KINGTON'S scratch golfer Matthew Davies rounded off an impressive list of achievements over the season by lifting the Hereford Times Cup after winning the Herefordshire Junior Championship at the South Herefordshire course.

The Eardisley-based youngster shot a magnificent gross 73 to finish three shots clear of Summerhill's Josh Powell, who was challenged by another Matthew Davies, from Herefordshire GC, who went around in 77.

A record entry of 60 contested the championships and the Sun Valley Cup for the best nett score went to Ryan McClay from Leominster.

His nett 65 was three shots clear of runner-up Josh Adams, of Ross-on-Wye, whose clubmate Joe Park was third on 70.

Results - Hereford Times Cup gross championship: 1 Matthew Davies (Kington) 73, 2 Josh Powell (Summerhill) 76, 3 Matthew Davies (Herefordshire) 77.

Sun Valley Cup nett championship: 1 Ryan McClay (Leominster) 85-20-65, 2 Josh Adams (Ross) 85-17-68, 3 Joe Park (Ross) 79-9-70.

Under-13: Oliver Floyd (South Herefordshire) nett 72; under-14: Joe Park (Ross) 70; under-15: Alex Bain (Ross) 71; girls: 1 Joanna McQuillan (Herefordshire) 72, 2 Zoe Edwards (South Hereford-shire) 79.

Team: Ross (Joe Park, Josh Adams, Alex Bain) nett 209.

A field of 52 contested Leominster Rankin Club Society's 12th annual Open for the Mathew Finney Memorial Cup which produced a close finish with Nigel Preece winning with 42 stableford points.

Next over the Leominster course were three former winners of the trophy, runner-up Chris Fletcher on 41 points, Chris Powell on 40 and Rob Holloway on 38. Ady Bennett was fifth with 37.

Other results, best gross: Kevin Gibbons; most points par threes: Trevor Perry; nearest pins: Alan Barrington, Chris Powell; longest drive: Kevin Gibbons; lowest points: Norman Greener; twos: Trevor Perry, Alan Barrington, Nigel Preece.

After the awards a presentation was also made to one of the society's founder members, Charles Winston, who is next month retiring from his position of Rankin club steward and returning to his native South Wales.

Leominster's Texas Scramble was followed by the official mounting of the new club flag, donated by Mark Pearson and Jane Powles.

The Texas Scramble was decided on a countback. Results: 1 Dave Pugh, Roger Barrington, Kevin Gibbons and Tony Wathen nett 54, 2 Shane Jones, Phil Manns, Joe Lines and Ryan McClay 54, 3 Rob Pugh, Steve Codd, Jason Gillum and Dave Botwood 55.6.

Leominster Ladies staged their October medal. Results, division one: 1 Pat Owen 93-18-75, 2 Lesley Turbutt 89-13-76, 3 Bet Hinchliffe 96-20-76; division two: 1 Jean Crum 103-26-77, 2 Gillian Sandell 103-24-79, 3 Carol Rudd 108-27-81; division three: 1 Jane Bayliss 110-36-74, 2 Janet Whittall 109-32-77, 3 Chris Anning 119-34-85.

Conditions were against players when Hereford Municipal Club staged their annual par competition against the course.

Winter rules applied but very wet conditions meant that only two players beat the course. There was a worthy winner in 10-handicapper Gareth Hardistry, however, who, despite the threequarter handicap allowance, hit most greens in regulation and finished four up.

Junior captain James Marsh, playing off six, was runner-up with a score of three up, followed by several players on two down, the best on countback being Michael Steele, 21, for third place.

The most unfortunate player was Graham Neilson who thought it was a bogey competition and used his 18 shots received to return bogey scores on 15 of the 18 holes.

A three-way tie had to be decided on countback between the low handicappers in Belmont Seniors' monthly medal.

Results, (0-17): 1 Ian Caves 80-8-72, 2 Peter Rouse 87-15-72, 3 Brian White 89-17-72; (18-28): 1 Angus Maclean 90-19-71, 2 John Alsop 96-23-73, 3 Paul Gimlick 96-23-73.

There were also some close finishes when 40 seniors played an away day at Thornbury.

Results, (0-16): 1 Terry Thomas 38 pts, 2 Dennis Pritchard 36, 3 Eric Mayers 36; (17-28): 1 Peter Greening 42, 2 Brian White 41, 3 Tony Ball 41.

The Seniors Open attracted an entry of 152.

Results, (0-14): 1 Brian Macnamara (Ross-on-Wye) 41 pts, 2 Paul Gosling (Belmont) 39, 3 G Morgan (Ross); (15-19): 1 P Rouse (Belmont) 41, 2 A Thomson (Forest Hills) 39, 3 G Hopkins (Cotswold Edge) 36; (20-28): 1 George Cozens (Belmont) 38, 2 P Dawes (Cotswold Edge) 37, 3 Tony Ball (Belmont) 37; over-70s: 1 Phil Skyrme (Belmont) 39, 2 J Morgan (St Giles) 39, 3 Eric Mayers (Belmont) 38.

At Herefordshire GC, a midweek stableford was held in conjunction with the English Blind Golfers' Association.

Results, (0-14): 1 Mark Prior 42 pts, 2 Ross Adams 42, 3 Brennan Standell 41; (15-28): 1 Martin Shaxted 41, 2 George Field 39, 3 Mike Lodge 39.

Seniors vice-captain David Hamer led his team to victory by 5-2 in the annual match against captain Rodney Crosby's team.

Kington's Broth Cup, contested by six winning pairs of the season's competitions, was played in horrendous weather conditions but was completed with creditable scores.

Results: 1 Sid Price and Graham Wood 47 pts, 2 Nigel Venables and Ray Evans 45, 3 Neil Crum and Joe James 44, 4 Gary Moore and Bob Bowen 42, 5 Melvyn Hughes and Bob Metcalfe 42, 6 George Smith and Marcel Veillett 41. Stephen B Rogers produced a nett 62 in Sapey's October end-of-month medal.

Results, division one: 1 Steve Upton 77-13-64, 2 Richard Moore 77-11-66, 3 Richard Holgate 75-9-66; division two: 1 Steven B Rogers 90-28-62, 2 Paul Nunn 89-21-68, 3 Alastair McLeish 85-15-70.

Ross-on-Wye captain Doug Duncanson led the men's team to an eighth successive win in the annual match against the ladies, this year captained by Pat Beaman, with a 6-4 decision.

Ross C team are enjoying a successful finish to their season and gained two recent wins, beating local rivals South Herefordshire 4-2 at home and Burghill Valley 3-2 away.

New member Mark Addis was the clear winner of Kingstone High School Society's October medal at Brampton - the final event of their season.

Father and son Barry and Will Murray dominated the gross section with outstanding scores on the nine-hole par-30 course.

Results, overall winner: Mark Addis 51-27-24; best gross: 1 Will Murray 31, 2 Barry Murray 32; division one: 1 Luke Williams 34-5-29; division two: 1 Dave Cooke 40-11-29, 2 Ben Kennedy 39-10-29; division three: 1 Gareth Williams 39-10-29; division four: 1 Peter James 74-27-47.

Summerhill staged a ladies' nine-hole coffee morning competition when captain Alison Baylis presented the prizes.

Results, (0-19): 1 Pat Owen (Leominster) 19 pts, 2 Peggy Heighway-Jones (Llandrindod Wells) 17; (20-30): 1 Wendy Jones (Burghill Valley) 19, 2 Sheila Watson (Rhosgoch) 18; (31-36): 1 Jean Moseley (Summerhill) 17, 2 Nicola Rogers (Knighton) 17.