OP states "2 UKP new friends – one unfortunately did not turn up and have had no comms since, so just one gentleman.
Was planned as a MMMMFFF but became a MMFFF"
If there were supposed to be 2 UKP friends, and only 1 turned up, there was only 1 who didn't. Therefore plan could not have been MMMMFFF, but MMMFFF
There's certainly a bit of clarifying needed by OP, which should be easy enough (OP didn't say he's deleted any comms).