Cathy holds on to win at Wedmore

THE final championship of the season took place at Wedmore when the ladies competed over 36 holes in unusually good weather.

After the first round it was last year’s winner and runner-up, Cathy Olive and Liz Hill who shared the lead on 83, followed shots shots back by low handicapper Marlyn Jackson and Sue Tarry with Dawn Chadwick a further two shots behind.

In the afternoon, Liz Hill, still coming back to form after injury, slipped shots to an 89, while Sue Tarry also fell away, leaving the challenge for the lead to Jackson and Chadwick. Birdies on the second and 13th gave Chadwick a chance and she had closed the gap to just two shots by the 17th when Olive had her only bad hole, a triple bogey.

Jackson was even closer, her power enabling her to pick up shots on the three par fives on the back nine to get her to within one shot with just the last hole to play. Olive recorded a par to retain the Insport Trophy by two shots from Jackson, with Chadwick a further shot back in third.

The competition for the Directors Cup, the nett prize, was extremely close. After the morning round, June Smith led the way with a two-under handicap 70, two shots ahead of Ange Webber with Annie Fry a further two shots back.

In the afternoon rounds, Smith slipped back with a 76, but Webber also fell back, but only to 74 leaving them tied on 146.

A late surge from Fry saw her improve on her morning round, but her 73 left her one behind. So the result was decided on countback with Webber claiming the trophy for the better second round.

Apart from the two main trophies, the salvers for best gross in the morning and afternoon rounds went to Hill and Chadwick respectively, while the equivalent nett prizes were won by Smith and Jackson.

? WESTON seconds entertained The Players thirds in what turned out to be one of the highest quality games of the season.

The Players, chasing promotion, fielded a strong side, and almost all pairs on both sides were level par or better for their games.

The Weston first pairing of Jono Rees and Pete Blunden were behind early on, and could not make inroads into steady opponents, finally going down 4&2. Les O’Reilly and Ian Hudson barely made a mistake, playing great golf for a 3&2 victory.

Andy Balcombe and Graham Hicken played against opponents with a two and a three handicap and took them to the 18th, only to lose one down. Nigel and James Browne were down early in their game, but some sub-par golf during the middle of the round brought them to the 18th all square.

Needing to chip in from off the green to halve the match, Nigel duly obliged and the match finished all square. Joe Neary and John McGrail, despite being one under par on their own ball, lost 3&1 to some outstanding golf from their opponents.

That meant a 3.5-1.5 loss for Weston, but the quality of golf was superb and a great advert for the Bristol & District League.

? THE Scotland team came out victorious in the first international match to be played at Brean.

In this new event, each member represented their appropriate country of the four home nations. The Scots, led by captain-elect Stewart Garrett, ended up with the highest average Stableford score and were crowned champions ahead of runners-up Wales. England took third and Ireland collected the wooden spoon.

The event ran alongside the monthly Stableford which attracted a large entry and Paul Jones returned the best score of the day to win Division 1 with 41 points.

This score was two better than Roger Vaughan. Irish eyes were smiling in Division 2 as Eamonn Wynne took the top spot with his card of 40 points. Division 3 winner was Graham Foy, who continued his recent good run of form with 39 points. He held off Paul McLanaghan by one point.

The ladies’ event also attracted a large field and captain Jenny Vaughan won with 33 points, ahead of Debbie Windmill on 30.

The ladies’ team also secured a victory in their annual match against the senior section of the club. They won 3-1 in an enjoyable match.

The seniors’ had also played at Fosseway and won 4-2 and with it retained the annual trophy. In a busy week for the seniors, they also contested their Texas Scramble competition.

Thirteen teams lined up to do battle and scoring was excellent on the day. In third place with a nett 58.2 were Jim McLauchlan, George Thomas and Mike Allen, who were pipped by Barry Tucker, Colin Tincknell and Ian Welch for second spot with 57.5.

Barrie Yearsley, Charlie Hastie and John Sherwood posted a spectacular gross 66, which gave them a winning nett 56.5 and a clear victory.

? ONE of Worlebury Golf Club’s board competitions, the Battle of Britain Cup, which is a singles medal format event was played in favourable conditions.

The eventual winner Nick Strickland came in with a creditable net 64 to take the title

Full result: Nick Strickland 76 (64); Martin Chambers 80 (66); Keri Allchurch 74 (66); Chris Whittle 79 (66); James Spence 80 (67).

Seniors’ medal – Division 1: John Langdon 79 (66); Brian Matthews 79 (67); Michael Parfitt 83 (67). Division 2: John Hobbs 87 (62); David Brimfield 84 (66); Ken Lohmann 89 (67).

The seniors also played the second leg of the Challenge Trophy against Minehead played at both venues. Worlebury came out on top by a clear three points and Kevin Pendergast received the trophy from Minehead captain Will Elstone on behalf of the club.

Midweek Stableford: Michael Ham 46pts; Nathan Pickering 43; Matt Blackman 42.

Junior medal: Charles Lewys 68 (61); Matt Blackman 71 (61); Declan Dorrington 86 (64).

Well done to Matt Blackman on getting placed twice in two days and reaching a single figure handicap for the first time.

Worlebury first team drew at home to Filton against the second placed side in the division.

The Avalon team travelled to Brean Golf Club for their latest fixture, but came away with a 4-1 defeat.

Forty members from Worlebury Golf Club attended the annual mixed away day at Tiverton. Winners on the day were Lynne and Dave Pope, Wendy Larner and Trevor Smith.

? WESTON Golf Club held its monthly Stableford under the banner of the Seve Ballesteros Foundation in tandem with a putting competition to raise funds.

After being nearly blown off the putting green, the competitors raised �161. It was won by Ray Fowler, holing the putt four times overall throughout the day from an ever increasing distance.

Nigel Browne kindly supplied the six demo putters used in the competition from Daly Golf. A further �116 was raised from competition entries, giving a total of �277 raised.