Worlebury members both record hole-in-ones

Worlebury Golf Club members John Wright and Alan Street had cause for celebration when they both recorded holes-in-one recently.

Alan, who has only played golf for five years and is a 23 handicapper, shot his ace partnering Andy Cooper in the Coronation Cup using a nine iron on the 139 yard, second hole. Unfortunately, despite Alan’s contribution, the pair went on to lose on the 18th.

Eight handicapper John Wright, a member for 13 years was more successful. John’s ace using a nine iron on the 135 yard 12th, paved the way for him to top score in the professional’s individual competition with a score of 39 points.

This gave him a narrow win in Division 1, as 38 points took second place with Keith Thomas edging out Ben Main and Lee Grant on countback.

Lee Odea also shot 39 points to win Division 2. Countback was needed to sort out the minor placings with Stan Henderson pipping Alan Street and Steve Ham, to the runners-up spot, each scoring 38.

Steve Ham and Jamie Williams won the blind draw with 73 points. Steve Beasley and John Wright were runners-up with 72, beating Jim Skinner and Ben Main on countback.

Ben Main, a member of the highly successful Avalon Royals team is in a rich vein of form. Apart from a series of great performances for the Royals, he is finding success in the club competitions.

His good result in the professional’s competition followed an excellent round when he won the midweek Stableford with 44 points. Craig Conway came second beating Brian Dudley on countback, both playing well to bag 41 points.

Lady captain Michelle James won for the second week in succession when she came first in Division 1 of the medal. Maxine Gardiner was runner-up and Jill Phillips was third.

The top score of the day of 73 was recorded by Lynn Pope and Hazel Cox in Division 2, with the former winning on countback. Angie Bagley was third. Joyce Tiney won Division 3 on countback from Lorna Macivor, with Jill Hobbs third.

Worlebury are hosting a ladies’ taster day at the club on Sunday between 2.30-5pm. The session is free of charge and is available to women of 16 years of age upwards.

There will be an opportunity to try all aspects of golf with equipment provided.

If you are interested, please email Michelle James on michellejames167@yahoo.co.uk

The seniors travelled to Lansdown hoping to gain revenge for a recent narrow defeat to the Bath club. The mission was accomplished with a 4-2 success.

Captain Ron Stevens, with his partner Mike Williams, led the way with a resounding 5&4 win which was emulated by Colin Dale and Dave Treleaven. Further wins by Clive Rides /Tony McDonald and Nick Ryan/ Geoff King gave Worlebury a comfortable win.

Dave Pope had hoped to reverse his recent narrow loss in the corresponding fixture to Lansdown member, his brother, Robin, but partnered again by Roger Leaver, he fell short, losing by one hole.

Worlebury club captain Paul Lintern fronted a promotional stand at the Italian Gardens in Weston town centre to raise awareness of the club and to inform the public as to all it has to offer.

The stand created a great deal of interest and a number of promising leads were made for membership both playing and social, society visits and use of the excellent facilities for social occasions.

Paul would like to thank his vice captain Andy Collard, managing secretary Andy Horsburgh, Paul Shearing and others for their assistance on the day.

If you would like to know more about membership or the facilities at this progressive, friendly club, please call the managing secretary on Weston 625789 or email secretary@worleburygc.co.uk

A stiff breeze greeted the participants competing in the Weston seniors’ Texas scramble.

Conditions were tricky, with fast greens adding to the degree of difficulty. First team home with a fantastic nett score of 56.2 were Mark Fozzard, Kevin Hooper, Dave Reynolds and Peter Sedley-Jones. Second on 58.1 were Nick Bohin, Roger Magor, Alan Melhuish and Graham Osman, closely followed into third by Michael Latham, John Rowsell, Clive Pearce and Howard Sims with a score of 58.4.

Some excellent scores were recorded for the ladies’ Miss Apps Salver with the top three achieving handicap reductions. Kath Farrant came in first place with 41 points, followed closely by Zena Balcombe with 40. Julie Ward was third with 37 and Sue Andow fourth with 33.

Weston first team had a great away win in Bristol & District Scratch League at Long Ashton and with a match in hand are in a good position for promotion.

Chris Evans and Rob Chalker had a tight match but lost one down, with Ian Hudson and George Worthington coming out convincing winner 6&5. Ashley Collis and Ronnie Mitchell were three down, but battled hard to come back to win 2&1. Pete Allen and Dave Edwards won 3&2, but Chris Homer and Josh Butterfield lost 4&3.

Weston men sent a 12-man team to play the annual match against Minehead, but came home empty-handed, losing 5-1.

Weston’s Avalon B team entertained Orchardleigh B and with them being the nearest rivals for the title a win was vital.

It was all hanging in the balance after Darren Henderson/Gary Homer, Chris Homer/Ian Goldsworthy and Steve Dowden/Steve Corrick all recorded halves.

However, Paul O’Hara and John Stokes won easily 6&5 and final pairing Jack Radcliffe and Alan Harris won 3&1, meaning an overall win by 3.5 to 1.5.

The guests, although used to a parkland course, were complimentary of the course providing a true test of golf and also praised the kitchen for the excellent fare provided. The team are top of the league and vying for promotion.

Weston Avalon A visited Wheathill on a hot day for the away leg of their league meetings. Club captain Anthony McEvoy secured a good win with his partner Andy Jones, followed in by captain Paul Burns and Sean Frost triumphing over Paul’s opposite number.

Wheathill were victorious in 3-2, but a well-earned six away points for the Weston boys. Special mention to new A players Don Harris and Ian Pitt, as well as Andy Smith stepping in to boost numbers.

Two ladies’ competitions were held at Wedmore, with their championship being played over 36 holes and the results of the seniors’ championship also being announced.

The seniors’ was won by Beryl Richards, who took the Adams Claret Jug with a strong front nine, holding on to win with gross 86. This was four better than Alison Dodkin, who could not make up enough shots on the back. with Sue Tarry a further shot back in third.

The Ireland Cup for the best nett went to Maggie Morris, three under par on 69, a score matched by Wendy Lucas to win the over-70s trophy. A nine-hole competition ran alongside this with the gross prize going to Shirley Witter, the nett to Maggie Dommett and best Stableford to Pauline Warner.

The main championship saw defending champion Dawn Chadwick set the pace after the morning round with a gross 81, which put her four clear of Cathy Olive, with Harriett Lockley and Sue Tarry six back and Annya Patten a further shot away.

Over the first nine of the afternoon, Chadwick pulled away from her closest rivals with the exception of Patten, who made up three shots with a one over par score of 39.

This was as good as it got though and dropping shots on the last four holes gave her 82 for the round and a total of 170. This was two better than Lockley, who also improved on her morning round to take third place on 172.

Cathy Olive took fourth on 175. Even a double bogey on the final hole though could not stop Chadwick from clinching the Insport Trophy again, adding an 82 to her 81 for a total of 163.

Ange Webber beat her handicap over the two rounds to win the Directors Cup for best nett on 143, ahead of Eunice Bond, Louise Allen and Sue Painter. Best gross and nett scores for the morning went to Sue Tarry and Jenny Brown, with Georgia Pope and Hazel Gough taking the afternoon prizes.

Brean club captain Andy Thomas enjoyed a wonderful day and night for his captain’s day.

The format followed the tried and tested Brean way of an 18-hole medal in the morning, followed by a barbeque lunch ahead of a fun nine-hole cross-country scramble in the afternoon.

After the presentations were completed and a superb curry, supplied by the Leisure Park, was consumed, a night of fun and entertainment was enjoyed by many in the clubhouse until the early hours.

This day always seems to bring the best out of the club members in terms of scoring and this year was no exception. The Captain’s Cup is awarded to the best nett score overall from the three divisions and this year required a countback between two players in the second flight who both had nett 63s.

Scott Lismore had the better back nine and was awarded the silverware ahead of Chris Fairchild. Lismore received the trophy at the presentation from the captain and also saw his handicap reduced by a stroke for his good scoring.

Sixty-five was the winning number in the other two categories with Martyn Brown producing a card of two halves on his way to victory. The 23-handicapper impressively covered the front nine in just 34 strokes gross, but stumbled somewhat on the back nine. Despite taking 20 strokes more to cover those holes he saw off the challenge of Pat Mullholland by one shot to secure the win.

The Division 1 winner was someone making a comeback to the event. His enforced absence 12 months ago was due to the fact he was club captain so couldn’t take part.

Stuart Wills produced the lowest gross score of the day of 71 on his way to a nett 65, which also dropped his handicap back down to five ahead of his defence of the club championship title in a couple of weeks time. Steve Eley was the runner-up on 66.

Lesley Millard won her first Ladies Cup since joining Brean late last year as she took the Lady Captain’s Cup. She beat Jenny Vaughan by two strokes and like the other men’s winners now finds herself playing from a lower handicap.

After lunch the players set out to tackle a nine-hole cross-country course devised by director of golf Andrew March. Winners with a superb nett 25.7 were Tony Roper, Mel Brown and Phil Hodgson as they finished a comfortable distance ahead of the rest.

In second spot was a team including three generations of Jones family in the form of David, his son Steve and Steve’s daughter Millie. They scored a nett 28 and relegated another Jones, this time David’s brother Eric, alongside John Cullinan and Phil Aspinall into third with their 28.9 effort.

The evening’s entertainment went down very well with a mixture of excellent singing from Billy Mack and some maybe not so excellent singing in the Karaoke, which was run very kindly by club member Tony Higgins.

The seniors’ had a sizeable home win against their Vivary counterparts. Led by Bob Hurrell, they won by 4.5 games to 0.5.

Les Clutterbuck showed his recent chipping lessons have borne fruit as he chipped in for a two at the seventh on his way to winning the midweek Stableford.

His winning score overall was 38 points which gave him a two-point cushion ahead of Joe Selway, who aced the 14th the previous week, just ran out of steam at the end of his round and had to settle for second. Pete Barton was third on 34.