IT WAS the June Medal for Dartmouth GC ladies this week and play was possibly summarised in a couple of overheard comments - “there’s always the Eclectic” and “sorry about my language”!

For Shelley Durrans, who played five off of the first tee and finished with a nine, it would have been understandable for her to share those views. She is nothing if not a fighter though and after a rough start, as well as a nine on the fourth and a 10 on the 10th, Shelley pulled it together to take top spot.

Her nett 76 score was just two over par and next up came Karen Oldrieve, who managed to avoid any double-digit scores and finished with a nett 80. In third place was Jules Vincent with nett 83. Not the best of days across the board really.

The Dartmouth course ladies stuck with a fun 9-hole Waltz and so, unlike their friends on the Championship course, were very pleased when they scored nine or 12 on a hole! Barbara Dally finished with a 12-pointer which gave her a total of 49, well ahead of Roz Forde with 35.

Although some scores in the men’s Midweek Stableford indicated that not everyone had had their best day, many players finished with above-par scores.

In Division One, the scores were very close at the top - a single point separating the top four places.

First was Richard Bucknall (38 pts) and in second, Jordan Bartholomew (37 pts), who overcame Philip Green and Bernard Taylor via countback.

Results were much clearer in Division Two, Steve Tozer winning (40 pts), Rob Isaacs-Berry in second (38 pts) and John Cousins in third (37 pts).

If anything beats a medal in the popularity stakes it is the foursomes medal, which is the format of the men’s Chamberlain Trophy.

It can test the best of friendships, particularly when shots go wildly astray (no names to be mentioned here) but all appeared to have remained intact at the close of play.

John Oldrieve and Rob Barrett had an almost perfect front nine and, starting the back nine with a birdie, seemed on course for an exceptional round. Although they then settled for handicap pars for the majority of the remaining holes, their final total of nett 70 was the winning score.

Pete Hannaford and Paul Marels finished second with 73, beating Roger Mawson and Dave Nicholls on countback.

The mixed Stableford was running alongside the foursomes and was a much more relaxed affair. It’s good to see Steve Blackie back playing golf at Dartmouth and he had an excellent front nine, with five pars and a birdie giving him 20 points.

There were only three pars on the back nine, but still a 37-point finish. Steve knew that this wasn’t a winning score as he was playing alongside Bobby Wotton who, despite a blob on the ninth, already had 25 points in the bag when he started the back nine.

Although there were only a further 16 points on the back, his 41 points gave him the clubhouse lead for quite a while.

Sadly for Bobby, Jeremy Enticknap was having a slightly better day and, despite three blobs on his card, finished with a winning score of 42 points.