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The Goedhuis Away Day

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Once a year we escape from sunny Vauxhall and head out into the country for the Goedhuis Away Day. As the empire now stretches as far afield as Hong Kong, Northamptonshire and Suffolk it is more important than ever. Although the emphasis is firmly on having fun, maintaining excellent inter-office relations is the not so secret agenda.

Johnny and Laura played host to us at their gorgeous Northamptonshire farmhouse. No formal team-building exercises for us however. Tom and Robin were spotted checking out the important stuff quite early in the day. I am sure they would tell us they were “just checking the bottles”…

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We did venture out in the rain for a little clay pigeon shooting.

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Our audience was a solitary cow, who seemed largely unmoved by the whole thing….

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Strong results from the experienced shots as expected, but particular mention should go to the relatively inexperienced Joe Jessup, Peter Dunmow, Emma King and Gilles Baillarguet for their excellent scores.

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An outstanding performance from David Robert’s team of Justin Randall, Lottie Stopford-Sackville and Emma King took the trophy.

And then on to the serious business of lunch and the wines.

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The sides of the “marquee” had not been deployed in previous years but proved invaluable as the rain persisted.

We drank:

Ch d’Esclans Cotes de Provence Rosé 2007 in magnum
Puligny Montrachet 1er Cru Les Combettes Domaine Etienne Sauzet 2007
Nuits St Georges 1er Cru Domaine de l’Arlot 1999
Volnay 1er Cru Champans Domaine Joseph Voillot 1999
Rosso di Montalcino Sesti 2007 in magnum

Lunch was followed by some unnecessarily energetic five-a-side, which resulted in several minor injuries.

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Tom’s team stole victory by only one goal. Bring on the rematch.