Uphill battle ahead in President’s Plate final

12:37pm Thursday 22nd March 2007

KINGTON face an uphill battle in the second leg of the final of the President's Plate after falling 2-1 and five holes behind Market Drayton in the first leg.

Kington's winning pair were Alan Williams and Graham Priday who finished with a one-hole advantage against Rob Bayliss and Pete Yelland but Roger Richards and Ed Deasey lost by five holes to Ian Corcoran and Derek Capper while Matt Davies and Josh Davies lost by a single hole to Phil Ash and Pete Watkins.

Kington captain Rob Pritchard led his team to a 5.5-3.5 home win over Llandrindod Wells in the first inter-club match of the new season.

The last Men's Winter League event had a close finish with just a few points covering the whole field. Top spot went to Nigel Venables and Joe James with 42 points. Wyndham Evans and PJ Price took second place also with 42 points but missed out on the back nine. Third place had to be decided on the last six hole scores with Murray Mackintosh and Dave Morgan getting the verdict over the other 41 pointers.

In the Seniors' Monday morning Texas Scramble, Viv Weaver, Richard Williams and Bob Kelley put together an impressive 51 points to take first place, even so they only won on the back nine from John H Williams, Dave Mains and Andy Edey. Third place went to George Farr,Terry Inskip and Mike Richards with 49 points.

q Mike Talty took advantage of good conditions to return a fine score of 41 Stableford points to win Ross-on-Wye's Barnfield Trophy which is contested by the top eight players from each of the five Winter Stableford competitions.Talty took the trophy on a countback from Trevor Flowers.

Organiser Frank Gallagher had a ticklish problem when there was a three-way tie in the mixed Greensome competition over 16-holes. Gallagher eventually determined that the winners were the husband and wife team of John and Norma Hebdon with 35 Stableford points, on a countback over Alan Pritchard and Julia Wilde and Richard and Frances Nightingale.

Gallagher, who succeeded Doug Duncanson as club captain, held his drive-in on Saturday and managed 140 yards, winning a prize for Ellie Peake who had nominated that particular distance. David Griffiths takes over as vice-captain.

Ninety members took part in a Florida Scramble to mark the start of Gallagher's year as captain with the team of Richard Lloyd, Mike Rothwell, Adam Gillespie and Chris Bullock winning by a considerable margin. Ladies' captain Wilma MacNamara and her quartet received the prize for the greenest team.

Ross Seniors' March competition took the form of a yellow-ball, teams-of-three even with Jon Palmer, Geoff Baker and Tony Kershaw achieving a run-away win with 94 points. Will Morris, Pat Curtis and Don Hunter took second place from the team of Peter Metcalfe, Terry Savage and Tiger Dixon with both trios finishing with 94 points.

q The Herefordshire Seniors Stableford competition produced some of the closest scoring ever, with card countbacks needed in both high and low handicap categories.

In the 0-17 category the top three all scored 41 points, with Ian McIntosh just beating Clive James and Geoff Gobey.

The 18-28 section saw John Warren take the honours with 41 points, followed by Joe Millington and George Field on 40.

q At Burghill Valley, the men's three-club challenge, where players complete their round with three clubs and a putter, was won by John Walker who returned a very creditable 37 points.

Norman Bain was second on countback with Gary Teague in third and Mike Archer in Forth.

The Seniors winter league final was contested by Peter Haddock and Adrian Lunt playing against Ron Goodall and Les Herbert with the latter pair taking the honours with a 4 and 3 win. Losing semi-finalists were John Griffiths and John Tyler and John Freeman and Chris Furber.

In a Round Robin match Burghill lost to The Worcestershire by 4 to 3.

q The second part of Belmont captain Kevin Powell's drive in, over nine holes, was won by Barry Norton, followed home by David Wood, Ralph Keme and Kevin Smith. All of the first four finished with 20 points.

Tony Body won the Tuesday seniors' competition with 35 points, a score also returned by second-placed John Lewthwaite. Tommy Boswell (33) came in third.

In the Thursday competition, Paul Gosling (40 points) came in ahead of second-placed Des Samuel and Ray Ingram who both finished on 39.

q Sapey's Spring Vase was won by the pairing of J Holt and J Coghill (61 points) with A Jones and N Rendle (62) in second and S Brereton and M Gwynne (64) in third.

q Wayne Gittoes won Cradoc's winter league with his eighth win in the nine rounds. He was presented with the 20-year-old Winter League Trophy which he won previously 10 years ago.

q Trevor Perry won Leominster's March 11 Stableford with 35 points, ahead of Kevin Gibbons and Alan Weaver.

The following week it was Rob Brotherwood's turn to be at the top, also with 35 points, ahead of Richard Francis and Brian Hunt.

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