West of England success for Clevedon pair

ASHLEY Mansell and Steve Lawrence from Clevedon Golf Club, were this year’s winners of the West of England Foursomes at Burnham & Berrow.

They defeated Dave Allison and Stew Logan from Cotswold Hills 3&1 in the 36 hole final. The winners are seen receiving the trophy from Burnham & Berrow Club captain Martin Wilkins.

The annual international match at Burnham & Berrow was played with a full field of players representing one of the home countries. England came out on top in this year’s event, with Neil Folland, Peter Lismore and Brian Gunning all scoring an impressive 38 points. Wales came out on top in the ladies’ event.

The March medal was won by Taylor Stote 75 (6) 69 on countback from Mark Woods 81 (12) 69. These were two clear of Robert Rossiter 81 (1) 71 in third. Lowest gross score of the day came from Adrian Deakins 74 (2) 72.

Division 2 saw Miles Richardson 89 (16) 73 lead the way, Anthony Gibson 91 (15) 76 in second and seniors’ captain Mike Armstrong 91 (14) 77 in third.

The ladies’ enjoyed a foursomes match against the seniors, which was followed by a carvery lunch. With 12 pairs a side, the seniors proved to be too strong, winning 8.5-3.5.

On a bitterly cold day, the ladies won their second round match in the Mail on Sunday competition, at home against Mendip Spring. It was another close battle with Burnham winning 3-2. They now wait to find out which club they will meet in the third round.

The ladies’ March medal was won by Mel Bell with an excellent net 72. Jean Booth was second with nett 74 and Annette Poynton third with 80.

BLEADON Hill golf course held their first-ever club competition last Sunday.

The course’s management team decided to break the members in easily with a straight forward nin hole Stableford. In blustery conditions, Paul Dolbear came out on top winning with a score of 21 points, one ahead of Chris Leaman with 20.

It was to be a good day for Paul, who also won the nearest the pin competition.

The club now has a full calendar of events which can be found on its website www.bleadonhillgolfcourse.co.uk with many different formats of competition.

As the season is now upon us, Sarah Burnell of Platinum Golf has released further dates for junior coaching, which can be found on the website or if you’d like to speak to someone, please contact Scott Thompson on 07875 236731.

Both Scott and Sarah are official SGP county coaches and help coach Weston’s rising stars of the future - www.somersetgolfpartnership.org.uk

THE popular annual grudge match between England and the Rest of the World took place at Worlebury.

The winners, by a narrow margin of 10.5 to 8.5, were England and the picture shows, on the left, England captain, Pete Nuttall, receiving the trophy from his opposite number in the Rest of the World side, Keri Allchurch.

The equally popular quiz night also took place last weekend. The clubhouse was packed with 20 teams taking part, all keen to be put through their paces by quizmaster Dougie Woods.

The main event was won by the Blind Antelopes, a team skippered by greens chairman John Keight. Second and third place went to a tie break and the Knights Rampart team led by former ladies’ captain, Marion Nute, pipped David Mellor’s team, Half Wits. In the music and picture section, the winners were the Worlebury Rascals, led by Gary Freeman.

A STRONG north-easterly wind made conditions particularly tough for the seniors at Wedmore, with no-one scoring better than 72.

Leading the way on this score was Tom Bennett who won Division 1 for the second week in a row. He narrowly squeezed out Steve Lawrence on countback with John Russell a shot back in third.

Eric Wallace continued his run of good form to win Division 2, again on 72. This put him one shot ahead of runner-up David Russell, who in turn was a shot ahead of Peter Tyler.

The higher handicappers struggled, with a third of the players failing to finish in Division 3. Richard Scourse won with an excellent 72, putting him three ahead of Colin Clegg with Bob Dainty a shot back in third.

The ladies also continued to struggle in wintry conditions. Cathy Olive won the silver division on countback from Sue Tarry, both scoring 33 points. Jane Hewitt was third with 31, countback again putting her ahead of Aileen Robertson.

The best score of the day came in bronze division with Caroline Patterson recording 35 points to take the division by three points from Audrey Cowlin with Hazel Gough edging out Linda Roberts for third.

Saturday saw the annual curtain raiser for the men’s league teams with the match for the Sanderson Trophy between the men’s A and B teams and the captain’s team.

The captain’s team took their traditional third place, but there was a shock at the top as the B team cruised past their lower handicap rivals to comfortably take the trophy.

This was a promising start for new team captain Mike Garbutt. New A team captain, Tony Ribi had a more significant win the previous week when his team won 3-2 away at Wells in the first round of the Mail on Sunday Trophy, inspired by an 8&6 win from Ben Barwell.

Mike Garbutt receives the Sanderson Trophy from Wedmore club captain Tom Bennett watched by A team captain Tony Ribi.

GRAHAM Exton will move forward to the regional final of the National PGA Pro Am to partner Brean professional David Haines after a superb card of 44 points in the qualifying event at Brean.

His score was good enough to win by one from Jason Kidley and ended two ahead of Neil Barker in third spot.

In the penultimate round of the Winter League, Russell Shaw was the winner with an excellent 45 point haul. He won the competition by just a single point from Pat Mullholland, who was three ahead of Roger Phillips.

The seniors’ version of the Winter League has already been concluded with Dai Wood ending as the winner. The final round was played as a Chinese greensomes format with the winning pair of Barrie Tucker and Roger Phillips scoring 41 points. Three points behind them in second spot were Pete Douglas and George Stratford with 38, while Bob Hurrell and Mike Allen took third position on 35.

WORLEBURY Golf Club ladies played their first formal competition of the season, the March Stableford.

Results - Silver Division: Pam Burnell 40 pts; Janet Jamieson 40. Bronze Division: Jill Webb 33 pts; Lynn Johnson 33. Copper Division: Carole Miles 33 pts; Jean Abbott 27.