Father and son victorious in winter foursomes at Burnham

LAST Sunday saw the conclusion of the 59th running of the West of England Winter Foursomes knockout tournament at Burnham & Berrow Golf Club.

Starting in October the previous year, the contestants play six rounds of knockout through the winter period to reach the final.

This year's winners were Andy Holley (Burnham & Berrow) and his son Paul (St Pierre).

Going into lunch one up against Simon Golsby and Colin Upton (Penn Golf Club, Staffordshire), the match ended all square after the regulation 36 holes and the game went into a sudden death play-off.

Andy and Paul squeezed their win at the third extra hole just before bad light would certainly have meant a return to Burnham the following week.

This is the third time that the father and son pairing have won this event, they did so in 1981/2 and 2002/3. Andy Holley also won in 1997/8 but with a different partner. Previous winners include golf commentators and ex Ryder Cup players Peter Alliss and Brian Barnes.

Also on Sunday was a consolation tournament for those who were unlucky enough to be eliminated in the first round. The winners were James Holl and Jonathan Pitcher of Burnham & Berrow with 38 points.

ISLE of Wedmore saw some remarkable scoring in the Seniors' Stableford, but undoubtedly the round of the day was by John Sanderson who went round in a gross level par score of 70 giving him easily both the nett and gross scores of the day to comfortably win division 1.

His nett 61 was four shots ahead of Martin Easton (65) with Ellis Nearn (66) coming third. Out of the 34 players competing in this division, 10 managed to beat par.

Scoring was not quite so hot in Division 2, but there were still five players with better than par scores. Winner was Bernard Abbott (67) followed at one shot intervals by Barry Stone (68) and Gordon Newbery ((69). Another measure of the standard of play was the number of twos achieved, 21, ensuring a poor pay-out to supplement the pensions this week.

By Thursday the weather had turned both cold and, on occasions, wet for the ladies' first qualifying Stableford of the season. There were some cancellations and a trickle of cold and wet golfers making an early exit from the course to the clubhouse.

Despite this, Sue Tarry still managed to go round in an under par 37 points to win Division 1 followed by Aileen Robertson (35) and Claire Biggs (34). The higher handicaps in Division 2 struggled in the conditions. Linda Roberts coming first with 29 points with Alison Buckton (28) second and Joan Peck (24) third.

In the midweek stableford it was good to seen Brian Webber have his handicap cut to a proper level following his win with 44 points, Ron Vine (43) being pushed into second while John Sanderson (37) put in another good round to come third.

BREAN'S annual general meeting took place recently in the clubhouse and with it the new captains were installed into their posts for the year.

Club captain for 2010 is Steve Bateman while the ladies will be led by Sandra Parsons with Dai Wood captaining the senior section.

Preceding the meeting the normal foursomes competition was replaced by the more popular format of a Texas Scramble.

The winning team was made up of Steve Bateman, alongside his captain-elect David Bradley and fellow committee member Mike Sutton. They returned a gross score of 65 giving them a nett total of 57.3.

Outgoing captain Roger Vaughan featured in the second placed team. He was accompanied by Stewart Garrett and Keith Porter and they ended up 1.5 shots behind the winners. Third place was claimed by a late entry as Alan Peates, his son Steve and Tony Westren went round in a nett score of 60.

The previous day was an open four-ball betterball event sponsored by Under Armour. Part of the first prize was two tickets to watch the Wales v Italy game in the Six Nations in March provided by the company.

The lucky recipients were Graham Exton and Gordon Wheelaghan after they combined for an excellent 44 points. Their score was made with a massive haul of 25 points on the front nine holes.

Runners-up, one point behind, were the Jones brothers, Paul and Steve, who just beat two pairs on 42. Ian Adams and Tony Romeo prevailed over Steve Peates and David Barthram for third spot after a count-back over the last six holes.

Earlier in the week the seniors held their February Stableford and Roger Phillips ended the day victorious. He carded 38 points which headed the field by two clear points. Barry Tucker took second on 36 while Mike Allen was left to rue a poor finish as he settled for third on 35.

The following day the seniors held their presentation dinner which was well attended as the prize winners of 2009 received their spoils.

WESTON Seniors held the fourth qualifying round of the Alan Holt trophy in the best conditions so far this year.

The vice-captain of the section, Roy Schubert, was the leader in the clubhouse for most of the morning with an excellent round of 77 gross, nett 64, was followed by Colin Dixon with a 66 nett, pushing club chairman Paul Lund into third place on count-back.

Both Roy and Colin go into the knockout draw. Paul's superb 73 gross was lowest of the day.

Scores: R Schubert 77 (13) 64; C Dixon 81 (15) 66; P Lund 73 (7) 66; P Berry 82 (15) 67; A Tucker 79 (12) 67; D Poole 89 (22) 67; D Bates 80 (13) 67; R Bates 86 (19) 67.

Midweek Stableford, Division 1: Rob Parsons 45 points; J James 43; A Heeney 42; L Charles 42; S Jones 42; A Northern 41; R McKechan 40; J Williams 40; S Fernley 39; K Aplin 39; C Hall 39; C Kennedy 38; M Evans 37; S Acton 36; J Whitewood 36; N Browne 36; P McKechan 36; R Bartlett 36; J Browne 30; R Teagle 29; A Chapman 28.

WORLEBURY Seniors held their first competition of the 2010 season recently.

The winners of this three-club competition were: Division 1, P Hagnedyk 37 points, M.Parfitt 36; Division 2, R Webber 41, A Little 39; Division 3, B Widgery 41, T Abbot 36.