Worlebury Golf Club held its annual New Year’s Day Texas scramble for the Princess Diana Salver.

FOURTEEN teams blew off the cobwebs to take part in the annual New Year’s Day Texas scramble and compete for the Princess Diana Salver at Worlebury Golf Club.

This competition, which was inaugurated following her demise in 1997, aimed for each team to consist of a male, female and junior member, although this has not always been possible. It was therefore pleasing that, for the first time since 2007, the winning team was so represented.

Conditions were not easy, but the course was in great shape and some excellent scores were recorded. The winners on 54.7 nett were Lynne Johnson, Graham Hewlett and Mikey Nicholls, who narrowly beat Keith Wharton, Jill Phillips and Jayne Stone, who returned a score of 55.0 Third on countback were Merv Kinch, Hazel Cox and Darrell James on 55.3.

Our picture shows Mikey with the salver, accompanied by Lynne, Graham and Worlebury lady captain, Maxine Gardiner, who made the presentation.

WESTON ladies took to the course on a cold, windy day for their weekly Stableford competition.

Winning with a great score of 37 points was Alysia Rees, followed by Di Walker in second place with 35. Zena Balcombe and Mel Rossi came in third and fourth respectively.

A bitterly cold, frosty morning with the course a white out, greeted 34 hardy Weston seniors. The players had to compete using only five clubs, which made for a tricky format considering the greens were quite frozen.

Winning with 35 points was Michael Latham, who pipped David Snowdon to the top prize by virtue of countback. Third on 34 was Howard Sims. Surprisingly, in the conditions, four players achieved twos.

MARTYN Cahill saved his best round of the year until the final day of 2014 as he raced up an amazing 51 points on New Years Eve to take the top spot in the Christmas open at Brean.

This was compiled on temporary greens due to the frosty conditions, but it was still a spectacular effort by the Burnham flooring contractor as he relegated Mats Mattsson’s 44-point card in second spot.

With the weather conditions changing halfway through the 10-day running Stableford, it meant the competition had to be split in half with the first part of it contested on the normal greens.

The winner of this part of the event was Richard Triscott with a 41-point card. Runner-up to Triscott was Matt Haskins with 38 points.

The January monthly medal always sees two extra trophies being played for in the shape of the New Year’s Trophy for the best overall score and the Deacon Cup for the leading Division 3 player.

Three players returned nett 67s in tough conditions, so a countback was required for the winner of the trophy. Steve Jones was declared the winner, despite a seven on his final hole, as everyone struggled as the strong wind strengthened even more.

Stewart Garrett was the runner-up to Jones in the Division 2 medal, while Steve Eley continued his good form with victory in the top flight with the other two 67s.

A level par 70 was the winning number in the third division as Jeff Read added another award in the shape of the Deacon Cup to the growing list of successes he has enjoyed on the golf course.

The winner of the Winter League with 42 points was Barrie Tucker as he held a four-point advantage over Brian Read, who in turn held off a quartet of players on 37. Murray Parsons was the best of the foursome, taking third place to go with his scoring of the only two of the day, which bumped his winnings up nicely.

THE change of year was marked at Wedmore Golf Club with a bowmaker on New Year’s Day to help blow away the cobwebs from the previous night’s celebrations.

This may have been a new year, but there were some familiar names among the prize winners.

Leading the way were Rob Davis, Jon Thompson and father and son Steve and Tom Smith. In difficult conditions they amassed 86 points, good enough to win by three clear points.

Second place went to the team of Ian Robson, Bill Lander, Tom Bennett and Andy Flavell, who just squeezed out the third placed team of Jim Dobbs, Saybria Sims, Nick Parker and Bobby Jones by a single point.