Mendip’s Avalon League B Team opened their season with a 3 – 2 win over Taunton and Pickeridge. Wins came from Jack Harrington and newly elected Club Vice Captain Mark Necker, new pairing Andy Wells and Cliff Hall secured a hard fought win and the third point came from team Captain Liam Robertson and Rob Cook.

The Ladies Alliance B Team entertained Orchardleigh and the match finished all square 3½ - 3½. Wins for Mendip came from Jenny Merrett, Vi Hayes and Jan Fukuyama with Fran Davies gaining a valuable half.

The very strong Ladies pairing of Ladies Captain Aimee Sawyer, playing off scratch and 17 year old Ellen Reakes playing off +0.7 made a winning start in the Somerset Scratch Foursomes and now play Bristol and Clifton at Mendip in the 2nd round.

The Seniors secured a good win over Saltford 4½ - 2½ with wins from Steve Davis/Gareth Collier, John Ellis/Paul Wood, Tony Scott/Malcolm Dawkins and Terry Carter/David Pilbeam with a half achieved by Phil Brock/Colin Davies.

Despite a highly regarded Golf Course, Mendip has always lacked one facility, that being a Driving Range. However, after several years of planning and following the opening of the new 17th and 18th holes last year, this has now been rectified with the opening of the new 8 bay Driving Range on 1th April.

With the newly designed short game area next to the Range and with a full programme of ideas and events being planned, there is no doubt that this area will be become a key element in the success of Mendip Golf Club.

A lot of people have contributed to bringing this facility to fruition, many of whom were volunteers giving freely of their time to assist the Club. A key driving force has of course been Stuart Disney, Director of Golf and his team of Alex Todd, Sam Scriven and James Taylor will see their workload increase considerably as the season progresses.

For the first time the Professional Team now have proper facilities to substantially increase their already popular coaching programmes for all sections of the Club.

Tony Williams