Festive season in full swing at Worlebury

THERE has been much merriment and plenty of golf during the festive season at Worlebury.

The annual children’s Christmas party was a resounding success with 65 children thoroughly enjoying themselves at the club. Entertainment was provided by Gary, who kept the children amused with a range of games, balloon modelling and costume changes with Superman and the Minnions particularly well received.

Club captain Peter Phillips finished the entertainment off with a disco before introducing Santa to the excited partygoers. The party was the brainchild of Janet Jamieson, ably supported by husband Ron and a raft of volunteers.

Having completed their 15th event, Janet and Ron are finally calling it a day and countless children have had great fun over the years thanks to their efforts.

The seniors were next to celebrate and they had a competition followed by Christmas lunch which was enjoyed by 88 members. The day was excellently organised by captain Mike Williams and his vice Ron Stevens, who invited Peter Phillips and club president, Keith Wharton to be their respective partners in the competition, which was won by John Biggs and Tony Evans with an incredible 48 points.

Countback was required to separate the next three pairs, who each scored 44 points. Alan Hartree/John Ratajczak pipped Tony Foster/Rob Saddler and David Stewart/Geoff Wildman.

The ladies held their Christmas lunch, a round of golf being followed by a delicious meal. The golf was closely contested with a point separating each of the three top teams.

Angela Bagley, Claire Bayliss and Carole Miles came first, closely followed by the trio of Ginette Bright, Lynne Johnson and Julie Knight, who edged out Hazel Cox, Lisa Griffiths and Lynn Pope.

The Jamiesons were once more involved, this time in supporting the lady captain Michelle James in hosting the event. Ron and fellow seniors served the drinks with Janet, who has the amazing knack of helping members willingly empty their pockets, organising a raffle raising, £175 for the captain’s charity. The evening was once more rounded off by Peter Phillips who led the fun and games.

The week was rounded off with the club Christmas party wonderfully organised by vice-captain Paul Lintern and the social committee. The clubhouse was packed with the assembled throng enjoying a buffet and being entertained by a stellar performance from local band Lipinski.

Some serious golf also took place this week with the men’s December Stableford and the open pairs both attracting healthy fields.

Rich Godwin won Division 1 with 40 points, Will Denyer taking second place on 39 on countback from Pete Gilpin. It was also close in Division 2, with Kevin Marshall beating Russell Priest on countback, both scoring 40 points. Mark Puddy came third with 39.

It was a family affair in Division 3, with young Sean Spearing’s 38 points comfortably beating dad, Fred’s 34, to take the runners-up position, but both were eclipsed by the performance of Iain Robinson, who took the honours, with 39.

Professional Gary Marks once more organised the winter open pairs competition, with the top three prizes being lifted by Worlebury members. The winners were Dan Bovingdon and Craig Conway with 45 points. Ken Hansen jnr and Stuart Fawcett took second on countback from Jim Skinner and Barry Newson, both pairs posting 43 points.

Visitors dominated the lesser prizes with M Daw and S Brueford beating Worlebury member Frank Barlow and guest C Griffiths on countback. W Tunnicliffe and M Wade, also visitors, came sixth.

Finally, it was a big week for junior member and county player Jack Partridge, who was in Spain for a week competing for the third year running in the European Junior Golf Tournament.

Jack had won through earlier in the season in a qualifier at St Pierre. A field of 102 started at the beginning of the week at Finca Cortesin Golf Club and after four qualifying rounds, this was narrowed down to the top 45, who went into the final day.

Jack scored a fine three over round of 75 and when combined with his earlier four rounds, finished a highly creditable equal 10th.

A BEAUTIFUL winter’s morning with a tricky breeze greeted Weston seniors, who competed in a four-ball betterball competition.

With the mild weather making the greens very quick for the time of year and player handicaps reduced to three quarters, the format made for some interesting scoring.

Prevailing by a considerable margin were Jim Ness and Mo Sweeney with a fine score of 42 points. The next four places could only be decided by countback and consequently in second place were Ken Matthews and Mark Frisby, with David Rowland and Ron Kelley third, both teams scoring 39 points.

There was a good field for the ladies EG medal with June Phillips taking top spot with 78. Wendy Thomas was runner-up with 80 and there were four players on 81, but Zena Balcombe took third place on countback.

It was a special night for the ladies, who celebrated another successful year with their annual dinner and trophy presentation.

Seventy ladies attended the dinner followed by an entertaining cabaret in honour of the captain. Special thanks go to vice-captain Reine O’Reilly for organising such an enjoyable evening.

FATHER Christmas made an early appearance at Wedmore and brought a present with him – some unexpectedly dry weather for the Chistmas bowmaker.

The best behaved team obviously was Ann Adams, Pauline Warner and Audrey Cowlin, who gained 44 points and first prize. This was five better than the runners-up Deidre Wheadon, Maggs Willetts and Heather Wilcox, who pushed Jane Midgley, Liz Sims and Marie Mackle into third place on countback. Chris Simpson, Glenda Donald and Alison Crick were fourth with 37 points.

Prizes were presented at the party in the evening when Christmas puddings from the previous weeks’ competition were also distributed. Top three prizes in bronze division went to Judy Cutter (first), Gill Jones and Jan Jenkins. The first three places in silver division were filled by Shirley Gooding, Cathy Olive and Liz Hill.

Earlier in the week, the seniors had played a medal which incorporated the Master Putter trophy for fewest putts taken. This went to Tony Glover who took 25 putts.

In the medal itself, there was a tight finish in Division 1 with four players on 66. Countback gave first place to Martin Peakman with John Russell second, Tony Biggs third and Chris Norris fourth.

Keith Thomas was clear winner of Division 2, but only by one point from a group of four players on 69. David Russell claimed second, with Brian Kidd in third. Division 3 was more clear cut with Francis Rabbitts winning on 66, one clear of Derek Meades, with Roy Peck third on 71.

There were more good scores in the club medal with Nigel Jones winning Division 1 with 43, four better than John Russell on 39, with new captain Tony Ribi third on 37.

Trevor Denny also scored 43 to win Division 2, one better than Darren Cornish, with Tony Rymell third on 40.

Another blanket finish in Division 3 saw Brian Fry, Paul Stevenson and Frank Denniston all scoring 40 with countback putting them in that order. Mary Lou Denny matched her husband by winning the ladies’ event with 40.

ROY Fletcher was in fine form as he won the final medal of 2015 at Brean.

He scored a superb nett 63 on his way to top spot on Division 2, finishing four clear of club chairman Tony Roper. Captain Stuart Wills looked set to end the year on a high, but Tom Broom produced an excellent nett 64 late in the day to pip Wills by a shot.

Division Three scoring didn’t quite hit the heights of the first two flights, but it did produce the closest finish of the day. Bob Masterman needed a countback to secure top spot after both he and Gordy Wheelaghan returned nett 73s.

Graham Foy won the Winter League Stableford the previous day with an excellent 38 points in tough conditions. The wind got gradually stronger throughout the day, but Foy shrugged off three poor holes to win.

Runners-up spot was decided by countback with Barrie Tucker edging out Tony Richards on the back nine after both had 35 points.

The seniors beat the forecast rain to complete their turkey trot scramble before it started. The winning trio were Bob Toller, Roger Blackwell and Mo Sanders with a score over the 15 holes of 49.7.

They were just 0.3 ahead of the runners-up who were Roger Phillips, Bob Hurrell and Bill Griffin. Third place was claimed by Tony Roper (aka Father Christmas), Ian Welch and George Stratford with 50.8.