Farrington Park Ladies Section's first match in their new team colours was played on Wednesday, 19th March in Round Two of The Mail on Sunday's National Golf Club Classic against Mendip Golf Club, away at Mendip.
The Mail on Sunday National Golf Club Classic is a club knockout competition, with matches consisting of five singles decided by handicap matchplay over eighteen holes. Farrington Park's Ladies came away from Mendip with an excellent 4–1 victory, a very promising start to the season and an auspicious debut for the new team colours.
Thursday, 20th March saw the annual Ladies' Captain versus Vice-Captain match, battled out by 42 ladies. The teams and pairings playing for the Ladies Captain, Didi Ager, and Vice-Captain, Min Woodward, had been neutrally drawn. The Captain's team all wore blue, the Vice-Captain's team all wore red. The first match, singles matchplay between the Captain and Vice-Captain, went the Captain's way. All other matches were played as Four Ball Better Ball (4BBB), where the back marker concedes strokes to the other three players based on three-quarters of the difference between the full handicaps. The first 4BBB result to come in went the Vice-Captain's way, the next the Captain's way. Results followed that distribution right until the nail-biting end. Perched at what felt a precarious 5–5 draw, the very last and deciding result went the Vice-Captain's way, giving Min Woodward a 6–5 victory over Didi Ager.
Saturday 22nd March's Qualifying Stableford was won by Maria Brodrick with 35 Stableford points. Jane Ball and Sue Stilwell came second and third respectively, with 32 Stableford points on countback.
Farrington Park Mixed
The Mixed Section played a friendly match away at the Isle of Wedmore Golf Club on Sunday, 23rd March. The format was Greensomes, where both players in the pair tee off, select the best of the two tee balls and then alternate shots until the ball is holed. It was a very friendly match, with Farrington Park and the Isle of Wedmore drawing 3½ – 3½.
Farrington Park Men
With the feel of spring in the air and lovely warm sunshine for the Saturday Stableford on 15th March, Adrian Cronin took full advantage of the good weather to top Division One with an outstanding score of 44 points. Second place went to Chris Young, who beat Men's Captain, Kevin Brimble, on countback after both scored forty points.
The good scores were also evident in Division Two; Graham Hancock took the honours, with 41 points, just holding off John Burton, who scored forty points to beat Graham Downes on countback.
The near perfect spring weather continued the following day, with the added benefit of no wind, a fairly unusual occurrence at Farrington! Steve Kingman used the improving conditions to best advantage by winning Division One, with forty points, beating Paul Broadway on countback. Matt LeFeuvre was third, scoring 37.
John Burton continued his great weekend of golf, this time coming top of Division Two, with a good score of 42 points. Steven Ball took second place, with 38 points, Andy Towell was third, with 36 points.