nevertheless, it was a lively, good-
natured tournament, thoroughly enjoyed by both Clubs. Thank you to MCC’s supporters for making the effort to drive out to Karen to cheer our players on. We will be hosting the historic annual Herring Cup Challenge in September, with the traditional Herring Cup Dinner. Tennis players, MCC Members and friends are all welcome to come and party from 7.30pm on Saturday until First Serve on Sunday morning. John Goodwin
Forthcoming Tennis Events
1 JULY
“Young Gladiators” Tournament for the Under 35s.
9 – 20 JULY
Junior Members’ (4 – 15 years) Sports Camp
Muthaiga’s Wimbledon Open Championships (Mixed Doubles)
15 JULY
9 SEPT
22 SEPT
22/23 SEPT
Muthaiga’s U.S. Open Championship (Mixed doubles) Herring Cup Dinner & Dancing Herring Cup Inter-Club Competition (Mixed doubles)
SQUASH Best Up-coming Squash Player
Fabian Collis has proven to be the most up-coming MCC Squash player in the past six months. Due to his considerably improved game he has climbed in the MCC rankings from number ten to number three. Congratulations from your team-mates.
Forthcoming Squash Events
1 SEPT MID JULY 29 AUG - 1 SEPT 30 AUG - 1 SEPT
Junior Cup (8-14 year olds) Friendly against Nairobi Gymkhana Club MCC Squash Challenge Cup Nina Bell Trophy
Weekly Mix-In
We would like to invite Squash players of all levels to join us at the weekly Squash Mixin, which takes place every Wednesday from 5pm to 8pm. Walter Kuoni, Squash Captain www.mcc.co.ke
July–September 2018 Muthaiga Country Club
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MCC at the MCC backed a winning day out at the Kenya Derby 2018. Front-runner in the hospitality stakes, MCC hosted a fabulous day at the Derby by kind invitation of the Jockey Club of Kenya and Racecourse Management. Tipped to be outright champions, the Club catering team did not disappoint the punters at
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Muthaiga Country Club July–September 2018
www.mcc.co.ke
Tom Fraser member of the Jockey Club and Race Commentator with MCC Secretary Rupert Elliott.
e Races 2018 this popular annual event and produced a sumptuous Luncheon at the Ngong Racecourse for Club Members and their friends. Flutterers, long-shots, alsorans and hardened tipsters were all treated to a spectacular day of racing with the unbeaten hospitality of MCC and the Jockey Club of Kenya.
www.mcc.co.ke
July–September 2018 Muthaiga Country Club
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members’ ac hievements
Constellations Time past and time future, What might have been and what has been, Point to one end, which is always present. T.S. Eliot - The Four Quartets I don’t buy hogwash about “multiverses”, but I’m glad I bought a ticket to Constellations, a play brought to Kenyan audiences in May by one of Muthaiga’s more redoubtable Members, Sylvia Cassini, of A Man Like You fame. Directed by one John Sibi-Okumu, Sylvia and newcomer Philip Coulson kept packed audiences riveted in an engrossing two-hander at the Austen theatre at Braeburn. It is a story of improbable lovers, told in the manner of revolving doors, examining what might have happened, what might still
happen and what is happening, in parallel universes. A lowly bee-keeper of no great intellect (Coulson) meets, falls in love with, separates from and ultimately marries a cosmologist (Cassini), who is inclined to wax passionate about quantum mechanics, string theory and the belief that there are multiple universes pulling people’s lives in various directions. Then she is diagnosed with incurable brain cancer. It is hardly light-hearted, and the audience is challenged with different views of the same scenes.
By cleverly changing inflection and attitude, both actors performed these repetitions expertly, and kept the crowd thinking. Together, Philip and Silvia were excellent, and despite painful themes, there were frequent laughs and both actors’ exquisite timing left one wanting more.
RJM
The Rhodia Mann Museum of Samburu Culture The Grand Opening of the Rhodia Mann Museum of Samburu Culture was held recently at the International School of Kenya where it will remain a permanent exhibition in the school library.
the years. With photographs and text describing Samburu District, tribal origins, social structure and other pertinent facts, the Museum is the culmination of all Rhodia’s knowledge, and is a tribute to a people she came to respect and love.
The Museum represents Rhodia’s life-long relationship with the Samburu people and contains artefacts, personally collected by her over
Hours for visits are between 9am to 1pm and 2pm to 4pm and can be arranged by calling the School office.
Warrior Boy Shortlisted for the prestigious 2017 Times/Chicken House Children’s Fiction Competition last year, Warrior Boy, written by MCC Member Ginny Larby, will be published in September. Ginny (who writes under the nom de plume Virginia Clay) wrote Warrior Boy for middle-graders, and tells the gripping adventure story of a boy from London who meets his Maasai family in Kenya for the first time, whilst his mother is making an anti-poaching documentary. Ben has a blood phobia but discovers, when he arrives in the Mara, that it runs in the family. He is sent off into the bush with his aloof grandfather 16
Muthaiga Country Club July–September 2018
and colourful cousin Kip to undertake seven challenges and discover if he has what it takes to beat his fear and become a true warrior. Whilst out in the wilderness, the boys find a baby elephant clinging to the dead body of its mother – brutally butchered for her tusks by poachers. They now understand what it is that drives Ben’s mother and vow to help her bring an end to the poacher’s trade. But when they return from their quest to find their parents have been taken hostage by the poachers, it is left to the boys and their bush skills to save the day.
Ginny has woven an enlightening story into a terrific adventure, made cleverly relevant to current times. Warrior Boy is a must-read for all middle-graders and a great stocking-filler for Christmas. Ginny will be signing copies of Warrior Boy at the Club in September (date to be confirmed.)
www.mcc.co.ke
members’ achievements
Colin Church OBE Former Chairman of MCC and Executive Chairman of Rhino Ark, Colin Church was been awarded the prestigious Order of the British Empire (OBE) award, for “services to conservation, the environment and the community in Kenya”, in the Queen’s Honours List 2017. Colin went to Buckingham Palace recently to receive his medal from Prince William, Duke of Cambridge.
Colin has served on various conservation and tourism boards in Kenya. He was Chairman of the Kenya Wildlife Service in 2003-04. He has been adviser on tourism to the Governments of Dubai, the Seychelles and Uganda and writes for a number of conservation and national publications in East Africa. For 20 years Colin has been a vigorous campaigner for environmental conservation particularly in Kenya’s precious high mountain ecosystems – Aberdares, Mount Kenya, the Mau Forest complex and Mount Elgon. These forests cover over 10,000 km2 of Kenyan upland. His most important contribution has been to profile Kenya’s mountain forests as centres of economic value, where humans can live in harmony with habitat and wildlife. Colin’s leadership at Rhino Ark is singled out in this award for having the most direct impact in influencing government policy and public thinking as to the importance of Kenya’s ‘water towers’ to the national economy. From 1989, the Rhino Ark project in the Aberdares was the construction of an electrified fence to protect the entire Aberdare Range and
its habitat. As one of Kenya’s five major water catchment ranges the Aberdares contain precious indigenous forest, National Park and, on the lower slopes, a farming region of huge productivity for millions of people. Rhino Ark’s aim was to solve the conflict between conservation of the environment and the perceived interests of farmers and communities living and working at the forest edge. This massive project resulted in the construction of what is the longest fence in Africa erected to resolve human/wildlife conflict. If all the wire cable strung around the Aberdares were to be unraveled, it would stretch from Nairobi to London. MCC Member, the late Ken Kuhle - a close friend of Colin’s founded Rhino Ark in 1988. Under Ken’s and then Colin’s leadership, from 2000 to 2012, Rhino Ark raised the funds - most famously through the annual Rhino Charge Challenge - and was responsible for the construction of a 400km long fence. It encompasses 2000 km2 of indigenous forest and high alpine moors, including the entire Aberdare National Park, creating a vast
conservation area for all forms of biodiversity including over 2000 elephant, the endangered Black Rhino and Eastern Mountain Bongo. The project was completed in 2009 and since then Colin’s work, carried out through Rhino Ark, has become a global model for the resolution of conflict between communities and conservation. During his tenure he secured the funding to complete the fencing of Eburru Forest – the first in the Mau range and committed Rhino Ark to build en even longer fence encompassing Mt Kenya and the South Imenti region. Over 170 kms of Mt Kenya has now been fenced. In the Aberdares, what began as an ambitious plan to save the rhino ended up by saving a whole mountain range. Its importance cannot be over-estimated. The Aberdare Range is like a giant sponge feeding five of Kenya’s major rivers. One in three Kenyans depends upon it for power and water, including the entire city of Nairobi. It is one of Kenya’s most precious ‘water towers’. Since completion of the fence, many thousands of farmers including the 40,000 families whose land actually borders the fence are no longer in conflict with the wildlife and a major source of the nation’s water is protected.
Once we in Kenya became aware of the value of our great forested highlands; many thousands stepped up and dug deep into their pockets to raise the funds to make it all happen. This is a homegrown conservation initiative that is captivating the interest of millions and turning the heads of the policy makers. It means every person has to play his or her part. It is no longer somebody else’s task. To me this perception change is the
Colin is pictured here outside Buckingham Palace with his family. From left -Marcus Church, Antonia Glen, Nicole Church, Colin Church OBE, Julie Johnstone, Tanya Carr-Hartley. www.mcc.co.ke
most exciting outcome of the award.
July–September 2018 Muthaiga Country Club
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members’ ac hievements
Royal Air Squadron Trip to Austria MCC Member Eddie Fernandes (pictured right) recently took part in a flying safari to Austria, with the Royal Air Squadron from the UK. Eddie’s son Peter and his wife Sophie and Mark Coreth, were the organisers of the event. Sophie and Mark’s parents are the late Count and Countess Coreth who were Life Members of MCC. Here Peter and Sophie recount the highlights of their high-octane trip. “This was always going to be an interesting trip flying, weather gods permitting, through breathtakingly lovely scenery to the heart of Europe to visit two of its finest cities, Vienna and Salzburg. Austria, besides its stunning landscape, is full of culture and is steeped in history. There is an abundance of beautiful architecture and extraordinary music. We hadn’t bargained on the enormous appeal of the trip and we amassed a wildly eclectic collection of 33 aeroplanes and four helicopters with 80 RAS members and their guests. A seemingly unwieldy squadron to navigate through the continental skies, but we enforced a strict sequencing arrangement whereby the fastest aeroplanes left first. This way we spread out along the route, which not only kept safe separation between us, but also alleviated controller workload. In the lead up to the trip we all nervously kept an eye on the weather forecasts, but despite there being a belt of low pressure and very unsettled air over central Europe, the weather disrupted our itinerary only twice.
Red Bull Hangar, Salzburg
The plan was to start from Bremgarten in South West Germany. The Fernandes and Coreth crews flew out ahead so that we would be on the ground to meet the rest of the squadron the following day. They duly arrived in an orderly flow at Bremgarten where we were hosted by Maxi 18
Muthaiga Country Club July–September 2018
Gainza (famous for his magnificent collection of vintage aircraft) and the team who look after them. Maxi welcomed us warmly and gave us all a tremendous flying display of his Corsair, open access to his hangar and, for a few lucky members, a most memorable flight in his Mustang. What a huge privilege it is to sit in the back and to be given the chance to fly such in an historic War Bird. Mustang The weather the next morning was fantastic, the carefully managed departure of aircraft to the east went to plan and all looked great for the longest single leg of our journey of 350 nautical miles to Vienna. We took off at one-minute intervals into stunning blue skies to fly direct to Weiner Neustadt. We all had the most fantastic flights over the foothills of the Alps with super views of the snow-capped mountaintops to the south, and the Danube valley to the north.
Over the next couple of days we had a wonderful, if somewhat whistlestop tour around the remarkable city of Vienna, taking in the Kunst Historisches Museum with its internationally famous collection of art, the Hofmusikkapelle with Mozart’s “Kleine Credo-Messe” sung by the Vienna Boys Choir and the State Opera’s Men’s Choir. The Hofreitschule Spanish Riding School where we were wowed by a magnificent performance by the celebrated Lipizzaner stallions, a visit to the stables, a dash to the Belvedere for a glimpse of Klimt and some even managed a leisurely horse drawn Fiaker coach ride round the city. In the evening we headed out to the wine producing area of Stammersdorf outside Vienna for a wine tasting at the Wieninger Cellar followed by more wine and a delicious dinner in a traditional Heuriger. www.mcc.co.ke
members’ achievements Wiener Hofmusikkapelle
Red Bull Hangar
An early start the next day brought together the inevitable huddle of pilots, iPads and weather Apps! It also brought for most of us a stunning flight over the foothills of the Alps to Salzburg. By the time we reached Salzburg the weather had begun to deteriorate. The original plan was to get us all landed and gathered at the Red Bull’s hangar ready for a fly-in by the War Birds - Maxi and his companions in their Spitfire, two Mustangs and a Yak. Sadly, the weather gods thought otherwise and the magnificent War Birds were grounded. We were, nevertheless, looked after like royalty by the Flying Bulls team with a wonderful reception amid the spectacular and immaculately maintained vintage aeroplanes. We had a behind the scenes tour of both hangars by some of the Red Bull pilots themselves and then a talk by Erich Wolf, the General Manager of Red Bull Air Racing. The following morning we went up to Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest on what was a sobering reflection of a very dark era of history told largely by very grim photographs of the holocaust in the Dokumentation Centre. The Eagle’s Nest itself, high in the mountains at Berchtesgaden, can only be reached by bus, a walk through a tunnel deep into the rock face, where there is the original lift and a shaft of 130m to the top. Sadly the weather had closed in on us and we never saw the spectacular mountain panorama.
Royal Air Squadron Tiger Moth and Cessna 195 in the Red Bull Hanger
flying skills and judgment but after about half an hour of scud running, the clouds broke. In Germany, the Fernandes and Coreth crews dropped in at Monchengladbach airfield (a tricky one to pronounce over the radio) on the German-Dutch border, where we were met by Hans and Giesella Windhager who used to live in Laikipia, and the rest of the squadron all made it safely back to the England the same day.”
We returned to Salzburg for a magnificent musical evening beginning in the Marble Room in Schloss Mirabell, with a stunning private piano and violin recital given in a room where Mozart himself had played. We woke up on Wednesday morning to very heavy rain, which prevented us from completing the last part of our Austrian adventure - for the Squadron to fly to the fabulous, picturesque Zell Am See airfield high up in the Austrian Alps. Instead, despite conditions being marginal, we set off into the gloom towards UK. The weather gave us all interesting challenges and tested our Royal Air Squadron in the Red Bull Hangar – Eddie Fernandes is in the front row right in red trousers. www.mcc.co.ke
July–September 2018 Muthaiga Country Club
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edita’s ballet and opera programme Our fourth Live performance at the Club in as many months this year lived up to all the hype with a dazzling performance by international violinist Alexandra Soumm, accompanied by members of the Nairobi String Quartet who made a guest appearance at the concert, and her mother Galina who accompanied her on the piano. I am planning to divert briefly from my usual Opera & Ballet subjects and start this quarter with a documentary about Conservation - ‘Dian Fossey & Bob Campbell’. This documentary about the collaboration between Dian Fossey and wildlife photographer Bob Campbell while studying and filming the Mountain gorilla together, tells the true story behind ‘Gorillas in the Mist’ and how Campbell’s films propelled Dian and the Mountain gorillas into the international spotlight. ‘Dian Fossey & Bob Campbell’ documentary will be screened on Thursday 12 July in the Ballroom.
Alexandra is pictured here with members of the Nairobi String Quartet. From left - David Ralak First violin, Alexandra, Emanuel Nacheri violin, Alexandra’s mother Galina piano, Ken Mwiti violin, Edita Camm and Alexandra Starpell cello.
‘Nureyev - Dance to Freedom’ This powerful docu-drama tells the incredible true story of how the Soviet ballet star Rudolf Nureyev defected to the West in 1961 and became a living legend. ‘Nureyev – Dance to Freedom’ will be screened on Thursday 23 August in the Ballroom.
‘Zorba the Greek’ La Bohème This recording of Puccini’s La Bohème is not commercially available, but this is the one that the MET relayed Live to cinemas around the world. Puccini’s tragic love story is set in the Latin Quarter of Paris among the bohemian students whose hectic gaiety only partially masks the despair and pain that threaten their lives. La Bohème remains one of the most popular of all opera with its stark contrast of lively humour and poignant tragedy. The new Italian virtuoso Vittorio Grigolo is irresistible as Rodolfo and superstar Kristine Opolais, is Mimi, who has been enthusiastically hailed by critics as the most compelling MET Mimi in the last 20 years. ‘La Bohème’ will be screened on Thursday 2 August in the Ballroom. 20
Muthaiga Country Club July–September 2018
My discovery of the year is a newly found musical based on the story of ‘Zorba the Greek.’ This is a rare large-scale modern ballet with a cast of hundreds including soloists, dancers, singers, orchestra and chorus. It was filmed live at the Arena di Verona in 1990. Led by composer Theodorakis, the musicians and vocalists are nothing short of magnificent. All of the fabled tunes from the 1960s movie are included. The choreography is both touchingly lyrical and buoyant. The dance soloists are all extraordinary and include the great Vasiliev as Zorba, Iancu as John the young American, and Savignano
as the widow he loves. The wedding scene is spectacular and the whole performance is a beautiful piece of ‘total art’ that will appeal to everybody. ‘Zorba the Greek’ will be screened on Thursday 13 September in the Ballroom.
www.mcc.co.ke
book reviews
New Arrivals AN UNSUITABLE MATCH by Joanna Trollope Sixty-four year old divorcee Rose meets Tyler Masson: they fall deeply in love. That is, until the family start airing their views. Could adult children really interfere in their mother’s affairs to the extent that they do? What mother would tolerate it? Aided and abetted by Rose’s elder sister Prue, it seems unimaginable that a family could provide so many unasked-for opinions. The theme is a difficult one to sustain throughout, and the constant back-and-forth judgements quickly grow tedious. Trollope usually shows incisive insight into her characters, but has rather failed here to produce convincing ones. The nagging and nattering are endless, unworthy of an author who has written stories such as ‘The Choir’ and ‘The Rector’s Wife’. This novel might be better renamed ‘Much Ado About Nothing.’ WALLIS IN LOVE by Andrew Morton Morton’s research on Wallis Simpson brings new evidence to this cataclysmic union between her and Edward VIII. Few wanted to see their beloved Edward married to a twice-divorced American. Morton believes that Wallis, a social climber par excellence, was hell-bent on becoming Queen. But - she played her cards wrongly. Briefly put, he didn’t want to be king, while she couldn’t wait to be queen. When she first received the news of Edward’s abdication, her response was: “You god-damned fool!” Worse still, there was no way back for her, although she did try, all too late, to ‘undo’ divorcing Ernest Simpson. Not even allowed the title ‘Your Royal Highness’, she quickly tired of Edward, whom she treated appallingly and who died without her at his bedside. Morton’s provides a brilliant analysis, probably the most accurate yet and a fascinating insight into a right royal scandal. THE PUNISHMENT SHE DESERVES by Elizabeth George George’s latest crime novel is like entering a labyrinth – the further you go, the more confused you become. Set in Ludlow, a suicide case turns out to be more probably murder. Requests have reached the Home Office for a second investigation. After the first abortive findings, Inspector Linley and Detective Havers investigate further. The students at Ludlow College seem to do little other than bingedrink, skip classes and indulge in endless sex. Suspects and evidence go round in convoluted circles: there are endless characters, often related, numerous sub-plots, and over 500 pages to plough through. The book is overdone at every level, and George resorts to, as she sometimes does, what is almost pornography. The plot could usefully be shortened to make a Readers’ Digest book of the month. WINTER OF THE WORLD by Ken Follett Not a new book, but one now available in MCC Library, this is the second in Follett’s recent trilogy. It opens with the rise of Nazi Germany, a sad and shameful period still within living memory. Follett focuses on the Germans who would not comply with Naziism, and how cruelly impossible their lives became as a result. Russia under Stalin, although Britain’s ally, had much in common with Hitler’s Germany, and families struggled there too to remain on the right side of their leader. Meanwhile in America the atom bomb grows nearer to changing the world forever, another interesting story that Follett tells better than any history book. In Britain we see life through the eyes of various echelons of society from the aristocracy down to the devastating poverty of the Welsh miners. As usual Follett captures the reader from page one onwards. Even although, like its companion volumes, it is a dauntingly big read, it’s compulsive! www.mcc.co.ke
BOOK DONATIONS The Library Committee is most grateful for book donations from Members and, over the years, we have received some wonderful titles for the Library. However, some Members have seized this opportunity to unclutter their own bookshelves and pass on unwanted and unsolicited books to the MCC Library to dispense with - so, we would like to write some guidelines for future book donations…. If you have book(s) to donate, please speak first to a Member of the Library Committee, rather than leaving them anonymously at the Club. Any donated books must be in good condition. As this is an English language library we will only accept books written in English. Donated books should correspond with the categories we have in the library - e.g. no cookery books. We cannot accept Coffee Table books at the moment because we do not have enough space. We are hoping to build up a serious Africana collection in addition to the Africana books we bought from a late Member - Roy Griffin. At the moment space and security preclude them being displayed, however, we do have a secure book store, so if you have any Africana books, please do consider donating them to the Club where they will be properly curated, displayed and protected. When we have our new and expanded library, all our Africana and Coffee Table books will then be available for Members to read. Patrick Fox Library Committee July–September 2018 Muthaiga Country Club
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WWI East Africa
100 Years On… By the end of 1917 the war in East Africa was a long way from Nairobi, and Dar-es-Salaam had become the operational Head Quarters. Just when the Allied forces thought they had the German commander Von Lettow Vorbeck and his forces cornered in south-east German East Africa, he broke through an inexperienced Portuguese force and invaded Mozambique territory – in so doing, he kept his troops in the field until the Armistice in November 1918. Meanwhile, the newly established Muthaiga Club had struggled to stay open during the War. Here is an account of Muthaiga’s role during the war years, taken from a manuscript written by an anonymous Member, that has only recently come to light. “The Club was not at first popular. Among its many criticisms, it was said to be before its time, too far from the town centre. In fact, we only got a Committee formed by forcing friends to join and serve. Eventually fourteen Members sat down to the New Year dinner in 1913, with all its trimmings, crackers, hats and a band. None of us had any experience of running a Club, so it was arranged that we would go ahead full steam during the first year, and lose all the money
during that year. It cost us £1,300 to learn the business, and it proved cheap at the price. Muthaiga Country Club had barely started to function before the Great War 1914 - 1918 broke out in August 1914. Nevertheless, Muthaiga Club had the best cellar ever seen in Africa. With the help of Members who owned a vineyard near Bordeaux, we imported claret from the first four vineyards of Paulliac, Lafitte, Latour etc., and so on downwards to the cheaper but lighter clarets and Burgundies, the Hock and Moselle. The Ports were fully represented in the best that could secured as also the sherries. Every liqueur ever heard of was imported and we drank the brandy recommended by City Banker friends. We also had a shop which offered for sale all the best chocolates - Charbonel et Walker etc., also the best soaps, cosmetics, toilet requisites etc. - all that is dear to the hearts of men and women far from home, in fact an Asprey in miniature. The Club’s Head Chef was imported for us by the Bombay Yacht Club, a prince of cooks if ever there was one, whose work was of the highest standard throughout the day from the croissants at breakfast to the fondants that graced the table at dinner. Nobody in East Africa imagined for a moment that the War would last more than four years, the general consensus of opinion being that it would be over by Christmas, a view widely held throughout the world, the only notable exception being that of Lord Kitchener. Under the circumstances it was not surprising that the Club decided to hand over its running to a House Committee. No annual General Meeting had yet taken place and it was agreed that this should not be called until six months after hostilities had ceased. This meant in fact until peace had been signed at Versailles in the middle of 1919.
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It would indeed have been difficult to get a Committee together after the outbreak of war. Although the main theatre of war was in Europe, the East African Protectorate had, as its neighbour, German East Africa. It was not thought that this, now completely isolated, German colony would be much of a threat to the British Possessions or need much effort to capture. However a series of blunders, culminating in the Tanga disaster, changed the whole course of the East African campaign, and enabled Von Lettow Vorbeck, the brilliant German commander to fight until the Armistice in Europe forced his surrender in late 1918. At the start of the War almost the whole of the White unofficial population enlisted, many joining what became the East African Mounted Rifles. This force, with two under-strength battalions of the Kings African Rifles, were all the protection that Kenya had. Most of the Members of Muthaiga Club were serving in the Army. Captain H.F. Ward was based at Military Headquarters in Nairobi and J.J. Toogood the Manager of the Standard Bank of South Africa in Nairobi, were the Members who, in the main, did the work of running the Club for the next two years. While minutes at meetings at the outbreak of war in August 1914 were very scant, it is possible to trace events. At this time a Full Town Member paid 100 Rupees a year, and a Country Member paid 45 Rupees per year. A Bachelor room cost 60 Rupees a day. The charge for stabling was 5 Rupees per week and, after complaints about dogs in the Club, it was agreed that they must be attached to the chains provided outside the Club. Since the outbreak of hostilities, the Club had struggled to keep going and had been run at a www.mcc.co.ke
WWI East Africa loss, but at the end of 1915 Captain H.F Ward offered his house for use as the Clubhouse in order to allow the Military to take over the Muthaiga with a suggested rent of £150 per month, and in February 1916 the Club was taken over as a Military Hospital and used by the South African forces.” From February until October 2016, Muthaiga Club housed the principal hospital that accompanied the South African forces in East Africa. It was called South African Field Hospital (No. 2) under the command of Lt. Col. Ronald P. Mackenzie and Matron Miss Janet MacLeash. The Main Club House accommodated sick officers and acute surgical cases, the dispensary, X-Ray room and dining room for officers and various storerooms, as well as the offices of the Commanding Officer, Registrar and Matron. The Matron and nursing staff lived in bedrooms at the back of the Main Club House, while the Medical Officers lived in small tents nearby. The main hospital was in a camp pitched on a knoll on the golf links in front of the Club where tents provided 24 wards. A four-roomed operating theatre, kitchens and dining rooms were also constructed, and a small marquee was used as a church. The dental surgery and bacteriology laboratory were housed in a wooden hut, which was formerly the Golf Clubhouse. The whole camp was lit by electric light supplied by the Nairobi Electric Lighting Company. By the end of April, 2,398 cases had passed through, of which 13 died. The most prevalent condition was dysentery. In October 1916, the South African Field Hospital’s equipment and medical personnel left Nairobi to be re-established in Dar-es-Salaam.* “During the time when Muthaiga was in the hands of the Military authorities, the social life of the Club continued at H.F. Ward’s house. Here, golf and tennis continued to be played and the bar was kept going. At the end of 1916 the Club moved back to the Muthaiga premises and it was noted in the minutes of one
Committee meeting that the Club accountant Percy Moss, was sent to Dar-EsSalaam to give evidence at the Court Martial of the Quartermaster of the South African General Hospital and to identify the property of the Club. This he had stolen while Quartermaster at the hospital when it was in the MCC premises. Nothing of great moment appears to have happened at the Club in 1917. Christmas Day seems to have been enlivened by the head Bar Steward getting drunk for which he was duly dismissed. The House Committee was worried about the amount of outstanding money owed by Members, however, this did not stop it from agreeing that Bromo should be purchased rather than the coarse paper then being used. During 1918 Muthaiga seems to have suffered, together with many other parts of the world, from shortages and rising costs. Following criticism of the bar profits the Goan bar stewards resigned, while the House Committee reports very heavy losses in Messing due to the low charges at the time. The East African Protectorate, as Kenya was then, had become a war backwater. Most of the men were still away. There had been practically no recruitment to the Civil Service since 1914, other than a few people invalided out of the Forces. A number of farms had been almost abandoned. Large developments that had been underway in areas like Nanyuki and the Uasin Gishu and Trans Nzoia had come to a dead stop. Club Member H. WrefordSmith recounted how he left his farm outside Eldoret in August 1914 and did not return until the middle of 1917, whereupon he found his head ‘boy’ sitting on the steps of his rondavel, still there and unpaid! * Taken from ‘Muthaiga – The First One Hundred Years.’ Original photographs reproduced by kind courtesy of Sue Deverell
The commemorative centenary Scrapbook, “Muthaiga - the First One Hundred Years”, is a hugely entertaining scrapbook encapsulating the life of the Club and its Members over the past century, through anecdote, memoirs and photographs. It is available to Members at Reception.
www.mcc.co.ke
July–September 2018 Muthaiga Country Club
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r e c i p r o c a l c lu b r e v i e w s
Club Members Barrie Thomas and Jonathan Sutton visited reciprocating Clubs in UK recently. Here they share their experiences and reviews on the Naval Club in London and the Norfolk Club in Norwich.
The Naval Club, 38 Hill Street, LONDON, W1 We stayed in the Naval Club for a week last winter and, despite the sub-zero temperatures and snow, we had a very pleasant and cosy visit. The Naval Club is a classic Georgian town house, built in the early eighteenth century. One of the first occupants of the house was the Earl of Chatham, brother of William Pitt the Younger. In WWII, the house was requisitioned for use by the Auxiliary Territorial Service, as the women’s arm of the British Army was then known. In 1943, Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve (RNVR) Officers serving in nearby Whitehall, wanting to keep in touch with one another after the war, formed the RNVR Officers’ Association and purchased the freehold of 38, Hill Street in 1946. It has been the home of the Association
and The Naval Club ever since. Today it is not necessary to have served in the Navy to become a member, and families are welcomed. There are 26 modern bedrooms each with TV, tea and coffee making facilities and complimentary Wi-Fi. All but two of the bedrooms are en suite, and all room rates include Full English Breakfast. Our bedroom was big enough – just – clean and comfortable with a good en suite bathroom and plentiful hot water. The food was very good, and the Club’s “legendary” full English breakfast lived up to its fame - but don’t be late, as the buffet is cleared at 09.30 prompt! The staff are all very helpful and offer an efficient and friendly service. The Naval Club has an extensive collection of Naval paintings, books and memorabilia
and, in the impressive restaurant, which has magnificent artworks of the Battle of Trafalgar, we enjoyed a very good dinner. The Naval Club’s location is excellent for the West End, being just off Berkeley Square, and within a few minutes walk of Hyde Park, Buckingham Palace, Oxford Street, West End Theatres and Covent Garden. We highly recommend the Naval Club, look out for special reduced weekend break rates. Barrie Thomas
The Norfolk Club, Norwich The Norfolk Club is a private members’ club founded in 1770, located in the professional centre of the city of Norwich, between the cathedral and the castle and only a short distance from the railway station. I visited the Norfolk Club with my wife last winter and found that it has a lovely old feel to it and offered all the confortable, traditional services and atmosphere of a provincial County club. It is well provided with six bedrooms, a small and cosy bar, which also serves food; a large dining room serving lunches from Monday to Saturday - we found the food was excellent and very reasonably priced
throughout. The Norfolk Club also has a comfortable library offering all the papers and free coffee; a television room, billiard room, conference and meeting rooms, a Squash court and car parking. The guest bedrooms are very basic and the bathrooms are dated. Of the six bedrooms only one is en suite but the Club is working on some major renovations to create another two en suite bedrooms. Nevertheless, the rooms are extremely inexpensive at £35 per night and wellbehaved children and dogs are welcome! The Norfolk Club offers a warm welcome and personal service, which
we will definitely use again. It has been through difficult times in the past, but with the Duke of Edinburgh as its patron and the energetic Baroness Freddie van Till, as the new Club Secretary making superb progress in revamping it and offering more social events, I would recommend that the Norfolk Club is definitely worth retaining as a reciprocal club. Jonathan A Sutton
Reciprocating Clubs Circolo Antico Tiro a Volo – Rome
The Reciprocating Clubs Committee is in the process of pursuing reciprocity with Willingdon Sports Club, Mumbai. Please do tell us if you are a Member of Willingdon Sports Club or, if you are visiting Mumbai in the near future, to recommend MCC on behalf of the Committee.
Forest & Stream Club - Quebec
MCC has also been approached by the following clubs - Circolo Antico Tiro a Volo – Roma; The Forest and Stream Club, Dorval – Quebec and Emerald Garden Club Ltd, Jaipur – India. If you are a Member of any of these Clubs, and have visited them, we would be very grateful if you could submit a brief report to the Committee to enable us to gain an insight for discussion in any possible reciprocal arrangement. George Sutton 24
Muthaiga Country Club July–September 2018
www.mcc.co.ke
raf - heritage & compe tition
SPECIAL OFFER FOR MCC MEMBERS The Royal Air Force Club in London is extending a Special Offer to all MCC Members, on bedroom rates during the month of August 2018. Members will be offered the guest rate, inclusive of breakfast and VAT.
Reciprocal August Rate (including breakfast) runs from Friday 3rd – Friday 31st August 2018. Members are reminded that they will need letters of introduction from the MCC Secretary to be sent to the Royal Air Force Club, prior to their visit.
MCC Heritage Exhibition A group of dedicated Muthaiga Club historians is currently working to create a permanent exhibition on the Club’s history. Their objective is to preserve the heritage of Muthaiga Country Club with the help of Members of today in order to entertain, edify and enlighten the Members of tomorrow. On completion of the Heritage site, which will be located within the Club, Members will be encouraged to supplement the exhibition with memorabilia such as historical artefacts, objects, and documents that celebrate Muthaiga Country Club’s remarkable heritage. Photos by kind permission Sue Deverell
COMPETITION Question: What is this (pictured left), who used it, and when? Prize: The first correct entry that we receive will win dinner for
two with a bottle of House Wine in either Pinks or the Club Dining Room. Please send your answers to communications@mcc.co.ke Answer to our April – July Competition QUESTION: Name the two people in the picture. ANSWER: Åke Bursell (Karen Blixen’s Estate manager) and Isak Dinesen (Karen Blixen.) WINNER: We had no winners for the competition in the last issue.
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July–September 2018 Muthaiga Country Club
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obituaries
Esmond Bradley Martin Esmond Bradley Martin was 76 years old
products.
Born in New York City in 1942, into an illustrious family of steel barons, Esmond studied at American and English universities, receiving a PhD in geography. He moved to Kenya in 1970 where he studied the Indian Ocean dhow trade and immortalised that work in his first book “Cargoes of the East.” The dhow study revealed a secret international network of illicit traffic in wildlife commodities and stimulated his interest in tracking the movement of ivory and rhino horn from Africa to the final consumer, an interest that became a lifelong obsession with exposing those networks of the trade in wildlife
As the book’s title implies, most of the cargoes moved to the Middle and Far East, so Esmond, attired in what became his signature Ivy League tweeds and silk pocket foulards, left his book-lined villa in Langata to follow those trails into the sleazy Oriental underworlds to study the source of the trade. Posing as a tourist or ivory buyer, he would visit the outlets where the tusks, having emerged from the carving factories as tourist trinkets (or in parts of China and Japan as serious works of art) were offered for sale. He would take photos, note the prices and count the pieces, meticulously recording his observations. Piece by piece through this painstaking, often pedantic, sometimes dangerous research, he quantified the demand and slowly developed an understanding of the illicit trade in
when he died at the hands of an unknown assailant at his home in Langata, where he lived with various wild and orphan animals cared for by his wife Chryssee.
Judith Essex Mason Born in Nakuru, Judy was raised in the Rongai valley. Her parents, Cyrus and Consie Morrall (nee Black) left England in the late 1920s as the Great Depression set in, and settled outside Nakuru, Kenya’s farming capital. After clearing the land, planting crops and building a modest homestead, initially of mud and wattle, there wasn’t much money to spare, but the sun shone and they lived active sporting lives, close to nature, amongst the wildlife and their domestic stock. In her own words, Judy wrote to her grand daughter Lucy: “ I went to boarding school at Njoro - there was very
little petrol available because of the war and once we rode to school, while our trunks went up to the station in the cream cart. The farm was the centre of our lives and we never went to the coast until I was 18. Menengai was a dry area and the cattle watered at small dams or off the rather unreliable pipeline (when the pipeline broke cattle had to walk 7 miles to water) so nobody ever thought of teaching us to swim.” After Kenya Girls High School, Judy joined the accounting firm Barbour Bellhouse in Nakuru and learnt the bookkeeping skills that she so ably practiced in later life. She married JF (Sam) Weller in 1954, and they took up farming in Molo, where Belinda (Walker), Sally (Burrell) and
Johnny were born between 1956 and 1960. They were a hard working couple, with Judy looking after the sheep and keeping accounts, but were also a very social pair and both accomplished equestrians, enjoying country pursuits all over Kenya. Sam took a manager’s job at Mau Narok (when the Molo farm was resettled) and it was here that Judy re-met Dick Mason whom she married in 1973 and moved with to Kilifi, where she stayed until her death. Throughout her life Judy was a relentlessly active person, always busy and always up for an adventure. Dick was a sailor and the girl who couldn’t swim was soon on
David (Daudi) Marshall Harber known to many as Daudi, was David, born in May 1947 and spent his formative years growing up on a farm in Sussex. He went to school in Kent and then followed his farming roots and studied at the Royal Agricultural College. He was an adventurous character from the start and at 18 drove through Europe with a school friend in his Austin A35, camping along the way. After college Dave took a job as a stockman, looking after a herd of Hereford cattle on a ship from Southampton bound for Cape Town. He returned to England as a First Class dining steward, on the HMS Windsor Castle, but his year in South Africa was 26
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full of adventures and it truly sowed the seed for his life-long love of Africa. Back in the UK, Dave qualified as a Chartered Surveyor and was offered a job in Dar-es-Salaam, and so he was off back to Africa, following his dream. After a period in Tanzania, he was posted to the Nairobi office and he settled for the rest of life. Dave was a keen sportsman and his early days in Kenya were taken up with racing a formula V motorcar around tracks in Nairobi and Nakuru, and later with rallying, but after a few accidents and a couple of written-off cars he and his rallying partner decided it was time to
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obituaries
1942 - February 2018 wildlife commodities. Then returning to his villa in Langata, he would write up and publish his findings. As his expertise increased and his reputation grew, his reports were broadcast by the news agencies and widely disseminated throughout the world. He was a frequent speaker at international conferences on endangered species. He testified before committees preparing legislation to protect endangered wildlife. At one point he was a UN special envoy for rhino conservation. His work dispelled several of the common myths about the trade. It was widely accepted by conservationists in the 1970s that Kenya’s rhino were disappearing to meet the Chinese demand for aphrodisiacs, whereas Esmond discovered that the Middle East oil boom had fueled Yemeni demand for ceremonial daggers
with rhino horn handles. Only the chips and trimmings were sent onward to China for use in fever medicines. He showed that a large part of the ivory from elephants poached in Africa during the 1980s, ended up as name seals in Japan rather than with traditional carvers in China. His work revealed that the trade figures compiled from official customs documents in exporting and importing countries were merely the visible tip of a vast unseen trade that was decimating Africa’s elephant and rhino populations. It is said that it takes 10 years of sustained work to become a master of your game, whether that game is chess, tennis or medicine. After 40 years, Esmond was a world-class master whose game has made this planet a safer place for elephants and rhinos. He devoted his life to ending the illegal trade in animal parts. His work
opened people’s eyes to the magnitude of the illegal trade, especially to the burgeoning demand from China, and it was rewarded with tougher legislation and more determined law enforcement in most countries where the noose is tightening on the traffickers and corrupt officials who facilitate this vile trade. Esmond played a major role in the struggle to save two of Africa’s famous Big 5, and he inspired the rest of us to help make space on this planet for all the other animals, birds, fish, plants, lesser creatures and greater beings that share this beautiful planet with us. Esmond is survived by his wife Chryssee and was a loyal and supportive Member of Muthaiga for 40 years. Phillip Snyder
February 1934 - January 2018 ocean-going yachts to the Seychelles, the Galapagos and, notably, a transatlantic race from Cape Town to Punta del Este. Together they ran the Mnarani Boatyard and then started Swynford Boatyard (subsequently Kilifi Boatyard.) Dick had four children, Jenny (Falkiner) now in Australia, Philip, Mouse (McConnell) and Charlie. Dick died of leukemia in 1989, leaving Judy a widow for nearly 30 years, yet those years were full and active. With her exceptional ability to make friends, talk to anybody and change with the times Judy gathered more friends and family the longer she lived, and she continued to work, both as accountant at Kilifi
Plantations and as sole proprietor of Beach Bums, her colourful leisurewear enterprise that started a fashion in reversible Kanga shorts. She filled her free time with Bridge (which she only took up aged 75), fishing and as an ever-elegant and generous hostess. Judy had a full and happy life, she is survived by her seven children and stepchildren, her 18 grandchildren and stepgrandchildren and 13 great-grandchildren and step-grandchildren. She was a Member of Muthaiga for 67 years.
May 1947 - March 2018 get a new hobby. So Dave took up wind surfing and Scuba diving and it was at the Nairobi Dive Club that he met Jenny, who became the absolute love of his life and with whom he had three children – Jack, Mathew and Laura. They married in 1992 - in a short excerpt from Dave’s life ramblings, he wrote, ‘We had Jack, and then we had Mat and Jenny seemed like good breeding stock, so I married her!’
In more recent years, Dave learned to fly, starting off with a fixed wing aircraft in Cape Town in 2003. This kept him busy during his first weeks of cancer treatment. He later learnt to fly a gyrocopter, which became his other great love. He delighted in taking his family and friends up for scenic flights, showing them the spectacular beauty of Kenya from the skies.
Dave and Jenny shared the joys of diving and were also an integral part of the Nairobi Hash Hound Harriers. He competed in the first Lewa Half Marathon where he came first in the over 50s category.
Along with, and possibly as a result of, his inexhaustible zest for adventure, Dave built up a very prosperous Real Estate business, which has been operating successfully for over 40 years. In business he was known for his honesty and integrity, and earned deserved respect in
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the property profession. He was a devoted husband and father and found deep satisfaction in providing for his family, of whom he was immensely proud. He battled his illness with fortitude and courage, determined to live life to the full, until the very last moment. His friends have described him as kind, caring, thoughtful and fair - a wonderful gentleman, a great friend and a privilege to have known. Dave is survived by his wife Jenny, his children Jack, Mathew and Laura and his sister Jo. He was a Member of MCC for 26 years.
July–September 2018 Muthaiga Country Club
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obituaries
William (Willie) Godfrey Garth Roberts June 1953 - January 2018 Brother to Murray, Jane, Andy, Jamie and Stewart, Willie Roberts was born on 27 June 1953, in Nairobi, to David and Betty Roberts (née Astell.) Willie grew up on Lake Baringo where David and Betty settled in 1956. When Willie was 13 his father died, leaving Betty with six children, the youngest only six months old. They had borrowed heavily to start a fishery and other businesses at Baringo but, after a year, Betty was advised that her only option was to return to England. Willie disagreed and refused to leave Baringo, he wanted to work. He ran away from school several times and had many adventures until Betty was left with no choice but to let him pursue his own ambitions. He left school and started working when he was 14, which made it possible for the Roberts family to remain in Kenya. Willie took his first commercial camping safari when he was just 16 - too young to hold a driving license but that didn’t stop him and he took his clients on a month-long safari around the NFD. It was a huge success and the clients returned for many years. This was the start of Roberts Safaris, which is today a very successful safari business run by his son Richard. In 1972, aged 19, Willie built Island Camp on Lake Baringo, together with Alan Dufresne and Jonathan Leakey. The camp was the first of its kind and was an enormous success. He ran this together with Sue Bainbridge whom he married in 1975. They had two children, Richard and Caroline. In 1980 they moved to north Mara to farm. Conflict between farmers and wildlife was devastating. The government policy was to shoot the animals destroying the crops. Willie decided that, instead of killing the animals, he should try and protect them and convinced the Minister of Environment to change the land-use policy so that money generated from wildlife could benefit the local communities. He engaged a lawyer and challenged the government policy in the High Court and, in 1991, the first conservancy on public land in Kenya was established. Many thousands of acres of farming land reverted to wildlife. In the words of H.E. Hon. Prof. Judi Wakhungu EGH, “Today Conservancies are established throughout Kenya and are recognised in Law as a land-use, thanks to Willie’s pioneering work. At an extremely young age he navigated political minefields and achieved all this under great political pressure and personal risk. We celebrate a conservation visionary, and a giant on whose shoulders we stand.” During the 1980s he developed a successful luxury mobile safari business together with a Lodge on Rusinga Island on Lake Victoria. In 1998/9 Willie put tremendous effort into arranging a private management team to run the Mara Triangle and acted as Chairman for the first three years. It is the first example in Africa of a private enterprise being given the responsibility for management of a major state-owned park. The Mara Triangle is now a showcase for wildlife conservation in Africa. On a visit to South Africa in 1992 with Ian Craig, Willie bought five White rhinos, on impulse, at an auction, with little money in the bank and no idea how he was going to move his new acquisition to Kenya. These rhinos were the starter population for the 80 White rhino on Lewa today - all entirely due to Willie’s foresight and indomitable confidence. 28
Muthaiga Country Club July–September 2018
On selling his Lake Victoria business Willie bought land surrounded by The Lewa Conservancy. There he built Sirikoi, a small luxury Lodge, and managed to convert a farming area back to a wildlife haven. In 2017 Sirikoi was voted Africa’s Leading Luxury Lodge (World Travel awards). The first time Kenya has received this accolade. Willie’s last project was in the northern oilfields of Turkana. He secured 500 acres of land situated in the middle of all the oil fields, and set up a profit sharing formula with the local community to ensure that they too benefited directly from the oil business there. To date 1,200 bursaries have been awarded to secondary school children and 540 university students and the Lokichar area has benefitted enormously from his support for women’s and youth groups. Willie had a tremendous sense of humour and a huge laugh, which made him wonderful company, he also had unshakable confidence and great faith in humankind. The wild NFD country where he took his first safari remained his greatest joy and Willie continued to take mobile safaris there until last year. Willie is survived by his wife Sue, his children Richard and Caroline and his four grandchildren. He was a Member of MCC for 26 years.
DEATHS
The Club regrets to announce the deaths of the following Members ANGELO ESPOSITO on 23 March 2018 SEAMUS BURNS on 11 April 2018 DR. PAUL BRYCE CAPSTICK on 16 May 2018 KEITH AYTON on 16 June 2018 If anyone would like to publish an obituary for a Member who has died recently, please send a tribute and photograph of the deceased to the secretariat@mcc.co.ke
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candidates being considered for membership SWEEPSTAKES JUNE 2018
CANDIDATES ON BOARD FOR THE 2ND MONTH Proposer Candidate Category
Eliud Njoroge
Peter Njoroge
Esther Ngaine
Alexander Ngaine
F(18-29) FT
Anthony Bishop
Julia Bishop
Brian Macoun
Prize
Member Name
Amount
FC
1st
Ian Sharp
60,183.76
Shamini Jayanathan
FT
2nd
Kevin Carrington
30,091.88
Dee Fox
Anna-Paula Jonsson
FT
Derek Steel
Vandan Rughani - Claudia Rughani - Jiya Rughani - Vyan Rughani
FT FT JFT JFT
3rd
Rodney Evans
17,195.36
4th
Kenneth Gibson
17,195.36
5th
Pamela Lynam
12,896.52
Ann Ostman
Hardeep Sokhi
FT
William Lay
Jennifer Barassa
FT
6th
Nathaniel Kang’ethe
8,597.68
7th
Charles Rubia
8,597.68
8th
Anthony Seth - Smith
8,597.68
9th
Ole Andersen
8,597.68
CANDIDATES ON BOARD FOR THE 1ST MONTH Proposer Candidate
Asa Jonsson
Category
Jonna Karlsson
FT
Edita Camm
Pepijn Steemers
FC
Zia Manji
Joseph Ng’ang’a - Nathaniel Ng’ang’a
FT JFT
- Gisele Ng’ang’a
U7
William Pike
Charles Kerich
FT
Prize
Member Name
Amount
Peter Kinyanjui
Kennedy Karori - Chacha Karori - Mary Karori - Irene Karori
FT JFT JFT JFT
1st
Robert Dewar
59,811.36
2nd
Guy Maughfling
29,905.68
Joseph Muigai
Joseph Waruingi - Elizabeth Waruingi - Ian Karanja - Christopher Karanja
FT FT JFT JFT
3rd
David Brown
17,088.96
4th
Rodney Evans
17,088.96
Nicholas Ng’ang’a
Kevin Rodrigues
FT
5th
Damian Davies
12,816.72
Jonathan Somen
Kamal Shah - Meera Shah - Anay Shah - Aarav Shah
FT FT JFT JFT
6th
Andrew Paterson Hamilton
8,544.48
7th
Joyce McIntyre
8,544.48
8th
Andreas Nuijten
8,544.48
William Woodley
Jordyan Corcoran
ST
9th
Sally J Share
8,544.48
1
2
Answers to Bird and Butterfly Quiz
3
5
4
6
7
9 10 1 - Brown Pansy, 2 - Gold-banded Forester, 3 - Citrus Swallowtail, 4 – Diadem, 5 – Joker, 6 - African Monarch, 7 - Large Orange Tip, 8 - Small Orange Tip, 9 - Small Spotted Sailer, 10 - Orange Acraea
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SWEEPSTAKES JULY 2018
8 1 African Finfoot, 2 Palm-nut Vulture, 3 Western Banded Snake-Eagle.
July–September 2018 Muthaiga Country Club
29
MCC reciprocates with 114 Clubs in 24 countries around the world. The Reciprocity Committee invests a great deal of time ensuring that these Clubs are worthy of our association and Members are encouraged to submit brief if theywith visit114 or Clubs stay at in any24one of them. Thesethe reports willThe be published the benefitinvests and interest MCC reports reciprocates countries around world. Reciprocityfor Committee a great of other Members who may be planning to travel overseas. deal of time ensuring that these Clubs are worthy of our association and Members are encouraged to submit brief reports if they visit information or stay at and anycontact one ofdetails them. These reports published for the benefit and interest For more of reciprocating Clubs will pleasebecontact the Secretary’s office. of other Members who may be planning to travel overseas. UK IRELAND AUSTRALIA For more information detailsandofUniversity reciprocating the&Secretary’s Army Navy Club office. London Kildare Street Club Clubs please Dublincontact Adelaide Club Adelaide and contact Athenaeum Club Australian Club AUSTRAL IA Melbourne Commonwealth Club Adelaide Club Melbourne Club Athenaeum Club Royal Automobile Club of Australia Australian Club Melbourne Royal Automobile Club of Victoria Commonwealth Club Tattersall’s MelbourneClub Club Tasmanian Melbourne Club Savage Club Union, University Schools Club Naval Military and & Airforce United Club of SouthService Australia Weld RoyalClub Automobile Club of Australia Royal Automobile Club of Victoria Tattersall’s Club AUSTRIA Tasmanian Club St. Johanns Club & Schools Club Union, University United Service Club BOLIVIA Weld Club Western de Australian Club Circulo La Union
Melbourne Melbourne Canberra Adelaide Melbourne Melbourne Sydney Melbourne Melbourne Canberra Brisbane Melbourne Hobart Melbourne Sydney Brisbane Adelaide Perth Sydney Melbourne Brisbane Hobart Vienna Sydney Brisbane Perth Perth La Paz
AUSTRIA BELGIUM St. Johanns Club Vienna International Club Chateau Sainte-Anne Brussels B OLIVIA Circulo de La Union CANADA
La Paz
B ELGIUM Granite Club Toronto Rideau Club Ottowa International Club Chateau Sainte-Anne Brussels The Hamilton Club Hamilton CANNational ADA Club The Toronto The Ranchmen’s Calgary Cypress Club Club Medicine Hat Union Victoria GraniteClub Clubof British Columbia Toronto University ClubClub of Montreal Montreal The Hamilton Hamilton University Club of Toronto Toronto The National Club The Ranchmen’s Calgary Vancouver Club Club Vancouver Terminal City Club Vancouver Union Club of British Columbia Victoria CHILE University Club of Montreal Montreal Club De LaClub Union Santiago University of Toronto Toronto Vancouver Club Vancouver FRANCE CH ILE Cercle de l’Union Interalliee Paris ClubTravellers De La Union Santiago The Club Paris F RANCE GERMANY Cercle de l’Union Interalliee Paris The Travellers Club Paris Anglo-German Club E.V Hamburg Union International Club Frankfurt GERMANY
The Stephen’s Green Hibernian Club I NDI A continued JAPAN Secunderabad Club Tokyo American Club Bangalore Club
Secunderabad Tokyo Bangalore
ILUXEMBOURG RE L AND Cercle Munster Kildare Street and University Club
Luxembourg Dublin
The Stephen’s Green Hibernian Club Dublin MALAYSIA JAPAN The Royal Lake Club Kuala Lumpur Tokyo American Club Tokyo LUXE M BOU RG NETHERLANDS Cercle Munster The Nieuwe of Littéraire Sociëteit De Witte M AL AW I
Luxembourg The Hague
NEW ZEALAND Mulika
Blantyre
Christchurch Club Christchurch NE THE RL A N D S The Canterbury Club Inc. Christchurch The Nieuwe Littéraire Sociëteit De WitteThe Hawke’s Bay of Club Napier Hague The Northern Club Auckland The Wellington Club Wellington N E W Z E AL A N D PAKISTAN Club Christchurch
Christchurch
The Club Inc. SindCanterbury Club Hawke’s Bay Club SINGAPORE The Northern Club
Christchurch Karachi Napier Auckland
The Wellington Tanglin Club Club
Wellington Singapore
S I NG APO R E SOUTH AFRICA Tanglin Club Cape Town Club The Country Johannesburg S OUTH AFClub R IC A Durban Club Cape Town Club Inanda Club Kelvin GroveClub Club Johannesburg The Country Port Elizabeth Durban Club St. Georges Club The Pretoria Country Club Inanda Club Rand Club Kelvin Grove Club
Singapore Cape Town Johannesburg Durban Cape Town Johannesburg Cape Town Johannesburg Port Elizabeth Durban Pretoria Johannesburg Johannesburg Cape Town
Port Elizabeth St. Georges Club SPAIN The Pretoria Country Club Circulo Ecuestre Rand Club Real Gran Peña
Port Elizabeth
Anglo-German HONG KONG Club E.V Union International Club The Hong Kong Club HONG KONG
Hamburg Frankfurt Hong Kong
S PAI N SRI LANKA Circulo Ecuestre The Hill Club Real Gran Peña
INDIA The Hong Kong Club
Hong Kong
STHAILAND RI L ANKA
Tollygunge Kolkata IN DIA Club Ltd Umed Club Jodhpur Tollygunge Club Ltd Kolkata Ootacamund Club Ooty, Tamil Nadu Umed Club Jodhpur Secunderabad Club Secunderabad Ootacamund Club Udhagamandalam, Tamil Nadu Bangalore Club Bangalore
Dublin
The Hill British Club, Bangkok The Club
Pretoria Barcelona Johannesburg Madrid
Barcelona Nuwara Eliya Madrid
Bangkok Nuwara Eliya
ZI MB A B W E ZIMBABWE
T HAI L AND TURKEY Buyuk KulupClub, Cercle d’Orient The British Bangkok
Buck’s Club London Cardiff & County Club Cardiff U K Carlton Club London Army & Navy Club London City of London Club London Boodle’s London Farmer’s Club London Buck’s London Hurlingham Club London Cardiff & County Club Cardiff Lansdowne Club London Carlton Club London Leander Club Henley-on-Thames, City of London Club London Naval Club London Farmer’s Club London Norfolk Club Norwich Hurlingham Club London Northern Club Newcastle Ipswich & Counties Suffolk Club Ipswich Oriental Club London Lansdowne Club London Oxford & Cambridge Club Henley-on-Thames, London Leander PhyllisClub Court Club Henley-on-Thames, Naval London Reform Club London Northern Counties Club Newcastle Royal Air Force Club United Services Nottingham London Nottingham & Notts RoyalOriental Automobile Club The London Royal Over-Seas League London Oxford & Cambridge Club Savile Club London Phyllis Court Club Henley-on-Thames, The Reform Athenaeum Liverpool Club London The Boodle’s Royal Air Force Club London Royal AutomobileClub Club London The Caledonian Royal Over-Seas LeagueClub London The Cavalry & Guards Savile Club Club London The Clifton Bristol The Athenaeum Liverpool East India Club London The Caledonian Club& Military Club London In & Out Naval The & Guards London The Cavalry New Club Cheltenham The Club Bristol The Clifton New Club Edinburgh The India Club London The East Norfolk Club Norwich The The New RoyalClub Northern & University Club Cheltenham Aberdeen The Edinburgh The New RoyalClub Scots Club Edinburgh The Club Norwich The Norfolk Sloane Club London The Royal Northern & University Club Aberdeen The St. James Club Manchester The Scots Club Edinburgh The Royal Western Club Glasgow The Sloane Club London Travellers Club London The St James Club Manchester Turf Club London The Travellers Club London Ulster Reform Club Belfast The Western Club Glasgow The Turf Club London USA Ulster Reform Club Belfast Vincent’s Oxford The ArmyClub & Navy Club Washington DC Cosmos Club Washington DC USA Harvard Club of New York City New York The & Navy Club Washington DC The Army Explorers Club New York Colony Club Club New The Princeton New York York Cosmos Club DC The Saturn Club BuffaloWashington City, NY State The Club New York The Princeton Standard Club Chicago The Saturn Buffalo City, NY State Union ClubClub of Boston Boston The Standard Club Chicago University Club of Cincinnati Cincinnati Union Club of Boston Boston The University Club Washington DC The University Club West Indies Yacht Club Caribbean of Washington Washington DC The Yale Club of New York City New York The Yale Club of New York City New York
Istanbul Bangkok
Bulawayo Bulawayo Bulawayo Bulawayo Harare Harare Harare Club Club Harare
MU THA IGA C OUNTRY CLUB P.O.Box 16526, Nairobi 00620, Kenya Email secretary@mcc.co.ke, accounts@mcc.co.ke, reservations@mcc.co.ke,exec.chef@mcc.co.ke, events@mcc.co.ke
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