THURLESTONE members had a lovely Easter Monday day for their mixed Greensomes competition, John and Jane Mahood winning with 43 points ahead of Cecily & Nick Clayson (37pts). Third-placed Janice & Tony Croke had the only birdie two.

Tuesday was a lovely day too and Malcolm Strang topped Division One in the midweek Stableford, scoring 33 points and finishing one ahead of Finn Austin. Steve Densham won Division Two with 35 points, ahead of Steve Gallagher (33).

The ladies were also lucky with high temperatures for their Club Foursome and Killard Leavey Qualifiers. The winners were Bridget Lafferty & Tricia Swindell with 40 points, beating Sally Huntley & Irene Lowry (39) and Jenny Bates & Martha Massingham (38).

Junior captain Will Hoskins signed off his year in style by winning Best Junior in the Devon Golf Winter Series, the final event taking place at Teignmouth GC.

Talking of the juniors and their team beat Torquay at Staddon Heights in the Basil Steer county knockout, winning 2.5-0.5. Harry Robinson and Martha Massingham won their games while Oliver Chester secured the half.

The Thurlestone Foundation Trophy was first played for in 1997 to commemorate The Centenary of Thurlestone GC and it is now played annually. 16 pairs were in the field this time around.

Tricia Swindell and Peter Hartley edged the win on countback, finishing ahead of Victoria Gibbens & Stephen Brown and Bridget Lafferty & Malcolm Strang. All three pairs scored 41 points.

In Ken Riley’s first match as club captain, Thurlestone overcame Bigbury on home soil, winning 5-3 ahead of the reverse fixture set for late May.

On the cards for the Dartmouth ladies was a Texas Scramble and fun was had by all, but only one trio could prevail.

With a superb nett 63, the winners were Shelley Durrans, Katie Panton & Jules Vincent ahead of Chris Aresti, Marilyn Lucas & Karen Oldrieve (68).

The Dartmouth course ladies played a Stableford and Sharon Jones was the one to beat with 38 points.

Division One and Division Two were both won with 37 points in the midweek Stableford. Rob Barrett took the D1 honours, one point ahead of Philip Green, while Andy Dykes led D2. Nigel Osborne and John Cousins were closest to Andy, both with 35 points.

Conditions weren’t easy on Saturday, especially with the first men’s trophy of the season on the line.

Unsurprisingly, nobody managed to break par but Andy Birss and Matt Young had every reason to be very satisfied with scores of nett 74, particularly as they had both birdied the 18th.

Jake Servan-Smalley took the spoils though as he was just ahead, shooting 73. The consolation for Andy and Matt is that this medal also counts as the first round of the Badger Trophy, so all to play for later in the season.

With the men occupied by the Baker Salver, it was left to the ladies to play in the Stableford.

After nine holes, Chris Mushens was in pole position with 20 points but, as one of the smaller members of the club, was in grave danger on the back nine of disappearing with the wind.

Chris Mayer played to the conditions and won with 36 points, Karen Oldrieve taking second on 30pts.

Lastly, hole 14 is notoriously tricky anyway but there is now an additional hazard to contend with- a goose nest. Players will be relieved to hear that arrangements are being made to relocate the drop zone!

Another Stableford qualifier was the challenge which awaited Dartmouth senior golfers on Monday, April 13.

30 players were in the field and the best of the bunch today was Brian Mushens who crafted his way around the difficult course with some fine golf, accumulating 34 points. He was some two clear of relative newbie Kevin Bradley and a further two ahead of Messrs Isaacs-Berry & Steve Atkins.

Nigel Osborne was on hand to count them all back. Many thanks to him as always.

Elsewhere, the first fixture of the season took them away to Thurlestone. Dartmouth excelled and produced a strong 4-2 win. 4&3 victories for Andy Dix/Malcolm Toone and Rob Isaacs-Berry/Greg Pearman were the most impressive.

Next week sees the annual Winton foursomes and away matches against China Fleet & Staddon Heights (Mayflower Cup first leg).

It is good to be able to report that the Bigbury Golf Club season is now well in swing, with large entries in the competitions and some good scoring.

On Saturday, April 4, there were 51 golfers on the course who had entered the Integrated Stableford competition and the scoring proved to be very competitive.

The winning gent was Sean Massingham with 36 points, ahead of Steve Ryder (35) and Tim Dando (33). Countback was required for the ladies, Juliet Manners edging out Jan Williams after they both scored 33 points. Alison Dunkley was one behind.

Eric Harris took the birdies kitty as he recorded the only birdie two of the competition.

A few days later, there was a Mixed Stableford when both ladies and gents play in the same competition.

Both Divisions 1 and 2 needed countback to decide the first and second places.

In Division One, Ian Harris led the way. His 36-point finish was matched by Peter Cooper. Ros Ellard and Phil Davies were then tied on 35.

Division Two wasn’t as competitive and it was won by Andy Abraham with a score of 41. Sam Brown took second place (39pts) and third went to Mike Daniels (36pts).

There were five birdie twos recorded in this Mixed Stableford competition, and David Rogers bagged two of them! The other three were recorded by Roy Stevens, Keith Naylor and Peter Cooper.

Bigbury ladies are hosting their coffee morning at the clubhouse on the morning of Tuesday, April 21.

This coffee morning is open to everyone and people might like to come along to enjoy some refreshments as well as the views from our clubhouse. If you would like to browse the stalls, they open at 9.30 am.