Merry Christmas

Christmas Lunch at The Groucho

Delighted to invite you to our Christmas Lunch at The Groucho on Wednesday 15th December.




Usual proceedings apply.

The Mary Lou Room.

12.30 pm - Drinks.

1.15 pm - 3 Course Christmas Lunch with wines.

£75 per person. (Includes entrance, reception drinks and lunch with wine)

Please RSVP to ian@byrecommendation .co.uk to confirm your place, let me know if you would like to bring a guest and advise of any dietary requirements.

Please bring cheque or cash to pay The Groucho on the day. 24hr cancellation fee applies.

The Groucho Club
45 Dean St
London
W1D 4QB

T +44 (0)20 7439 4685

http://www.thegrouchoclub.com

See you there !

Ian
+44 7767243481
ian@byrecommendation.co.uk

Kensington Hotel Fashion Invitation

It is my pleasure to invite you to our upcoming Kensington Hotel Fashion Invitational - a great opportunity to do some pre-Christmas shopping, preview some up-and-coming brands, pamper yourself with some treatments and have a fun day out with your friends at the beautiful Kensington Hotel.

See invitation for the details - please save Tuesday 16th November in your diaries!

We look forward to seeing you there - please RSVP to laura@adoreum.com

The Social Media Revolution !!!!

Testing You Tube...

This is a test from Ian....So it has to be a classic and one of my favourites...hope you like it !

Royal Blackheath Golf Day

Marvellous day out - again! The Course was in great condition, the team at RBGC looked after us beautifully and we all just about escaped the rain.

Lee Dellar valiantly defended his wooden spoon - again !

The winner was David Seccombe who has recently taken over Christopher's Grill as General Manager.

Wining Team was Joggs Camfield from Lucid Television, Henry Semmence from Absolute Marketing and ME !

Joggs winning shot !



Longest Drive and Nearest the Pin was James Thacker.

For a moment Lee had a hole in one! (Well he was the first one out - so nobody saw the shot)

Ashley Lacome-Shaw cleaned up in terms of business introductions. Given that his specialist areas are employment law and divorce there must be something in the air!

Thanks to Andrew Chudley who insisted we all went to Davy's in greenwich to enjoy their finest Burgundy wines

Next year we hope to return to Stoke Park in the Summer and again to RBGC in the Autumn.

The power of social media...

Golf day at Royal Blackheath GC

Firstly, it was great to meet those of you who attended the golf day at Royal Blackheath GC last week, I hope you enjoyed your day with us. There was plenty of good golf played and the results were as follows:

Winning Team: Mark Reynolds & Numis Group

Winning Individual: Mark Hayward (35pts)

Nearest The Pin: Simon Douglas

Longest Drive: Simon Douglas

Wooden Spoon: Lee Dellar

The next golf day at Royal Blackheath is scheduled for September the 14th and I look forward to seeing many of you again.

I have recently opened a state of the art putting tuition and custom fit centre that uses camera's measuring the roll of the ball at 200 frames per second to highlight why the ball doesn't find the hole as often as you would like! As an exclusive discount for ByRecommendation members we are offering you 10% off all of the services that we offer. More information can be found online at www.londonputtingacademy.com. For updates from the London Putting Academy and Royal Blackheath in general you can follow me on twitter at twitter.com/MattJohnsGolf

I will update this blog throughout the year with my views on various aspects of the golfing world and tips and hints that I feel may be of benefit to you.

In the mean time.........happy golfing!

My Ki Fit Trial

Have you ever wondered how many calories you burn sitting behind the desk? Or how many calories are consumed in those couple of large glasses of red after work? Well I have and now I know. I met with Amie Rutter at the Ki Performance office who introduced me to their new product the Ki Fit Armband and gave me one to try. Originally used in the medical industry, this small discreet armband turns your body’s everyday information into a tool to help you manage a healthy lifestyle. Whether weight loss or a better personal awareness is your goal, this medically certified system will change your behaviour and help you achieve this.

I felt a little apprehensive at first as the band is to be worn on my arm at all times of the day. But as my journey home on the tube didn’t even receive a second’s glance from anyone, I soon felt happy and forgot all about it being there. Once home, I synced my armband to the Ki Fit Activity Manager, an online package where it is possible to view your individual data, set your goals and assess your average calorie intake. After a quick and straightforward setup, I was ready to roll...

After the first day of wearing the band and logging on for my first assessment, it quickly became apparent how high some calorie contents in food and alcohol actually are. Immediately, I became very aware of what I eat and that I must change my attitude towards food.

The system comes with a small display for on the move target checking. I found myself checking the display even more frequently than I check my emails; have I burnt enough calories? Have I taken enough steps? Or done enough physical activity? It's safe to say, it becomes quite an obsession. But that's how it works. To become so aware of your body's input and output will deliver results. The Ki Fit Armband had me truly gripped and for anyone who is determined to lose those few pounds or just wants to have a better well being, I cannot recommend it highly enough.      - Gemma Zuill

Spring at last!

It would appear that spring is finally here! What a relief that is for all you golfers out there. This has been one of the longest winters that I have experienced as a golf professional with the number of rounds played here at Royal Blackheath, the venue for 2 byrecommendation golf days this year, significantly down due to the snow that hung around for far too long.

Having said that, our members seem to be trying to make up for lost time and the course, clubhouse and practice ground have been very busy over the last couple of weeks. The course is in fabulous condition and will only improve as the weeks pass.

I have no doubt that come May 25th when byrecommendation visit for the first time this year the conditions will have improved further still. If I was going to offer one piece of advice to you prior to visiting us, pay attention to your putting. The greens have been running very quickly for a number of weeks now and certain greens such as the 2nd and 16th have seen a fair few 4 putts! In my opinion the key to controlling the pace of your putts is to maintain a constant grip pressure throughout the stroke. If the hands tighten or loosen you will increase or decrease the speed of the putter head and alter the length of the stroke meaning more of those nasty 5 footers to test your nerve!

I look forward to seeing you here at Royal Blackheath in a months time.

Welcome to my blog!

Hello World! My name is Matthew Johns, I am the Head PGA Professional at Royal Blackheath Golf Club which this year is the venue for not 1 but 2 byrecommendation golf days. Judging by last years event, plenty of fun will be had by all!

The aim of this blog is for me to keep you up to date with a wide ranging variety of events from the golfing world. I will also include a selection of tips and hints that I use every day to help golfers get the most from their game. I hope you find these of use.

With the golfing world still wondering when Tiger Woods will make his long awaited return to the fairway's, many of England's finest have prospered with Lee Westwood, Ian Poulter and Paul Casey currently holding positions 4,5 and 6 in the world rankings. With a good run of results over the next couple of months and the continued absence of you know who, it is not unfeasable that one of these three could become the world number 1.

A further look into the rankings shows 2 more Englishmen, Ross Fisher and Luke Donald, at positions 23 and 24. In a Ryder Cup year we tend to broaden our horizons and look to see how the European contingent are faring, and with 11 European's in the world's top 25, Colin Montgomerie may have a selection headache come the end of September.

Before the golfing world descends on Wales there will be many big events played, starting with the Masters on April 8th. For me the Masters at Augusta always signals the beginning of the golf season and is a very special event. It has it's own aura and mystique created by the exclusive nature of the venue, the fact that of all the majors it is the only one played at the same venue (and what a venue!) each year and the fact that we have been starved of Major championship golf since the USPGA Championship which is usually in mid August.

Will Tiger return by the 8th April? I'm not sure. What I would predict is that there is a very good chance that come midnight or thereabouts on Suday 11th April and Englishmen could be slipping into the green jacket for the first time since Nick faldo in 1996.

What a start to the season that would be.

Westminster Car Parking

Everyone will have noticed that Westminster are extending the car parking charges to midnight...All the more reason for you to own our NCP 40% discount card! If you haven't already, visit the NCP partner page and order one... 

The Arts Blog - Isabella Macpherson

We would highly recommend Ed Ruscha: 50 Years of Painting, at the Hayward Gallery until January 10th, John Baldessari: Pure Beauty, at Tate Modern until January 10th, and Anish Kapoor's monumental exhibition at the Royal Academy, until December 11th.

But for something completely different please venture to Primrose Hill, to the corner of Regents Park Road and Sharpleshall Street, London NW1, to the Museum of Everything (open 11:00am/6:30pm, Thursday to Sunday). The UK has never seen anything like this extraordinary collection of work by "the untrained, unintentional and unseen creators of this, our modern world", and to help us contextualise the works, famous contemporary artists and curators have provided a way in, championing individuals in the Museum's opening exhibition, Exhibition 1.

It's a completely new experience, (especially if you see one of the above shows first), walking through this startling collection of works, and all material relating to the Museum is refreshingly quirky and idiosyncratic. We are given (and it feels like a gift) a view into the minds of 95 artists; most of whom we'd never heard of before, but who are intriguing, puzzling and heart-warming.

Bring on Exhibition 2.

Ian's blog

The boys from Smartly Green have done a great job, it is clean, fresh and easy to use. More importantly the site presents our members prominently so YOU are at the forefront of our business.

We have some great events coming up including the networking lunch in the 4th December, an Investment Meeting early next year as well as the regular golf days and wine dinners / tastings next year. Always good fun!

Remember - Some of the benefits you receive as a member include; The NCP 40% discount card, a superb travel service from The Appointment Group, great value sporting goods, bespoke deals on hotels and Clubs, excellent value wines, unbeatable prices on cars, professional advice in property, law, architecture, design and accounting, to name a few. And the knowledge that all our members provide excellent value and quality with integrity!

I hope you like the new site. I'd be interested to hear your thoughts and if you would like to introduce your friends or colleagues. Please do contact me: ian@byrecommendation.co.uk.

Best wishes

Ian

Golf day at Blackheath

Royal Blackheath on the 3rd September was another huge Golf Day success I’m sure all will agree.
(Although the wheels did fall of slightly back at Davys in Greenwich)
So - what your all asking for ... the results.
Winner – Anthony Russell 37 Points
Winning Team Graham Triefus, Bob Lisle, Nigel Creffield, Tweedie Brown
Longest Drive – Luther Blissett
Nearest the Pin – Mark Reynolds

Wooden Spoon – Valiantly defended by Lee Dellar for the 4th year running.
A good time was had by all who visited Davy’s in Greenwich – thanks to Davy’s for their hospitality...
No doubt we will return to Royal Blackheath. Date to be advised.