Mendip Ladies held the Champion Chasers competition recently for those that did not play in the Ladies Club Championships. This resulted in a win for Ladies Captain, Hilary Rowdon, with 34 points, with Caroline Simper second with 32 and Jo Espley, recently back following a long absence with injury, third with 31.

The Ladies Alliance A Team recorded another fine win, this time when home to Wedmore. The final result was 9-5, with wins for Gill Brown, Patricia Rawlins, Marian Speed and Jinhee Page, with Jan Fukuyama gaining a valuable half.

The Seniors went down to a heavy defeat when visiting Long Ashton with Merlyn Saunders/Adam Spragg recording their only win.

Mendip Seniors entertained Tidworth for the second leg of their annual challenge having lost the first leg 3½-4½. Seniors Captain Elect, Henry Banks, captaining the Team had all sorts of pre-match problems with players dropping out, then dropping back in but eventually he was able to settle on organising his team on the day, albeit a little changed. All went well and Mendip won the second leg, 5½-2½, thus winning the Trophy. Mendip winners were John Whyman/Rod Dyson, Mike Lill/Mike Sharp, Merlyn Saunders/Martin Lambert, Alan Evans-Jones/Andy Griffiths and David Pilbeam/Bryan Lewis with Gary Perkins/Nick Inskip gaining a half.

The Mendip Mixed Team visited Enmore Park, which is always an enjoyable fixture with a Club that Mendip has been closely associated with, in many ways, for a very long time. The result this time went Enmore’s way, 6-3. There were several instances of outrageous putts and chips going in and Mendip’s Julia Phillips almost recorded a hole in one, with her ball stopping six inches short on Enmore’s long fifteenth. The Mendip winners were Sandy and Alan Roper, Sue and Merlyn Saunders and Julia and Mike Phillips.

The main event at Mendip this week, however, was the two day Club Championships, with 102 men and 23 ladies competing. The strength of Mendip’s men’s section shows when eighteen of the Competitors were handicap six or better, with at least another half a dozen absent for varying reasons, including marriage! The weather was fine for the majority of the two days, but the course was set up and playing at its most difficult.

Day one saw a clear leader, with Plus 1 handicapper and a member of the Greens Staff, Tom Small, shooting an excellent Gross 72, three clear of fine rounds from Chris Lindley and Simon Grant. Unfortunately, on day two, the dreaded Mendip mist came in mid-afternoon and the leading players were in the final groups. The unlucky Tom Small suffered the most. Having dropped only three shots in 27 holes, he dropped a total of eight shots on the back nine with two lost balls as visibility became a major issue. On day two, only four players were lower than 80 gross. However, this must not detract from the performances of Thomas Barker and Tom Hurst.

After a day one score of Gross 79, Tom Hurst, previously a very young junior at Mendip, but now recently returned following a two year scholarship in USA and playing off scratch, scored an excellent gross 73, including an Eagle two on the 13th. However, this was not quite good enough with seventeen-year-old Millfield schoolboy, Thomas Barker, who also scored 79 on day one, shooting a brilliant gross 72, a round containing six birdies. So the final result was – Club Champion Thomas Barker with gross 141, Runner-Up Tom Hurst with 152 and in third and fourth places Liam Copp and Tom Small with 153.

In the Net Club Championship and playing for the Frost Cup, there were two players clear of the field who could only be separated by countback. Wayne Black and Dean Lewer recorded the two best scores in round one with net 69’s, there were only two other sub par scores, and these excellent rounds were followed up with net 72’s, giving an aggregate of net 141. Wayne was declared the winner, having a better back nine in round two. In third place was Gary Pepler with Harry Phillips, fourth both on 145.

The Ladies Club Championship saw five handicapper, Aimee Sawyer, leading at the end of day one with a gross 90, followed by Marian Speed (11) and Gill Brown (5) on 92. However, on day two Gill Brown came through strongly with a gross 82 with Aimee, incredibly dropping five shots on the last two holes, recording a gross 85. So Gill won by one shot and is the new Ladies Champion. Aimee gained some consolation by winning the net Trophy. Full results: 1st place gross, Gill Brown, with 174, followed by Jinhee Page, with 187, with Best Net, Aimee Sawyer, with 165, beating runner-up Patricia Rawlins, by a point with Patricia scoring 166.

Report by Tony Williams