A TV pundit described conditions at Royal Birkdale as “hard, fast and firm” - words which golfers at Dartmouth and across the county would possibly agree with. Those finding the right line are rewarded handsomely, but there’s often not much margin for error and those who fail are punished.

The ladies played a medal and the top finishers all made a decent job of taming the course and avoiding big scores on individual holes.

In third place, Chris Mushens finished on level par nett 74, one shot short of joining the countback for top spot, which saw Karen Oldrieve pip Chris Aresti.

The Dartmouth course ladies were also playing a medal but over nine rather than eighteen holes - very welcome in the hot weather.

Sharon Jones is in sparkling form at the moment and continued that with a four under par nett 29.

Barbara Dally didn’t make it easy for her and also finished under par, but a wayward shot on the hardest hole resulted in second place, nett 32.

Returning after a long injury break, Mike Griffiths didn’t finish at the top but did have the shot of the day in the men’s midweek Stableford - an eagle two on the twelfth. Welcome back Mike!

Mark Collins is another player who is continuing a good run of form and followed last week’s Medal win with a Division One win. His 40 points didn’t include an eagle but there was a good sprinkling of birdies and pars to give him the winning total.

Roy Baldwin, Mike Griffiths and Mike Whitlelaw all scored 36 points and were separated on countback.

In Division Two, Philip Green was a clear winner with 43 points - a steady round, which built on a pleasing 24-point front nine.

Bob Gibbs also had 24 points on the front but fell short by a single point on the back - disappointing to be in second place with 42 points but a very good round nonetheless.

Saturday was Barrett Cup day - a Stableford competition organised by Malcolm Barrett in support of Prostate Cancer UK.

It’s not often that your game comes together on a trophy day but that was the position that Dean Raspin found himself in.

Dean isn’t long back to golf and up until now one or more of his woods, irons or putter have caused problems, but not on Saturday.

That said, his 44 points included blobs on the eighth and tenth, but was well ahead of Steve Tozer, Gary Bonser and Brian Mushens with 38.

Chris Mushens won the ladies’ competition with 38 points and Harry Barrett won in a later Junior Barrett Cup with 42.

Adding to the occasion, there were also prizes for nearest the pins (Beccy Barrett, Rob Haddy, Tom Berry and Ian Metchette), longest drive (Mark Collins) and twos (Beccy Barrett, Steve Blackie, Andy Dix, Ian Metchette, Dean Raspin, Steve Tozer and Colin Weedon). Many thanks to all who took part to support this.

Lastly, the ladies brought their President’s League campaign to an end with a great home win, 5-2, against Woodbury Park. Many thanks to President’s Captain, Jules Vincent, who did a sterling job in organising the fixtures and shepherding her squad to some notable wins.