Junior open at Worlebury

LOCAL design and building services company Fisher and Dean kindly sponsored Worlebury Golf Club’s junior open.

The competition attracted many young players from the region, unfortunately the weather was pretty atrocious with high winds and heavy rain making the going extremely tough, nevertheless some good results were posted in this Order of Merit event.

Sam Clarke was the net winner, posting 87 (nett 69), Jake Badger was second with 79 (69) and third place went to Kobe Adams on 79 (70).

The overall winner was visiting player Liam Kopp, scoring a gross 74 to take the title. Second was Will Warman on 76, with Adams third on the same score. The best placed Worlebury players were Jack Partridge on 79 and Ryan Thrupp recording a nett 75.

The club held the open pairs competition in some warm and pleasant conditions.

Well over 50 pairs entered this event with two ex-captain father and son combinations topping the table in an extremely close finish.

The winners on the day were Dougie and Dan Woods on 44 points, beating Steve and Harry Rowlands also on 44 on count back. Worlebury pair Martin Phelp and Martin Morgan were in third place, again scoring 44, with C Gadd and M Drew in fourth also on 44.

Two other past captains, Keri Allchurch and Martin Green were close 43, as well as Stuart Fawcett and Terry Bradley in sixth place on the same score.

The August monthly medal was played in excellent conditions with little wind, with a total of 21 players breaking net par on the day.

The top card came from an excellent round by first team player Zack Shelford, recording 67 (61) to take the first division medal. Simon Dempsey was second on 64, with John Wright in third with 65.

The second division was won by Joe Joyce 78 (63), followed by Kevin Pearson (66) and Martin Milyman on 68. Division three winner was Stuart Brown (65), second was Paul Fillingham (68) and third Henry O’Shea (68).

The winner of the Pro Trophy played in tandem with the monthly was Joe Joyce, also the winner of the medal second division, on gross 87 (63), with Keri Allchurch in second on gross 75 (66) and Matt Blackman in third place scoring 74 (68).

THE annual vets and grannies and an alternate medal competition was played this week by members of Worlebury Ladies Golf Club.

The winner of the cup was Wendy Larner with a nett score of 73. Runner-up was Angela Bagley with 77.

The winner of the medal was Maxine Gardiner with a nett score of 72 and the runner-up was Zandie Lennox with 73.

BURNHAM & Berrow members played for the Houldsworth Cup.

The medal competition attracted a full field of entrants and many struggled to deal with the difficult rough areas of the course.

However, Robert Sandilands coped well and recorded a nett score of 64 (gross 80) to win the cup, five shots clear of second place man, Roger Tripp 78 (69). Third place was settled on countback, with three players recording 70s. Steve O’Connell finished third, followed by Nick Bunn and Martin Plant.

In the final game of the season, Burnham & Berrow entertained Mendip Spring in Division 3 of the Avalon League. Before the game, Burnham were in a stronng position, being six points ahead of Worlebury, but they had to win at home.

In the event, they ran out comfortable winners by four and a half to a half, gaining 10.5 points and ensuring promotion. Captain Neil Darby and the team can now look forward to next season in Division 2.

KEITH Thomas had only one complaint following the Isle of Wedmore Golf Club Stableford last weekend.

He was not getting good value for money as he was taking too few shots. His 44 points, equivalent to a level par gross round of 70 put him five points clear of runner-up Bill Lander in Division 1, with Graham Sugg a further shot back in third place. Scores were not quite so spectacular in Division 2 where a steady 39 from Rob Davis took first place, with Josh Barwell, who continues to reduce his handicap, in second place with 38 points and Ian Bunn third on 37.

Scores in Division 3 also broke the 40-point barrier with Simon Bayliss winning on 42 points ahead of Ian Sentance who scored 40 and Pete Beavan who took third place on 38.

The ladies also recorded some good scores this week. They were playing a pair’s competition in greensomes format. Coming in third with 38 points were Mary Clark and Ronnie Follenfant with 38 points, while the top two could only be divided by countback which saw Sue Hughes and Desiree McGovern just edge out Jenny Cornwell and Diane Miller, both pairs scoring 39 points.

The week ended with a welcome win for the mixed team. With Captain Tom Bennett unable to play after injuring his ribs falling off a wall, the team had a hard fought win over Windwhistle by 4.5-3.5.

BREAN seniors will have to try again in their quest to reach the seniors’ Somerset Bowl final.

Their semi-final tie with Clevedon at Worlebury was called off after some of the greens flooded in the heavy rain. The seniors’ eclectic medal due to be played at Brean the following day, also suffered the same fate.

Paul Jones celebrated the birth of his second child earlier in the week by claiming the Division 1August Stableford. His card of 42 points was four ahead of Stuart Wills. The Division 2 award went to Steve Mason with a best of the day 43 points. Mark Hatfield recorded his second runner-up finish in as many events as he returned 40 points.

Scoring was not quite as good in Division 3 as Roger Phillips won with 38 points from Tony Slade on 36. Shelia Rouse took the ladies’ event from Gail Mason and with it prevented a Mason double.

The Avalon Division 2 side travelled to Long Sutton for their top of the table clash with their fellow front runners in the league.

In a close game, they went down by 3.5 to 1.5 with Brean’s points coming from a win from Paul Jones and Roy Baker, while Stuart Wills and Andy Thomas secured the half point.

Sunday was pro’s day at Brean when the members enter to try and beat a score set by the pro’s team in the testing melody format.

This year, Brean’s two professionals, David Haines and Andrew March, were joined by Roy Baker and European Tour player David Dixon.

The quartet was firing on all cylinders as they amassed 18 birdies between them over the round making the members task very difficult. At the end of the event, no-one had managed to beat their score of 58, but their nearest challengers of Mats Mattsson, Kevin Davies, Trevor Pitt and Phil Aspinall were awarded the trophy for their nett round of 65.9.

Club champion Charlie Huggins, along with Gordon and Craig Wheelaghan and club chairman Graham Exton were the next best on 66.4.

WESTON entertained Long Ashton in a Bristol and District Division 2 League match.

First out for Weston were Tim Rees and Ian Hudson, who gained a satisfying victory against the top Long Ashton pair, which included former Weston player Roger Giles.

Helped by some inspired putting from Ian, Weston won 3&2. Graham Hicken and Andy Balcombe had a tight game, Andy holing a 12 foot putt on the final green to ensure a halved match.

Jono Rees and Jack Radcliffe fought hard, but could not quite match their opponents, eventually going down 3&2. Nigel and James Browne got off to a quick start, racing to five up after seven holes. Their opponents fought back strongly, but the Weston father and son pair held on for a 3&2 victory.

In the final match, the home pair of Adam Sloan and James Lane had a close game in the gathering gloom. A magnificent eagle on the 17th hole was a fine way for Weston to close out the match 2&1. The final result was 3.5-1.5 win for Weston, and a welcome bright light in an otherwise difficult season.

It was a good week for the Brownes in foursomes, as James and Nigel also won the Bleadon Bowl.

Terry Holden won the second playing of the seniors’ Jonathan Latham Trophy. Gordon Robert was second, just one shot behind.

The trophy is in memory of Jonathan, a past seniors’ captain and was kindly presented to the club by a group of Jonathan’s friends at the Royal Hong Kong Golf Club where he had been a member.

Results: Terry Holden 83 (12) 71; Gordon Robert 77 (5) 72; Terry Whybrow 92 (19) 73; Roy Schubert 86 (12) 74; Ray Harris 86 (11) 75; Keith Davey 92 (16) 76; John Greaves 94 (17) 77; Dave Reynolds 95 (17) 78.