Steve Bateman claimed his seventh club championship title at Brean.

On a final day when the lead changed hands on numerous occasions, it was Steve Bateman who held the advantage when it mattered most at the end of the 36 holes to claim his seventh win in the Brean Club Championship.

Defending champion Stuart Wills and Bateman both posted first round 71s to hold a three-shot cushion over Matt Shaw after Saturday’s opening day. Another previous champion in the shape of Dan Broom was another two shots back with a quartet of players on 77.

In the ladies’ competition, title holder Suzanne Hatfield was the overnight leader over Annie Williams.

Sunday was a bright but increasingly breezy day making the conditions tricky for the 30 players who made the cut.

Bateman took the early lead before Wills responded to move ahead himself. Bateman levelled with a birdie at the 11th as Shaw made a costly triple bogey.

Wills came back to edge ahead with a par at the tough 12th, but his advantage was short-lived as Bateman found himself one stroke to the good after the penultimate hole.

The pair also had just had the privilege of witnessing the shot of the day as Shaw aced the 17th with an eight iron for his first-ever hole-in-one and to give himself an outside chance.

He could only manage a bogey at the 18th though to leave him in third spot after a second successive 74 in an impressive showing from the 23-year-old.

With Wills on the green, Bateman knew he probably had to get up and down to win and with a superb chip to around two feet he left Wills needing to hole from 30ft. Wills nearly did that as the ball finished just behind the hole, but he left Bateman with his short putt for the title which he duly converted.

Behind the top three, Leighton Jenkins produced the best round of the second day with a 72 to move into fourth spot ahead of the steady Tom Broom in fifth.

Shaw picked up the nett trophy for his aggregate of 132, ahead of Eamonn Wynne and CJ Organ on 135. Wynne claimed second spot with the better score on the second 18 holes.

In the ladies’ event, Hatfield won her third title in a row. She overcame a disastrous opening hole on the second day when she found the water on no less than three occasions to retain the title. Sue Wright won the 36-hole nett prize on 149.

In other events at Brean, the seniors’ played a Texas scramble and Pete Douglas, Pat Mullholland and Jim McLauchlan won with a stunning nett score of 55.7. This score gave them a comfortable three-shot winning margin over Bob Toller, Roger Phillips and Ken Ponter, with Chris Stephens, Ray Byatt and Ian Welch ending up third having also come in with a nett 58.7.

Kevin Davies was this week’s midweek Stableford winner as he took first place by three points with an impressive 43-point return in breezy conditions. Runner-up Searle also held another three-point advantage over third-placed man, and one of his early morning playing partners, Mike Smith.

The Pentagon Trophy at Weston was held in lovely summer sun, a full field, virtually no wind and the course in outstanding condition.

This resulted in some fantastic scores, overall winner was Ian Hudson with a nett 64, gross 69, although a 63 was recorded by Kenton Simpson off a 19 handicap. Other scores in Division 1 were Dave Garrett was second with another 64, but lost on a countback as did George Worthington.

Division 2 was won by the aforementioned Kenton Simpson, second was John Dixon on 64, with Steve Teale on 66.

Sunday saw the men’s first team beat Long Ashton second team 4.5-0.5 in the B&D League.

Ronnie Mitchell/Ashley Collis won 2&1, Dave Edwards/Pete Allan also won 2&1, Chris Evans/Rob Chalker won two up Nigel Browne/Geoff Sinclair won 6&5, with Liam May/George Worthing halving their match.

This result leaves the team one point from promotion and two points from being crowned champions of Division 5.

Forty competitors entered the bowmaker for the lady captain’s day and 60 enjoyed high tea courtesy of lady captain Reine O’Reilly. The winning team were Beryl Robert, Sue Andow and Carole Menzies.

The wind picked up making it tricky for the late starters in the second mixed open greensomes competition. Forty-four pairs entered and the top four automatically go through to play for the Claude Lalonde trophy in October.

In fourth place were Sally Meek and Michael Simmonds from Forest Hills with 38 points, in third place from Raglan Parc were Sharon and Steve Forster also with 38. Runners-up were Jean Cooper and Tony Walker from Weston with 39, but the clear winners with an extraordinary 44 points were Sue Andow and David Snowdon from Weston.

Ruth Forte and Jean Cooper won nearest the pin on the third and 14th holes and seven players recorded a two.

The monthly medal at Wedmore produced some brilliant scoring in virtually ideal conditions.

There were two scores of nett 62, eight under par. David Poynor scored one of these to win Division 3, which was hard on Pete Beavan who had an excellent score of 63 himself to take second place. Ian Bunn took third place with 66.

The other 62 came from Rob Davis in Division 2, which also equated to a gross 75, equal best gross score of the day. This put him a convincing five shots clear of Dave Clements and John Sims, with Clements taking second place on countback. Countback was also needed to settle the first two places in Division 1. Bill Lander birdied the final hole of the day to tie with James Vowles on nett 66 and also give him first place on countback. John Wormald was just two shots back in third place.

The ladies held a qualifying round of the Ping four-ball better-ball, a national competition organised by England Golf.

Despite some heavy showers, there were some good scores led by Eunice Bond and Jenny Thomas on 41 points. Sue Edwards and Joan Joy were only a point back in second place, themselves a point ahead of Gina Falcon and Maggie Tolchard.

The seniors continued their triumphant run in the inaugural season of the Avalon Seniors League with a 4-1 win at home against Worlebury, which moves them further clear at the top of the table.