THURLESTONE

FOURTY members of Thurlestone Golf Club’s senior section and other senior members turned out for the Ron Bancroft Winter Greensomes on Tuesday, December 2. This was, despite ominous weather conditions which fortunately only materialised late in the day.

The competition was renamed in memory of Ron who had been the senior captain for 10 years and was chiefly responsible for its inception. The previous Winter Greensomes competition had been allowed to fade away but was revived by Ron as the last event in the seniors diary.

Given the tremendous downpour of rain on Monday, it was a credit to Russell and his crew that the course was not only open but in excellent condition.

Thanks must also go to Claire Guard and her colleagues for the production of so many breakfast baps in such short order.

The winners of the competition with a total of 26 points for the 11 holes were Mark Greatorex and Chris Oldershaw.

Runners up were Ken Riley and Chris Holes and on countback in third, were Gus Kemp and David Hook.

Nearest the pin winners were Gus Kemp, Tom Burnett, Ian Gaffe, Ian Linkins. Steve Gallagher and Greg Cooper were nearest the pin in two on the fourth.

Senior captain Gary Keen thanked all participants for coming along and supporting the event and their previous support for the “Ryder Cup”, which was also attended by 40 members of the Seniors Section.

28 ladies turned out on Wednesday, December 3, for the 18 holes stableford.

The winner was Sheila Fairley with 36 points and it was a double celebration because she also got a hole in one on the sixth hole. She treated the ladies afterwards to a glass of Prosecco in the clubhouse.

In second place was Julia Dorey with 35 points and third was Janice Croke with 32 points.

There were four birdie twos by Sally Cahill, Gill Markham, Anna McGrath and Liz Sharman. The nine-hole competition was won by Chris Allen on 13 points and second was Sheila George on 12 points.

The men’s Midweek Stableford on Thursday 4 had 44 entries on a lovely sunny day. The winner was Tony Adams (3) with 36 points, from Chris Oldershaw (24) with 35 points on count back from Derek Harwood (17) also 35. Congratulations on birdie twos for Chairman Roger Kendall on the first and Steve Pepperrell on the fifth hole.

Photo: Sheila Fairley celebrates her hole in one and winner of the competition on Wednesday.

DARTMOUTH

It’s December, so it is time for Dartmouth ladies to start their Christmas competitions.

They started with Biscuits and Booze, a 16-hole team competition played on the Dartmouth course.

With two scores to count, one team peaked on the first hole with eight points but their high expectations were quickly crushed as reality sank in!

Heavy rain began on the fourth tee of the second round; having believed that heavy rain would stop play, said team swiftly headed to the club house only to find that the remaining teams were made of sterner stuff and continued playing.

On the plus side, they enjoyed the coffee, the warmth and the chat, on the down-side, it guaranteed them last place

Meanwhile, out on the course, the remaining players retrieved the umbrellas that had blown away in the wind, ignored the rain and put together some good scores:

1st: Karen Oldrieve, Katie Panton & Anne Woodward 97 pts

2nd: Jan Cousins, Shelley Durrans & Jules Vincent 78 pts

3rd: Chris Aresti, Jan Brooking & Barbara Dally 73 pls

Many thanks to Chris Aresti for organising the teams and the biscuit and booze prizes for all players - even those who only completed part of the course.

The Grotty Cup is the men’s Christmas competition - an aptly titled trophy acquired by Mark Lord from the Brixham Ball Bashers’ Golf Society.

A strong field included our Assistant Pro Matt Handley and Terry Farkins, the Course Manager. Playing off +1, Matt had his work cut out to challenge for the trophy so he left that to Terry.

After nine holes, you could have been forgiven for thinking that Ian Metchette had at least one hand on the trophy - his 25 points coming from a faultless display of birdies and pars.

Sadly for Ian, the wheels came off on the walk to the tenth tee and, despite finishing with a birdie, the subsequent 14 points put Ian down to fourth place. Ian Black was close on Ian’s heels with 23 points but again fell foul of the turn and managed “only” another 18 points.

Meanwhile, dark horse Terry Farkins had played a solid but unspectacular 18-point front nine and then came into his own on the back with two 4-point birdies and 24 points - the winner by a single point.

The full results are as follows-

Front Nine: Ian Metchette 25 pts

Back Nine: Terry Farkins 24 pts

Overall and winner of the Grotty Cup: Terry Farkins 42 pts.

The weather forced the cancellation of Saturday’s competition and even the hardiest of members chose not to use the tee times for any social golf. Full respect (and sympathy) therefore for the brave mum accompanying two of our young juniors who were desperate to get out onto the golf course in driving rain.

Pictured- men’s captain Rob Isaacs-Berry (left) and Grotty Cup winner Terry Farkins.