High-quality golf on display in Thurlestone club championships

THURLESTONE ladies reconvened for their club championship on Wednesday, July 1, when the weather was more suitable.

28 players fought over two days with the Oswald Cup being awarded to the player with the best gross score, and the Ford Salver to the player with the best nett score.

Jennifer Roberts was back on the top step, winning the Oswald Cup in glorious sunshine.

She battled it out with overnight leader Anna McGrath in what proved to be a superb contest. In the end, Jennifer’s experience told and she produced an excellent final round to win by six shots. Jennifer on 164, Anna on 170 and then Margaret Ryan on 174.

Sue Ansley took the Ford Salver with a nett score of -2 and Fiona Turner won the Bronze Cup for Division Two.

Meanwhile, Thurlestone took on Yelverton in a home match and it ended 2.5 matches apiece.

There were wins for Ashley Reed & Stan Pigott and Martin Oakes Monger & Ashley Pigott plus a half for Jim Stewart & Lewis Kendall.

The club were then delighted to host Kingsbridge Rugby Club’s annual golf day, which proved to be another great one.

Bett Rhymes not only keeps the wheels turning at Thurlestone but also plays a big part in running the fixtures at KRFC. Naturally, it also falls to Bett to organise this fixture for them, and she wrote as follows.

Thank you to all at Thurlestone Golf Club for generously gifting us the use of the course for our 11th charity golf day, in support of Kingsbridge RFC and Devon Air Ambulance.

This has become a big sporting event in the calendar for many of our supporters - all keen to enjoy a great day of golf, competition, fundraising and mostly sharing fun and company.

This can only happen by the gift of use of the course kindly gestured by Thurlestone Golf Club.

Moving on and on Saturday, June 27, there were 62 entries for the Mixed Marine Cup Open competition.

The winners were Rob Loader & Sarah Loader with 42 points, in second place were Eric Harris (Bigbury) & Laura Jarman (Bowood) also with 42, and third went to Alan ‘Paddy’ Porter & Clare Stirling (41).

The seniors played East Devon away in the latest friendly fixture, taking place on a glorious summer's day with the course in superb condition.

The result was a narrow defeat for Thurlestone by three and a half to two and a half. The half point was achieved by the skill of senior captain Mike Croft as he holed a thirty-foot putt on the last for a birdie.

Another notable achievement was a win by Graeme Fairley & Stuart Spencer where Graeme had an eagle and two birdies in a resounding win. Gary Keen & Mark Gretorex were the other winning combination. They look forward to the return match in early September.

Lastly, Thurlestone’s junior team played Yelverton in the West Devon League at Borringdon. Staddon led on three points, Boringdon had two while Yelverton and Thurlestone notched 2.5 each.

Martha Massingham and Oliver Chester won their matches and Leo Willmott halved on the 18th for a total of 2.5.

At the moment, with the other results, Thurlestone are top of the league. The final is at Yelverton in two weeks time. Good luck to the team!

Monday, July 6, saw the third round of the Seniors Cup played on the championship blues. This medal competition sees the best three aggregate nett scores over five rounds taking this prestigious board title.

Many are still well placed in this marathon event but this gave the first indication of the likely eventual runners and riders, but as always there are always a few dark horses biding their time!

Course handicap with the standard 95% allowance was in play. 34 golfers were in the mix.

Current leader is Paul Harding who would be looking to put clear water between himself and the rest of the pack. This he continued to do with a fine fifth place finish in today’s event and remains the leader by a large margin in this competition.

Today’s overall winner was Brian Mushens who carded a gross 83/nett 67 with 10 excellent pars. Second place went to Peter Hannaford and the pair led Division One.

Richard Bevan (70) & Desmond Graham (74) were first and second respectively in Division Two. A baking hot day saw much run on the ball with the usual fast greens and tricky pin positions. Ever is the case at this time of year. But a very enjoyable days golf with many excellent scores recorded.

Birdie twos were scored at the par threes by Gary Bonser & Mark Gannon on the third hole and Desmond Graham, Andrew Dix, Keith Moffitt & David Sparks at five.

The omnipresent Nigel Osborne was in charge of the cards. Many thanks to him.

After three rounds of the Seniors Cup, Paul Harding leads on 216, ahead of Peter Hannahford (230) and Bernard Young (231).

In other news, having won the home leg 3-2, Dartmouth travelled to Portmore for the second leg of the Emerton Court trophy on Friday, July 3. Portmore won 3-2 and took the match by winning on the fourth extra hole and so ends Dartmouth’s interest in this year’s event.

Dartmouth seniors took a 7-1 lead into the return leg of the Tamar Cup, however they suffered a big loss at St Mellion.

St Mellion seniors on home turf are a formidable opponent and dished out a 7-1 drubbing. The overall score was an 8-8 draw.

With St Mellion being the current holders, they retain the Tamar Cup. The one match win was a 3&1 victory by Gary Bonser and Dave Sparks. Nigel Osborne won the nearest the pin bottle of wine.

Geoffrey Jewell and Kevin Bradley have advanced to the third round of the Blight Trophy, beating Nigel Osborne and Mark Whitworth respectively, at the second hurdle.

Next week sees a qualifying Stableford competition and the return match against China Fleet.