The premier major competition of the Farrington Park Ladies’ Section was played over the weekend of 4th and 5th June. The Ladies Club Championship is played on a gross strokes basis over two days, with the winner being the player who can complete the two rounds in the fewest number of strokes. There is also a nett competition, where a player’s handicap is taken into consideration and prizes for ‘two spots’ and best front and back nine holes on each day.

Men’s Captain, Rob Riccio, was the starter on day one for the 22 competitors playing in groups of two or three, with the lowest handicapped players starting their rounds first.

Ball spotters on the first hole, Steve Ball, Steve Hobbs, Gary Padfield and Paul Thomas had very light duties, because the majority of the ladies hit their shots down the fairway of the awkward first hole and even balls of those who didn’t were quickly found. In spite of the benign conditions, the golf course lived up to its reputation of challenging golf. The holes had been placed in tricky positions and the greens were quick. There were eight birdies scored and the CSS moved down to 72 from 73. At the end of day one, the gross score leader was Victoria Watts, with 82 and the nett score leader was 26 handicap, Sharman Bradshaw, with an excellent score of nett 70 (three under par for her handicap).

Day two was hot, sunny and sweltering without the previous day’s wind. With Captain Rob Riccio engaged in a Men’s competition, Steve Hobbs took over as starter and calmed any nervous players with tales of his encounters with alligators on a recent golf holiday in Florida. Fortunately, no such reptiles lurk in Farrington Park’s ponds, or so we are lead to believe! The ball spotters were hardly needed and round two was under way, with the best (lowest) scoring players starting last. The hole positions had been moved by the green keepers and some were even more challenging than on day one. The lack of a helping wind reflected in the higher scoring with CSS moving to 73; all the holes playing well over par, the dreaded seventeenth hole at nearly three over and seven birdies were recorded. The majority did not improve on their scores of the previous day, except for Victoria. She improved her gross score by two shots to gross 80 and Mandy Hobbs bettered her previous day’s score by three shots to score nett 73.

After tea and cakes were served to round off an enjoyable weekend of very competitive and challenging golf, Ladies Captain, Bobby Appleby welcomed everyone to the prize giving ceremony.

Vice-Captain, Pauline Young, announced the winners. The Ladies’ Club Champion for 2016 was Victoria Watts, who had lead throughout, with a combined gross score of 162. A popular winner, Victoria received the Champion’s Silver Rose Bowl from Bobby. She echoed Bobby’s sentiments and thanks in her victory speech and also thanked the Ladies Section for their help and support, especially as she is studying at university now. Mandy Hobbs was the Nett Champion with a combined nett score of 149 and Lena Warren was the ‘Not so Young’ Champion with a combined gross score of 173.

Seniors

In glorious conditions with hardly any breeze, it felt that summer had finally arrived and some excellent golf was played by a large field. Hugo Pike was in good form, resulting with two nearest the pins on the fifth and eighth. Fraser McGregor hit a terrific shot into the fourteenth to take the prize nearest the pin in two and Tony Clement was in the prizes winning the fifteenth. Taking third place in the scramble with a score of 63.75 was the team of Colin Robinson, Phillip Michael and Mike Astle. In second, only percentages ahead, were the team of Pierce O’Shea, Richard Dancey and Geoff Skyrme on a score of 63.63. But the winning team, with an outstanding score of 58.63, including an Eagle on the Par five seventh, were Ian Clement, Fred Grist and Steve Ball.

Men

The Monthly Medal was played in good summer conditions, with the new three divisions policy coming into the Saturday competition. In Division One, Tom Snelling continued his good recent form with a 79–67, followed by a good round in second place by Liam Copp, 71–69 and Kevin Brimble taking third spot with 76–69. In Division Two, Andy Nicholls took charge with a 80–67 with Eric Withey in second with 89–70 and Martin Jones in third with 83–70. In Division Three, Captain’s Away Day champion, Nigel Kingman, had a good round, 93–70 to take top prize with Nigel Punchard in second with 95–71 and Richard Collier in third with 96–74.

With the good weather continuing for the Sunday Stableford (5th June), Matt Lefeurve topped Division One with 39 points, followed by another good day for Tom Snelling, with 38 points and Lee Sparkes in third, with 37 points. In Division Two, Paul Goddard took the honours with 37 points, followed by John Hartley on 35 points and Simon Kidd in third on 33 points.