Trophy presentation night held at Burnham & Berrow

THE annual trophy dinner night at Burnham & Berrow Golf Club saw an excellent turnout of trophy winners, to collect their prizes presented by club captain Adrian Deakins.

This is one of the few remaining official functions left in a busy year at the historic club, which has been celebrating its 125th anniversary.

Each trophy winner is called to receive their prize with the tradition of the club champion as the last recipient having to make a speech. Newly-crowned champion Will Crandon, who beat Deakins just a few weeks ago in the 36-hole final gave an excellent speech, thanking friends and colleagues who have helped him achieve what has been the highlight of his golfing career so far.

Special one-off presentations were also made to Justin Lane, who captained the Somerset team to victory at South West Counties Week, qualifying the team for the English county finals where they finished runners-up.

The Brent Knoll Bowl was also presented to Tony Manlow, who is the captain of the Buckthorns Golf Society, who this year won the competition for the first time in their 60-year history.

Sunday afternoon was the turn of the junior section with younger members of the club being honoured for their successes during the past 12 months.

The Richardson family scooped up many of the awards with brother and sister Miles (16) and younger sister Madeline (13), winning many of the competitions between them.

Recognition also needs to go to Freddie Turnell and Harriet Lockley, who were joint recipients of the most improved player award, with Harriet recently being selected for the Welsh girls’ squad. Player of the year went to Miles Richardson, who won four of the junior competitions, as well as two big club competitions.

The Courage fourball competition which was played on the morning of the trophy dinner was won by Martin Stephens and Paul Bamsey with 45 points, two ahead of Nigel Hunt and Andrew Grewar (43). The early starters experienced the worst of the weather with wet and windy conditions.

Scores - Courage fourball betterball: P Bamsey & M Stephens 45 pts; N Hunt & A Grewar 43; R Henderson & M Sly 42; C Collins & D Lloyd 42; A Holley & R Rossiter 41; N Folland & J Pitcher 41.

THE change in the weather with strong winds and heavy showers have made conditions tricky over the last week or so at Worlebury.

This was particularly in evidence in the men’s November Stableford, with many players making heavy weather of the conditions and failing to shoot or better their handicap.

Bucking the trend was Jim Skinner, whose haul of 42 points was easily the best score of the day and he won Division 1 at a canter. Runner-up was junior Jack Butterfield on 38. Worthy of mention was two handicapper Alex Winn’s round of one over gross, to return a commendable 37 points to take third place.

Division 2 was competitive with John Dyer winning with 38 points. The lesser places were decided on countback, three players scoring 37 points. Steve Ham got the verdict over Mark Puddy with Gary Freeman the unlucky one to lose out.

Ron Ganfield, enjoying a rare Saturday off from his football officiating duties, had a comfortable win in Division 3 with 39 points. Richard Exon came second on 36 points and Steve Corcoran third with 35.

The ladies held a Stableford competition with Hazel Cox top scoring to win Division 2 with Lynn Pope second and Ginette Bright third. Sue Kinch won Division 1 with Julie Stafford runner-up and lady captain Maxine Gardiner taking third place, pipping her vice-captain Michelle James, on countback.

Lorna Macivor continued her good run of form to win Division 3. Cheryl Saunders came second and Pat Smith third, beating Carol Miles on countback.

After the last two seniors’ competitions when he lost out on the prizes on countback, things finally came good for Pete Gilpin when, partnered by Gareth Richards and Bob Williams, he led his team to a fine win in the Texas scramble.

Their round, which included four birdies and 10 pars, gave them a score of nett 60.8. Tony Little, Mike Parfitt and Malcolm Summers were second with 61.4, closely followed by the team of Frank Hopkinson, Geoff Wildman and Martin Wilyman who had 62.4.

It was a big weekend for Jim Skinner as the following day he led a ceremony at the club to honour Worlebury members who have made the ultimate sacrifice, reading the Ode of Remembrance.

The captains of each of the sections were in attendance laying a commemorative wreath and crosses.

THERE was an enthusiastic turnout for the Weston mixed end-of-season competition.

Sixty-one members have played 11 mixed matches organised throughout the year by Zena and Andrew Balcombe. There were 112 different match pairings, in an age range of 20-80 years and handicaps from 5-36.

The fourball bowmaker to celebrate the end of season was won by the club captains team with 86 points. Scott McKechnie, Steve Corrick, Gill Pearce and Di Brown were way ahead of the field by a clear nine points.

Second to fourth place all scored 77, but by virtue of countback the runners-up were Andrew and Zena Balcombe, Tessa Williams and Matthew Brosnan. Third place was Angela and Derek Cook, Sally Irlam and Mark Perry, followed by Jacob Coleman, Martin Preddy, Di Brown and Beryl Robert.

HALLOWEEN seemed to last at Wedmore as ghostly figures were seen in the mist.

It was only the seniors’ Stableford though and as most struggle to see anyway, the fog had little impact on scores.

This was particularly true in Division 3 where both Derek Meades and Philip McMahon scored 43 points. Meades edged it on countback with Keith Rabbitts a distant third on 35.

There was a close finish in Division 1 with Bill Lander winning on 37 and Ray Dodkin just taking second place on countback from Ian Robson after both scored 36. Derek Osborn was clear leader in Division 2, his 41 points put him two clear of Tony Hoskings, who was a further two clear of Terry Simpson.

The fog had been dispersed by the wind and rain when the ladies played their Stableford. There was the usual blanket finish with three points covering the top five places.

Janis Lawrence finished clear of the field on 36 points. Jane Hewitt took second place on countback from Joan Peck, a par on the penultimate hole just getting her home on 35. Countback was again required to sort out fourth and fifth place with Pam Berry just getting ahead of Ange Webber after both scored 34 points.

There was another Stableford with more wind, but slightly less rain. Dom Smith was not put off by this, his score of 42 points won Division 1 by two points from John Russell with club captain Mike Garbutt third on 38.

Jim Gray led the way in Division 2, his score of 39 being two better than both Dave Skelton and Malcolm Tanner, with Skelton taking second place on countback.

Toughest division to win though was Division 3. Eventual winner was Dale Worthington on 42 points, but he was hotly pursued by both David Coggan and Max Grant, coming in with 40 points, with Coggan winning out on countback.

The ladies struggled in the wet, Pauline Hale won on 31, with Alison Dodkin best of a group on 28.

BYRON Lismore produced the stand-out round of the day in the John Smiths Trophy played on a wet and windy day at Brean.

He scored a massive 48 points, which was 10 better than anyone else could manage, and he became the player everyone wanted to be drawn with in the blind pairs format.

Steve Jones was crowned the winner when club captain Stuart Wills drew him out alongside the superb Lismore for a winning total of 77 points, five ahead of the rest of the pack.

Runners-up were Barrie Tucker (37) and Jason Kidley (35) on 72, while captain Stuart Wills (3) and John Cullinan (33) took third on 68.

Father and son duo of Steve and Alec Bateman teamed up to win the first of the Christmas events this year. They returned 44 Stableford points, which was also the score of Jason Kidley and John Rabbetts, but the Bateman’s had the better score on countback to take first prize in the Turkey Betterball. Third place went to Stuart Wills and Andy Thomas on 42.

Bob Toller won a three-way countback in the seniors’ November Stableford. He, along with Pat Mulholland and Barrie Yearsley, scored 36 points, but was declared the winner after a countback had been conducted. Mullholland took second with Yearsley having to settle for third spot.