Junior open competition held at Worlebury

WORLEBURY Golf Club’s junior open attracted a field of 42 entrants from across the region.

The winner, lifting the Evans Trophy, was Andrew Blake from Oake Manor, with a gross score of 80, which included two birdies on the outward nine. The conditions on the day were challenging, windy and rather cold and this was reflected in the scoring.

The Blakes have been good supporters of the open and Andrew followed in the footsteps of his brother, Steven, last year’s winner, who had to settle for third place, with Matthew Ison of Enmore Park, coming second with 81.

Nett winner was Bradley Malone from Enmore Park, who took home the Ralph Lippett Cup with a 64. Countback was required to decide second and third places between two Worlebury juniors, with Oliver Edwards pipping Dominic Williams, both scoring 65s.

The winner of the Wally Hartree Cup for best girl was nine handicapper Arabella White, from Lansdown Golf Club. The winner of the Gary Marks Salver for the best gross score by a Worlebury junior, went to Jack Partridge, with Oliver Edwards winning the nett.

The competition was also a SGU Junior Team Club Championship event and the Worlebury team of Oliver Edwards, Alix Kew and Dominic Williams triumphed and will now go on to represent Somerset in the England Junior Golf Champion Tournament at Frilford Heath in August.

The event was kindly sponsored by School Sports Teaching.

The juniors also held a medal which was won by six handicapper Jack Partridge, with a fine round of nett 66. Alix Kew was runner-up with a 68 and Ryan Thrupp third, a further shot adrift.

At the other end of the age spectrum, the seniors had a good win in the Somerset Bowl foursomes, recording a narrow win over Tall Pines at the neutral venue of Clevedon Golf Club.

The pairings of Dave Treleaven/Jeff Banfield and Keri Allchurch/Frank Hopkinson had comfortable wins, but Stuart Lock/Rob McMillen and Paul Hibbard/Gerry Miles fought hard only to lose one down, the latter pairing on the first extra hole. Worlebury’s hopes pinned on the result of Tony Westren and Tom Blackett’s game and they too had to go down the 19th, having finished all square. They held their nerve to go on and win on the second extra hole and Worlebury now face Clevedon in the next round.

The seniors also had a friendly match at home against Minehead. Boosted by evergreen Barrie Newson’s first appearance of the season, they won an enjoyable encounter by 4.5-1.5.

Sam Hewlett has had a good month winning the Gertrude Johnson Cup with her partner, husband Graham, and also the May Stableford. She ended the month on a high winning the Daisy Payne Cup comfortably with a nett 68. This saw her handicap tumble by six shots.

Julie Stafford, continuing her comeback after a back injury, was second with a 74 and Amanda Cook third on 75.

The second round of beat the pro had a tight finish with countback required to separate the top four, each of whom returned nett 67s. Getting the verdict, with a strong finish, was centenary captain Steve Rowlands, followed by Barry Bird, Danny Saunderson and Kevin Marshall.

All the main junior prize winners are pictured with Worlebury captain Peter Phillips and Pam Burnell, the junior organiser.

THE Excelsior Cup was played at Weston with a strong field of more than 100 competitors.

With the course in fantastic condition, low scoring was guaranteed. Two 62s were recorded, along with a gross 66 and 18 cards under par.

The cup was won by Division 2 player Steve Teale with a nett 62. Division 1 winner was Andy Gill also with a 62. Second was Tim Rees with a 66 and third was Sam Fernley, also 66 and now playing off plus one. Ross Davidson took the fourth slot also with a 66.

Teale took top spot in Division 2 with Ian Pitt runner-up on 64. Third, fourth and fifth places went to Peter Davie, Andrew Jones and Russ Millier respectively, all carding 68s.

The men’s Pickeridge Bowl team played against Long Sutton at Oake Manor, losing the last match on the 18th. Thanks to Sam Fernley, Liam May, Steve Thomas, Nigel Browne and Ashley Collis for representing the club.

Congratulations go to junior captain George Worthington for representing Somerset Under-18s. George won his foursomes match and narrowly losing his singles, but he has been chosen for the next match.

The ladies’ A team played in testing conditions away at Bristol & Clifton. The team gained three points, but the star of the day was June Phillips, playing for the A team after a long spell of injury and winning her match 3&1. Kath Farrant also had a good round and halved her match.

The B team played away at Chipping Sodbury in wet and breezy conditions. All the ladies played in higher positions than they would normally and knew they were facing a challenge.

Seven of the matches went to the 17th and two progressed to the 18th with one winning.

Last year’s captains Roy Schubert and Tessa Williams presented a cheque for £2,000 to the Children’s Hospice South West for funds raised throughout their year.

THE Brean May medal attracted a sizeable entry, but the competitors had to compete over a reduced 16 holes after an incident on the Unity Farm camp site which meant the Dorset and Somerset Air Ambulance had to land on the 11th tee.

This led to two holes being closed to the golfers for a time during the morning while the casualties were treated.

Arsenal fan Pete Barton was a winner just like his football team was at Wembley later in the day as he defeated Phil Hodgson on a countback after both returned nett 59s.

Graham Foy was another player to break the 60 barrier as he matched Barton and Hodgson’s efforts on his way to winning Division 2. He had a two-shot cushion over his fellow Scot Stewart Garrett, who was second.

Tony Groves was the Division 3 winner with a nett 60, one stroke ahead of runner- up Tony Bissett. Annie Williams won the ladies’ event with a nett 65, one clear of Jenny Vaughan.

Both Avalon teams were on the road with the Division 6 side having a short trip to Isle of Wedmore, while the Division 2 boys had to trek to South Somerset to face Cricket St Thomas.

Both teams lost on the day with the match at Wedmore being the closer of the two as Brian Read’s men picked up six valuable league points in a 3-2 defeat.

The long journey obviously didn’t agree with Steve Bateman’s troops as they lost heavily by 4.5 games to 0.5 in Chard.

The ladies played an inter-club match against their Woodspring counterparts at home on the same day. Due to a late drop out, the sides were uneven so a individual Stableford was played with an average score being taken for each club.

When all this was calculated at the end, Brean captain Suzanne Hatfield’s team were declared the winners.

Colin Roberts holds the early lead after round one of the seniors’ Captains Cup. He scored a nett 67 to head the rest of the large entry by one.

Second place was decided on a countback between Jim McLauchlan and George Stratford. On this occasion it was Stratford who got the nod for the second placed finish with the better back nine.

Eric Jones recorded his second success in three weeks in the midweek Stablefords. He posted 39 points to win by a single point from Jeff Read. Read in turn held a two-point advantage over Les Clutterbuck, who took third place.

The two’s rollover pot was won and shared equally between Wayne Barrett and Steve Eley, as they made birdies at the 17th and second respectively.

BURNHAM & Berrow is set to play host to the UK’s leading PGA pros when it stages the prestigious Titleist & FootJoy PGA Professional Championship from June 2-5.

The links course will welcome 156 pros who have qualified for the 72-hole showpiece event which carries a total prize fund of £91,500.

The field will include several PGA professionals who played in the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth recently, while PGA Cup captain Jon Bevan will also be present.

He’ll be running the rule over his potential charges as the leading six players will qualify to represent Great Britain & Ireland in the bi-ennial matchplay event at CordeValle, California in September.

MENDIP Spring held its junior open and was well supported by local players from all over the county.

These players had lots to play for, courtesy of the sponsors Weston College and CFF.

The nine-hole competition was won by Sam Pepler from Farrington with a nett score of 23. Ollie Brimfield from Mendip Spring came in with an excellent round of 45 points to win the 18-hole prize, with Jess Hays from Bath finishing runner-up.