The Thurlestone Mixed Competition for the Sicklemore Prize and Royal Marine Cup was played on Monday, May 26. The winners were Simon and Lesley Davey with 44 points from Richard and Judith Lungmuss with 43 points.

On Wednesday (May 28) the winners of the Joan Mackenzie 27 hole competition were Fiona Turner, Claire Guard and Nikki Smith with 70 points on the 18 holes and 36 points on the 9 holes, total 106. In second place were Sally Huntley, Bridget Lafferty and Tricia Swindell with 103 total, and third Barbara Smith, Liz Sharman and Maggie Best with 97 total.

Friday was a busy day for the Thurlestone juniors as four boys and one girl travelled to Staddon Heights to play in the Devon juniors 36 hole championship. Martha Massingham from Thurlestone was one of eleven girls entered for the girls 36 holes championship and she was in 4th place with 97 and 88 gross.

Thurlestone had four boys entered, Oliver Chester,(12.6) Aiden Mulligan (6.8), Juniors captain William Hoskin (3.5) and George Inch (0.7). There were thirty eight boys entered from 14 different Devon golf clubs. After 36 holes George Inch was in 2nd place with Gross 72 and Gross 71 and Martha Massingham was in 4th place in the Girls Gross 36 holes.

A beautiful day out at Woodbury golf course was the reward for qualifying for Sir Nick Faldo's yearly golf event, The Faldo Futures: 59 junior regional finalists from Devon and Cornwall played a 9 hole medal from some pretty tricky tees.

Eleven year old Finn Robson from Thurlestone Golf club shot a very respectable 39 with a great birdie on the 9th securing his spot at the finals on count back. We congratulate and wish him well in the national final to be held at the end of August, another top six will see him off to the USA for the international final! Good luck Finny!!

The two ladies teams were also in action on Friday, and the President team travelled to Yelverton to play seven singles matches. Wins went to Sarah Loader, Tricia Swindell and Liz Sharman. All the team had to give their opponents shots ranging from 2 to 5 which is quite tough in an away match. The first 4 matches resulted in 3 wins and 1 loss but sadly the last 3 all lost, that ended with a 4-3 win to Yelverton.

The Sheelah Creasy team played Bovey Tracey at home. Their format is three singles matches and two Foursomes matches. Wins went to Jan Brooking and Diane Baker in the singles matches. This resulted in a win for Bovey Tracey of 3-2 matches. Thurlestone entertained Bovey Tracey afterwards in the clubhouse for tea.

The Stableford Competitions at Bigbury during May have resulted in many handicap reductions for the players on the course, even with the changeable weather.

There have been two Mixed Thursday Stablefords and on May 8 the competition was bereft of lady players on the day.

There were 35 competitive men on the course and the results were very close; indeed three men were tied in second place with 39 points. But winning with a good 40 points was Barry Watts (25). A count-back was needed to decide the places behind him and this showed it was Stan Kenneth (18) second, Steve Tyers (15) third and Bob Brocklehurst (4) fourth.

Four birdie twos were bagged by Rick Musson on the 7th hole, third placed Steve on the 15th, with Colin Trevethick and David Rogers on the 17th hole.

On the 22nd May there were 43 playing in the Mixed Stableford and the winner with a good 40 points was Helen Dinsdale (22). Again a count-back was needed to decide the second and third places with two players both recording 38 points. The computer showed it was Mike Daniels (14) in second place with Stephen Quick (18) third. In fourth place and only one point behind with 37 points was Caroline Hallett (31).

As well as his second place, Mike Daniels also bagged himself a pair of only three birdie twos recorded on the day on the 7th and 15th holes, with Stan Kenneth recording his on the 3rd.

There was a small entry for the ladies first Thursday Stableford in May but it was a good result for Lorette Logie (29) who recorded 40 points which will have reduced her handicap. It was a convincing win for Lorette, with Cathy Harrington second with 35 points and Jane Rickman third with 29.

Dartmouth’s Bank Holiday Cobbler’s Cup was strongly contested and, played as Mixed Greensomes, it can be a good test of marital relations or friendship.

This was especially the case in the strong winds, which made play tricky and rather unpredictable.

Just three points separated the top three places, with Chris Mushens blessing the bunker lesson from Matt Handley - the sand save on eighteen giving the vital extra point!

1st: Brian Mushens & Chris Mushens (40 pts). 2nd: Shelley Durrans & Dave SParks (39 pts). 3rd Chris Mayer & Mike Whitelaw (38 pts).

With many of the ladies having played three or four consecutive days of golf it took very little time to agree that rain was stopping play on Tuesday.

The sunshine was back on Wednesday and pars seemed to be the order of the day for the Division One leaders, with the birdies being left for the Division Two winners.

Philip Green started and finished his round with birdies, with the two on the eighteenth being a very nice way to finish a round.

‘Beware the injured golfer” is a phrase often heard in golf, though it’s not often due to an arm wrestling shoulder injury.

On this occasion, the injured shoulder did cause problems, so it was left to Mike Whitelaw - weeks away from a hip replacement and playing his third competition of the week - to show that there can be some truth in the phrase.

With a string of pars and a birdie thrown in, Mike easily took first place in Division One with 42 points. Edd Mitchell added an eagle 3 on the sixteenth to the mix, but his lower handicap resulted in “just” 37 points; his 20 point back nine giving a count back win over Brian Mushens.