Fine scoring at Weston’s monthly Stableford

WESTON Golf Club men’s monthly Stableford may have taken place under grey skies, but the scoring was anything but.

One hundred and ten players took part, playing on full greens and tees. The winner of Division 1 was David Wright on 41 points, with Kieron Aplin a close second, also on 41. Junior captain George Worthington came in third place with 40 points.

In the second division, Derek Goldie won with 40 points, Andrew Roberts was second also on 40, while Andy Skinner was third with 39. Everyone enjoyed the day and the course conditions were superb considering the time of the year. The eight-a-side match between the over-50s and the under-50s took place on Sunday. It was a well fought draw, each side achieving two points.

A field of 50 competed for the last two spots in the seniors’ Alan Holt Trophy. The two who got through to the knockout stages are David Snowdon, who scored a nett 68, one less than Graham Tripp, who claimed second spot on countback from Eddie Langford.

Weston ladies played their draw for partners competition with the top three scorers all receiving handicap reductions. A somewhat milder winter’s day saw Tessa Pitt return an incredible score of 46 points, knocking three shots off her handicap.

Runner-up Alison Whitewood (39) reduced her handicap by two shots and ladies’ captain Tessa Williams(37) by one.

Weston’s resident professional Mike Laband has been elected captain of the Gloucester and Somerset PGA for 2016.

George Worthington was elected Weston Golf Club junior captain for 2015 at their recent annual meeting. Pictured with George are cup winners Toby Booth and Ben Magor and outgoing captain Harry Turner.

A PLEASANT winter’s day attracted 124 entrants for the February Stableford at Worlebury.

The benign weather and excellent course conditions saw high scores being posted, with over a third of the field playing to their handicap or better. As a result, there were a number of handicap reductions and a few disappointed golfers who recorded scores which in normal circumstances, would have merited a prize.

Top scorer of the day with 47 points was Jamie Crandon, who kept up his rich vein of form, to win Division 3 by two from Paul McAdams. Both men were further awarded with a hefty handicap reduction. Peter Hill came third in this division with 43 points.

The most impressive performance of the day however, was in Division 1, when eight handicapper Chris Mannings-Hill went round in two over gross to score an excellent 43 points, which reduced his handicap by one.

Nick Stickland was runner-up on 41, beating Martin Philp who came third with 40.

Another fine performance saw Martyn Hind score 44 points to take Division 2 at a canter. Countback decided the other places with Craig Buck pipping Andy Collard to second place and Jason Dean the unlucky one to miss out on a prize, each player scoring 41 points.

The seniors also had a good turnout for their Stableford, although the weather was not so kindly, with frosty conditions seeing the competition played on winter greens. As a result, it was a non-qualifier.

Nevertheless, scoring was very good and in Division 1, with the top four notching 42 points, countback had to be used to decide the placings. Clive Gadd took the honours, followed by Chris Nelson, John Biggs and Frank Hopkinson.

Top performer of the day was Bill Bain in Division 2, who won with 46 points. Frank Woolman came second on 44 and Kenny Yam edged out Patrick Balchin on countback, both scoring 41.

One hundred members and guests came to the St Valentines Supper. The clubhouse was buzzing with the partygoers enjoying a delicious meal and top quality entertainment provided by club captain, Peter Phillips and his troupe.

Peter required a costume change as he moved seamlessly from meeting and greeting the guests to royally entertaining them accompanied by fellow singers Neil Dicker, Clare Hunter and Leanne Matthews.

IT WAS a busy week for the seniors at Wedmore Golf Club, starting with a bowmaker.

The clear winners were David Bates, Peter Laney and Steve Lawrence, whose score of 74 was four better than the rest of the field. Arguably the best performance of the day though came from Mike Munns and Terry Simpson, who despite being a player short, still scored 70 points.

This was enough to secure second place on countback from two other teams, David Russell, Colin Clegg and Frank Denniston who took third place, and John Bennett, Richard Blake and David Dams in fourth.

An eight-man team travelled to Saunton to take part in the Saunton Veterans Jamboree. On the tricky Saunton links, the team acquitted themselves well, totalling 149 points. This was good enough to secure third place in a field of 20 teams from across the south west, finishing just one point behind runners-up Holsworthy with the home team, Saunton, taking first place with an impressive score of 159.

On the same day, the ladies held a greensomes competition back at Wedmore. Leading the way were Margaret Rogers and Gay McWhinney, whose excellent total of 39 points put them three clear of runners-up Jane Hewitt and Alison Dodkin. Sue Tarry and Alison Buckton were a further point behind in third place.

The final event at the weekend was a qualifier for the national Daily Mail foursomes. This is always a difficult format, but from a limited field there were still some excellent scores. Leading the way and qualifying for the regional rounds were Geoff Fisher and Graham Sugg, scoring 41 points, which was just one better than second-placed Mike Garbutt and Bill Lander. Tony Ribi and Nick Parker were two points further back in third place.

THE AGM shotgun scramble at Brean took on a slightly different format this year with a version used by the senior section being used for the first time.

With a bit more pressure on the drives, some players thrived while some had some problems. The leading trio of Stewart Garrett, John Ham and Allan Marshall were certainly in the former camp as they romped to victory by 2.5 shots.

Their nett 58.5 beat outgoing club captain Paul Jones, his brother Steve and the 2013 captain Brian Read into second spot after they posted a nett 61. Third place went to Steve Mason Jason Kidley and Matt Haskins on 61.5, ahead of a raft of teams who all ended within a shot of them.

Following the morning’s golf, Stuart Wills took up the reins as Brean Golf Club captain at the club’s annual meeting. He was helped in to his captain’s blazer by outgoing captain Paul Jones and made the first of many speeches.

Suzanne Hatfield was awarded her ladies’ captain 2015 sweater from her predecessor Annie Williams as she starts her term in office. Seniors’ captain Bob Hurrell was also introduced to the room, although he officially took over at the helm at the beginning of the month.

Saturday’s winter league result had a familiar look to it as the top two were identical to the event that took place seven days earlier. Richard Triscott was again the winner with Tony Richards taking second place.

After last week’s points fest on the temporary greens, the pair both handed in 39-point scores with Triscott getting the verdict on the better back nine. Jason Kidley was third on 37 after he too won a countback with three other players.

Pete Douglas scored a victory in the February seniors’ Stableford. For the first time in over a week the main greens were back in use and single figure handicapper Douglas had no problem with having to content with the regulation size holes again as he totalled 39 points to win by two.

Runner-up was Barrie Yearsley on 37 and two further points behind him in third was Ken Ponter.