Centenary Trophy competition held at Worlebury

BOTH the men’s and ladies’ sections at Worlebury Golf Club held their Centenary Trophies, with Janet Jamieson and Kelvin Betts taking the honours.

In a battle of the Scots, Janet’s nett 69 pipped Izzy Swift by a single shot. A stunning eagle on the first and a birdie on the fourth, on her way to a three over gross at the turn, gave Janet the foundation for her win.

Jane Wakerley, making a welcome return to competitive golf after a lengthy lay-off, showed signs of returning to form with a nett 71 and took third place.

There was a field of over 120 in the men’s competition and some fine scores were recorded, with Kelvin’s nett 63, the pick of the bunch. Kelvin’s round included nine pars and a birdie and is his best round for quite some time.

Countback was needed to separate second and third positions, with Gordon Brook edging out Mark Otterburn, both players returning impressive nett 65s.

Both sections held weekend medals, with Julie Knight comfortably winning the ladies’ with a nett 67. Sam Hewlett was runner-up on 70 and Louise Goodrum third with 74.

Round of the day in the men’s was a brilliant gross 68 by reigning club champion, Simon Dempsey, his nett 66, however, was only good enough to take the runners-up slot in the first division.

A fine nett 65 by eight handicapper, Jeff Banfied, took the honours. Malcolm Summers was third with a 68, beating junior Jack Butterfield on countback.

Steve Cameron won Division 2 with a very good 65. Seasoned campaigner, Derek Isgrove was runner-up on 67 and Dave Collard third on 68.

Top nett score of the day was by Andy Judkins, with a brilliant nett 62 in Division 3. Andy has been working hard on his game and has been rewarded with a three-stroke reduction in his handicap, which is now down to 22.

Ray Collick was runner-up with a 66. Jamie Crandon came third on countback with a 68, pipping Andy Francis, Richard Exon and Dale Rendall, who all narrowly missed out.

Social golf continues to flourish with each of the sections having matches. The men travelled to Minehead to play the second leg of the match against the Warreners.

With a comfortable lead from the home leg, a draw was enough to secure the trophy for the fifth year in succession.

Captain and vice-captain Martin Morgan and Keith Knight led by example, winning the first match in relative comfort. The best result was returned by the pairing of Barry Newson and Ron Jamieson who sauntered to a 6&5 win. Bill Stow and Brian Maidment also combined well to win their match.

The mixed section led by ladies’ captain Maxine Gardiner and club captain Peter Phillips, entertained Brean in the annual Breanbury Trophy and won an entertaining encounter 5.5 to 3.5.

In match one, the Worlebury captains were up against it, playing the two Brean club champions. Despite being four down after eight holes, they managed to fight back, only to lose on the last green.

Brean also won the next two matches to lead 3-0 before Worlebury stopped the rot by halving match four. The momentum then swung Worlebury’s way, with them winning each of the last five matches to give them an unlikely victory.

A 16-man seniors team visited Henbury for a return fixture, Worlebury having won the corresponding home match by 5.5 to 2.5. Henbury made home advantage count winning 5-3, giving Worlebury a pleasing, aggregate win.

The captains in each of the fixtures expressed how much they enjoyed their competitive, but friendly fixture and looked forward to them continuing for many years to come.

The ladies entertained Tracy Park in the Alliance League, winning 6-4.

A FINE and unusually calm day at Weston Golf Club greeted 22 competitors for the husband and wife foursomes event, the Irlam Trophy.

Given by the late George and Eileen Irlam back in 1969, Sally Irlam has continued to organise the event for the last 12 years in her late husband’s memory and it’s a firm favourite in the club calendar.

A course in superb condition resulted in some excellent scores with two couples scoring 40 points. Steve and Wendy Thomas were first-time winners on the back nine from Andy and Zena Balcombe.

New members Ron and Carole Kelley were in third place, also winning on the back nine from Les and Reine O’Reilly.

Club President Gary Homer and Sally made the presentation following an excellent meal.

The ladies’ Brockenshaw Bowl was won by Jade Cope with 67 nett. The Grass Roots Trophy was won by Terri Blackhurst with 79 and Jo Blackhurst in second place with 80.

Saturday proved an ideal day for the 105 contestants who took part in the Mallen Cup and Scull Bowl.

The Mallen Cup, played as a medal competition over 18 holes, was won by Sam Trego with an impressive nett 63 (gross 70), followed in second place by Weston vice-captain Tony McEvoy (64).

In third place was Darren Henderson on 66, beating Keiron Aplin and Adam Royal on countback. Division 2 was won by Stephen Petrie, also with a 66. Mark Fozzard, Alex Petas and Philip Acton all scored 67 and were only separated by countback.

The 36-hole Scull Bowl putting competition, which followed, was a sixway tie of 55 putts with Sam Fernley coming out on top by a better back 18 over the next placings of Tommy Holyday, Alex Winn, George Worthington, Steve Petrie and Joe Neary.

WEDMORE Golf Course was virtually given over to visiting players, these being the best girl golfers from the South West competing for the Inter-Counties Championship.

This is a round robin of matches with each county playing the others in five rounds of stressful golf in three days.

The teams were representing Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Gloucestershire, Wiltshire and the host county Somerset. Members who came to watch could not help but be impressed, not only by the quality of the play, but the sporting manner in which players coped with ups and downs of match play golf.

Somerset had got off to a winning start on day one, but a loss and a raw on day day left them on 1.5 points. This by no means ruled them out as three other teams were on the same total and Gloucestershire were the only team ahead of them by just half a point.

The morning matches on day three strengthened Gloucestershire’s position as they were the only team to win, but with the other two matches being drawn, three counties, Somerset, Cornwall and Devon were just a point behind and able to catch the leaders should they slip up.

As the matches progressed though, it became clear that no such slip was going to happen as Gloucestershire stormed past Devon to win 5-1 to take the trophy. Somerset fought on bravely to beat Dorset, but Cornwall also won to pip Somerset for second place on countback of individual matches.

The ladies played a Stableford which also incorporated, in contrast to earlier in the week, the Grannies Cup only open to those who can boast about their grandchildren.

The Stableford ended in a clear win for Mary-Lou Denny, who scored an excellent 38 points to put her three points clear of a group of four players all of whom scored 35 points and all of whom qualified as grannies.

Countback eventually placed Aileen Robertson as cup winner ahead of Wendy Lucas, Alison Dodkin and Janis Lawrence.

BREAN seniors Ccaptain Bob Hurrell was the winner of the away day, played this year at Long Sutton Golf Club.

Hurrell needed a countback though to secure the top spot as Roger Blackwell also matched his 34-point haul. Third place went to Tony Grimes on the popular score of 33 points, as he too needed a countback to separate himself from no less than six others.

Later in the week, Hurrell led his team to another home win in the sunshine. Cricket St Thomas seniors, formerly known as Windwhistle, were the visitors and in a close and competitive game played in a good spirit, the home side emerged victorious by 3.5 games to 2.5.

Brean’s Avalon League Division 6 side moved closer to a potential league title as they won their penultimate game away to Vivary Park.

On the tricky tree-lined Taunton venue, they won 3-2 and now go into their final fixture at rivals Orchardleigh, knowing a victory should virtually secure the title.

The mixed team were in action at Worlebury in this year’s Breanbury fixture as nine pairs travelled from Brean to compete against their counterparts in the annual mixed match.

Brean had a strong start as they held a three-point lead after the first four matches. Unfortunately the hosts turned the screw in the last five games, with all of them heading their way to ensure the trophy stays at Worlebury for another year.

Both sides enjoyed the fixture and a special mention must go to 10-year-old Millie Jones, who played alongside her father Steve. Despite them not winning their game, reports were that young Millie played excellently.

Graham Exton was in hot form as he produced the round of the day to win the Super Series.

In glorious weather he racked up 46 points to win but only by two on a day of low scoring. Russell Shaw was the runner up on 44 after recovering from a poor start and he was two clear of Andy Chapple in third.

Three other players topped the 40-point mark and the leading five players all saw their handicap reduced although not all as much as the winner Exton, who lost three shots.

Kevin Davies took the maximum 10 points on offer for Sunday’s Super Series Stableford after his round of 44 points. He led Barrie Tucker home by one on a day of low scoring once again, with Pete Dunn finishing third with 42.

Ian Adams is still the series leader after the double header weekend, but Andy Chapple is hot on his heels in second spot.

Chris Payne and Debbie Windmill were the winners of the Jubilee Plate mixed greensomes. They carded 39 points and had a six-point winning margin over last year’s winners Tony Roper and Annie Williams. Third place went to Roger and Jenny Vaughan.

Two cards of 40 points were returned in the midweek Stableford and a countback was needed to separate them to decide the winner. Jason Kidley had the better of the two back nines to take top spot and with it he denied new member Scott Lismore a win. Early starter Trevor Searle took third spot on 37.

Club captain Stuart Wills and head pro Andrew March failed in their attempt to reach the national captain pro final to be played in Turkey later this year.

They did however, finish in a creditable tie for seventh spot (out of 60 pairs) after their betterball four under par 68 at Bowood in Wiltshire.

Wills played well and contributed three gross birdies to the score, but the duo suffered a couple of lapses on and around the greens which cost them shots. The winning pair from Parc in South Wales carded and amazing 11 under par 61 to win by three and they now look forward to a trip to Turkey in November.