THURLESTONE

THURLESTONE ladies held a nine holes Greensome Stableford competition on Wednesday with 18 entries.

After Storm Chandra the day before, they still had to carry as buggies and trolleys were not allowed. The pairs were drawn with a high and a low handicap player.

The winners were Victoria Gibbens & Margaret Ryan with 16 points on count back from Jacky Jacobs & Jane Mason also 16 points.

In 3rd place were Sue Esplin & Jane Smyth with 15 points on count back from Bridget Lafferty & Mary Swan also 15 points. No twos were scored.

At last it happened, the juniors vs the club match. Thanks to Suzzane for organising the juniors, it was a lovely day and thanks has to go to the green staff for making the course playable after the severe weather we have been experiencing.

The general comments while having lunch was, how well the Juniors played the result shows we have a really good junior section. The result, with six matches played was five to the juniors and one to the club.

There was a prize presented by junior captain William Hoskin to nearest the pins on all the par 3s.

Pictured is club captain John Rogers presenting the trophy to juniors captain William Hoskin .

Also pictured are all of the juniors and adults who played in the match of juniors v the club. William Hoskin in the front holds the trophy.

BIGBURY

With the most welcome break in rain and winds at the weekend, the Bigbury ladies and gents managed to play their scheduled competitions.

The ladies were first up with their 3-2-1 Team Stableford on the Saturday. With this format, on the first hole all three players scores count, on the second hole the best two scores count, and on the third hole only one players score counts; this is then repeated through the eighteen holes. Everyone in the competition plays off an 85% handicap.

The winning team was Jane Rickman, Margaret Taylor and Kim Flook with a score of 60. In second place with a score of 58 was the team of Pip Fisher, Cathy Harrington and Ruth Bickle and in third place, with only one point less, was Caroline Hallett, Jane Cooke and Vanessa Mabelle. There were just two birdie twos bagged on the day; Amanda Sinclair on the 3rd and Kim Flook on the 17th holes.

On the Sunday it was the men who took to the course for a Greensomes Stableford competition which proved to be very competitive. The winning pair with a score of 37 points was Peter Bird and Mike Daniels. There were two pairs with the same score of 36 points; the winners on countback were James Bond and Gary Clasby with Ian Harris and Jed Spedding third.

There were nine birdie twos on the day so too many to list, but Terry Alderton with his partner Keith Naylor bagged themselves a pair on the 5th and 17th holes so a good day for them.

The weekend proved to be a good time for Bigbury golfers to dip their toes into club competition golf.

DARTMOUTH

The daily messages from the Pro Shop at Dartmouth have become sadly predictable - 55mm of rain overnight, play suspended; further rain so course closed for the day.

The two lakes beside the Dartmouth ninth and the Championship eighteenth joined forces this week submerging the path and the bridge that normally separate them - we can only remember that happening once before.

Needless to say that competitions and golf in general have been severely impacted - a common picture across South Devon.

There was brief respite on Wednesday and the men attempted a Pairs Scramble, only for that to be abandoned when the rain held forth once more.

The annual Devon Golf meeting showed that it wasn’t just the south of the county that had been affected, with some delegates unable to get to the meeting because of flooded roads.

So, the only thing to share is a reminder of how useful the MyEG app can be and the resources available on the England Golf website on rules, the World Handicap System and general advice on play.

As the start of the season approaches, we’ll be reminded of our responsibilities when playing - hopefully it won’t be too long until the weather lets us all start doing this!

DARTMOUTH SENIORS

Monday, February 2, saw the seniors take advantage of a much-needed lull in the weather to contest a non-qualifying Stableford from the red tees on the Championship Course. Usual handicap protocols were in place.

Twenty-seven players took part in blustery, bitingly cold conditions, with a gusty south-westerly wind causing havoc for many throughout the day. Despite this, some excellent scores were recorded.

Top form on the day belonged to Gordon Holmes, who has been quiet of late but produced an almost blemish-free round featuring seven excellent pars and a birdie to finish with 39 points.

Three points adrift in second place was Andy Dykes, whose round was highlighted by a majestic 22-point back nine. Gordon claimed the Division 1 honours, while John Cousens who finished fifth overall topped Division 2.

The difficult conditions did, however, account for a number of withdrawals at the halfway point. Nevertheless, it was another enjoyable Monday of golf and a welcome chance to recharge the batteries.

Overall Competition Results 1st – Gordon Holmes (15) – 39 pts

2nd – Andy Dykes (15) – 35 pts

3rd – Malcolm Barrett (15) – 35 pts

4th – Mark Mitchell (18) – 34 pts

5th – John Cousins (22) – 31 pts

6th – Stephen Haupt (14) – 29 pts

Division 1 (Handicap up to 19)

1st – Gordon Holmes

2nd – Andy Dykes

Division 2 (Handicap 20+)

1st – John Cousens

2nd – Tony Hall 28 points

Birdie twos were recorded by Ralph Clark and George Reeve at the 3rd hole. Our thanks to Nigel Osborne for counting back the cards. Next week sees a pairs competition.