Premier League referee plays a round at Worlebury

WORLEBURY Golf Club had the pleasure of a visit from Premier League referee, Lee Probert, who had the honour of taking charge of this year’s FA Cup final.

Lee visited for a round along with friends and family, who are members of Cumberwell Park Golf Club. They were invited by Worlebury member, Ron Ganfield, who is an assistant referee with many Premier League appearances to his name.

The guests were joined by a number of members for a roll-up which was won by club secretary, Andy Horsburgh and Worlebury members, Richard Brown and Dale Rendall.

Lee praised the club for its picturesque setting, the quality of the course and its warm reception, something the man in the middle seldom receives at the venues he normally visits.

Ganfield provided a trophy and refreshments to mark the occasion and it is hoped it will become an annual event at the club.

Lee is flanked on the left by Andy Horsburgh and Richard Brown (right).

THE Worlebury Junior Open was a huge success attracting entrants from across the region.

Despite breezy and cool conditions which made life difficult for the youngsters, some excellent scores were recorded.

The winner of the main competition was Steven Blake from Taunton Vale, with a fine gross score of 72, which included five birdies. In winning the competition, Steven will be included on the Telegraph Junior Championship leaderboard.

He is the first winner of the Evans Trophy, which was donated by the current Somerset Golf Union president and Worlebury Golf Club life member, Brian Evans, in memory of his late wife, Pam.

Worlebury members, Dylan Xanh, Harry Rac and Michael Nicholls came first, second and third respectively in the nett competition with scores of 62, 64 and 65, and the winner of the girls’ competition was Davina Xanh with a 69.

The club are extremely grateful to Bellway Homes, who kindly sponsored the event.

Worlebury junior prize winners pictured with Brian Evans, Worlebury junior organiser Pam Burnell, and Helen Fareham from Bellway Homes.

WORLEBURY Golf Club mixed section held the annual Gertrude Johnson Trophy and the winners were Russ Bourton and Emma Limer.

The pair won with a nett 68 on the back nine from runners-up Keri Allchurch and Helen Clarke.

The ladies’ section played for the Daisy Payne Flag Cup the following day and this was won by Sue Kinch with a score of nett 73. Sue placed her winning flag on the 18th green and the win resulted in a handicap cut of 0.8.

THE Excelsior Cup medal competition was played at Weston Golf Club on a superb day for golf.

Neil Watkins came in with the best score of a nett 65, closely followed by Tony McEvoy on 66. Darren King just missed out on second place coming in with 66, but lost out on countback.

The club welcomed Stover Golf Club for a mixed greensomes match. Weston came out on top winning by six games to one. Zena Balcombe and Trevor Jenkinson played extremely well winning 7&6.

The ladies’ medal competition was won by Sue Andow with 71 on countback from Diney Costeloe, with Dodie Waterhouse in third with 77.

The club held a casino night as part of the year’s programme of social events to raise funds for Children’s Hospice in Wraxall. Eighty members and guests supported the event making a successful and enjoyable evening.

Winners of the open mixed greensomes at Weston, Trevor and Joan Jenkinson with club captain Roy Schubert.

THE good news from Wedmore was that Tim Harris had regained the Somerset seniors’ championship he won two years ago.

Playing at The Mendip, his gross 76 was three shots better than any other player on the day and he was also tied for first on nett scores with 71.

Back at Wedmore, the monthly Stableford went ahead in near perfect conditions which seemed to confuse many of the players. The main exceptions came in Division 3 where Brian Fry recorded 43 points, the best score of the day.

The second best score was in the same division which gave the runners-up position to David Coggan. Youngster George Cox was third on 38.

Club captain Brad Ruddick won Division 1 with 39 points, just one better than Mark Hayes-Williams with Darryl Cornelius a further shot back in third.

Division 2 was won by Richard Lane with 40 points, with Darren Cornish in second on 38 and Robert Cornish taking third place on countback from Bobby Jones after both scored 37.

The sunshine also brought more ladies than usual out at the weekend and again it was the higher handicappers who made the most of the conditions.

Pauline Hale had best score with 35, one better than young Harriet Lockley. Claire Biggs was best of the silver division players on 30.

The ladies held their own competition, a greensomes, earlier in the week. This produced a close finish with a single point covering the first three places.

In third place were Deidre Wheadon and Val Webber with 35 points. The top two could only be split on countback as both pairs scored 36 points.

Calculations on the computer eventually declared Ronnie Follenfant and Margaret Rogers as the winners, just edging out Joan Peck and Liz Sims.

Somerset senior champion Tim Harris.

THREE players returned 42 point totals in the Brean Super Series Stableford with Chris Payne being declared the winner after a countback.

He pipped Gordy Wheelaghan and Vince Ford on the back nine as they had to settle for second and third respectively. Pat Mullholland scored 41 points and was unlucky not to end up in the prizes.

The following day, Payne was at it again as he and Neil Barker had the best scores of the day in the May Stableford. Payne and Barker handed in 37-point scores in Division 2 and Payne took the award following a countback, making it a winning double weekend for him.

The Division 1 entry was decimated by the Avalon League match and Barrie Tucker prevailed over Richard Triscott. Bob Masterman was the master of Division 3, beating Simon Baunton into second spot by a single point.

Suzanne Hatfield won the ladies’ Stableford with a 37 point score as she led home Annie Williams by four points.

The Avalon Division 2 side started their double header weekend with a convincing 4-1 win over Orchardleigh, but suffered a 3-2 defeat to Burnham and Berrow the following day.

The Avalon League Division 6 team were defeated by 3.5 to 1.5 at Wedmore. The whole point came from the impressive pair of Pete Barton and Dave Bradley, who recorded their fourth win as a pair of the season. The half point was secured by Graham Foy and Clive Goode.

The ladies won their home match with Woodspring on Sunday by two games to one at Brean.

Bill Griffin is the early leader in the seniors’ Captains Cup after a superb nett 65 in the first of the three rounds. He commanded a healthy five-stroke winning margin over Barrie Tucker and Pete Douglas, with Tucker taking second place on a countback.

The final two rounds are due to be played in the next few weeks but with two out of three scores to count Griffin is certainly in the box seat at the moment.

Allen Fellingham’s seniors’ lost another away match as they went down by 4.5-1.5 at Vivary Park in Taunton. The only bright spot in an otherwise poor day was the victory of Pete Lock and Ken Rouse.