THURLESTONE Golf Club ladies were lucky with the weather on Wednesday, November 5, as the rain stayed away for the Guy Fawkes matchplay Competition. 26 ladies were drawn against an opponent and could play nine or 18 holes of matchplay. The teams were called Rockets and Sparklers.

Congratulations go to Claire Guard and Lola Sullock on winning the junior/adult match play final. They took down James Knight PGA & Harry Robinson in a hard-fought match.

On Friday evening, it was the presentation evening at the club where many of the trophies are presented to all the winners this year.

Before they started the trophy presentations, there was a farewell for our chef, Pete Thompson.

We just wanted to say a big thank you for all your hard work, long hours, and the fantastic food you’ve served over the years — especially those legendary carveries!!

We wish you all the very best for the future and stewardess Claire Guard presented him with a gift.

Onto the prizes and trophy winners were as follows.

Andrew & Mary Swan won the Laud Vase, Hayley & Steve Pepperrell won the John Batchelor Trophy, Shona Wilson & Garth Gregory won the Foundation Trophy and Hayley & Steve Pepperrell won the Royal Marine Cup.

Rob Hyde was the nett winner and Ian Neal the gross winner of the Seniors Championship whilst Tony Paul lifted the Derrick Yeomans Seniors knockout title.

Sadly not able to attend was the gross Western Trophy winner Graeme Fairley. The Al Parker Salver was won by Jon Doyle and Aiden Mulligan and Colin George won the Kennedy bogey and medal competitions respectively.

Andy Willmott won the wonderful rose bowl for the Links Hotel Cup nett prize whilst Steve won the scratch cup for the best gross. Junior Will Robson got his hands on the Membland Trophy.

There were 16 ladies’ trophies presented and 13 men’s trophies. The men’s club championship went to Steve Pike who won the Jubilee Scratch Vase, and the ladies champion this year was Sally Cahill and she won the Ford Salver.

The ladies order of merit winner was Liz Stewart with 64 points. Medal Winners Cup – This Cup involves the winners of all the medal competitions in all the divisions and is played at the end of the year. And the award went to Diane Baker.

On Saturday morning, the weather forecast promised good weather and 55 competitors took to the course.,

David Doyle prevailed with an excellent 40 points, ahead of Tony Croke (39) and William Farley (38). There were seven twos so congratulations to Martin Beal, Grant Dinsdale, David Eva, Will Farley, Alistair Muir, Gary Raymond and Andrew Swan.

The weather forecast on Tuesday, November 4, predicted heavy rain so Dartmouth ladies decided to stick to coffee in the clubhouse - but there was sunshine and blue sky when Katie Panton arrived at the club so she ventured out for some practice, leaving the other ladies feeling slightly guilty. Five minutes later, the sky had turned black and there was torrential rain, so Katie’s practice was short-lived!

Conditions had improved by Wednesday, enabling the men’s Texas Scramble to go ahead. Par from the blue tees is 72, so the first group in thought that they had done very well with nett 62, particularly when the next group were on nett 69.

Sadly for them, it was far from being the best score of the day. A similar fate awaited the group who shot nett 59 when the final group came in with nett 55, a staggering 17 under par. Their scorecard was mainly a mix of pars and birdies but there were also a couple of bogeys.

1st: Steve Atkins, Gary Bonser, Martin Collins & John Grattan - 55

2nd: Rob Knight, Barrie O’Shea, Paul Stubbs & Bobby Wotton - 59

Scores in Saturday’s Mixed Stableford weren’t in the same league as those in the Scramble but were still good.

Playing off +3, Lee Marels requires perfection to get 36 points, so a score of 40 needs something special and it came in the form of an eagle, five birdies and twelve pars!

He’s a lovely player to watch, always a thoughtful playing partner and more than worthy of a good score. The rest of the field were a little way behind, with some a long way behind and possibly in need of counselling.

Division One:

1st: Lee Marels (40 pts)

2nd: Alan Foot (36 pts)

Division Two:

1st: Nigel Osborne (35 pts)

2nd: Dean Raspin (32 pts)

The Dartmouth Seniors held a non-qualifying individual bogey competition on Monday, 10 November. Play was from the blue tees, with the standard 95% handicap allowance in place.

The concept of bogey golf is simple: each player competes against the course using stroke play rules. On every hole, a player aims to beat the “bogey” score to go +1. A net bogey results in a half (no change), while a double bogey or worse means the player goes –1. The goal is to finish with as many holes “won” as possible, and a final score of around +2 is generally considered very good.

A field of 36 seniors took part, and after a weekend of heavy rain, there was relief that the course was open — and even the bunkers were in play. Conditions were testing, with several squalls sweeping through, but the novel shotgun start helped ensure a full turnout for the Annual Business Meeting immediately afterward.

At the top of the leaderboard, Colin Cooper edged out Nigel Osborne by a single shot to claim victory.

Competition Results

1st – Colin Cooper (+4)

2nd – Nigel Osborne (+3)

3rd – Steve Atkins (+2)

4th – Mark Gannon (+1)

5th – Paul Harding (0)

6th – Malcolm Barrett (–1)

Birdie twos were recorded at the par threes by Colin Cooper (3rd), George Reeve (5th), and Malcolm Toone (2nd).

Thanks go to Nigel “Ozzy” Osborne, who handled the countback and scoring duties as efficiently as ever.

Following play, the Seniors Annual Business Meeting confirmed the committee for 2025/26 as follows:

Next week sees the return of an old favourite — the 3-2-1 competition. Check this column for results.