Dry-out favours shorter hitters

The good scoring of recent weeks continued over the week-end, and with the course now starting to dry out, I would expect the shorter hitters on longer handicaps to start monopolising the prize lists in the daily competitions even more than has happened in the last few weeks.
On Saturday, the women's competition was a LGU round, which saw Fiona Samuel continue her good run of form by taking the honours with a 71 nett. That was one ahead of Ngaire Graham in second place, with Trish Gallon third on 74 nett.
The club competition was a stableford round, which was also the second round of the Bill Woods Trophy. The best score of the day was the 41 point haul recorded by Graeme Paulsen in taking out the lower handicapped group. Second place on this group went to Kip Edmonds on 38 points, from Ngaire Graham and Alf Puhara on 37 points.
Fiona Samuel took out the second group with a total of 39 points, with Jake Paulsen in second place on 38. Syd Whittington took third place on 37 points, while George O'Keeffe got the nod of those on 36 points to fill the last prize position in the group. There was a three way tie for Lukies Lucky Last, but after a count back, that prize went to Jo Hargood with 28 points.
After the two rounds for the Bill Woods Trophy, Syd Whittington ended up just holding on to take out the Trophy with 81 points, with Jake Paulsen breathing heavily down his neck on 80 points, and Alan Biel a further point back. There was a gap back to another four players who finished with 74 points.
Fiona Samuel capped a great day by taking the Solway Pie Shop nearest to the pin on the first hole. Jeremy Harp won the Solway Butchery one on the eighth hole, while Steve Hargood struck the one on the sixth hole, Brian Chappell the tenth and George O'Keeffe the seventeenth. No one was able to make the third green in regulation, and there were no holes in two recorded.
Sunday saw the second round of the Greenaway Cup being played. The top pairing was that of Noeline and Brian Stevenson, whose score of 66 nett was a big improvement over the first round. In second place was the pairing of Fiona Samuel and Mark Schultz with a 67 nett, followed by Janet Shaw and Bill Christiansen on 68 nett. Jean Bayly and Fred Brittain were in fourth place on 69 nett. With the competition being the best two of three rounds, Jean Bayly and Fred Brittain have set a target of 141 nett for the others to try and beat, but that figure may well end up lower if they can improve on their first round score this week-end.
For those who did not have partners in the Greenaway Cup, the competition was a stableford round. The winner was Paul Haxton with a total of 43 points that should have been more. He had 38 points with four holes to go, but only scored five points in those holes. I am sure that the handicapper will be looking very closely at his card. Kevin Hunter was in second place on 42 points, while both Bill Graham and Martin Andrew finished on 40 points. Lukies Lucky Last went to Vin Oswald with 26 points.
There was only one hole in two scored in the stableford round, and that was scored by Lance Duckett.
Last Thursday, the women held their Christmas Tournament, and it saw some very good scoring. In the lower handicapped group, the best scorer was Brenda Clegg with 45 points, Janet Campbell and Shirley Simpson both recorded 42 points and were placed in that order on the count back. Pat Gard took fourth place with 41 points, followed by Pam Griffith on 39 and Deb Henderson on 38.
In the second group, Ngaire Wilton had the best score of 43 points to head off Betty Loader on 42. Susan Christall and Janet Shaw both finished with 41 points, and Sylvia Sladden and Noeline McGovern rounded out the prizes with 40 points each.
There were two long drives, with the lower handicap one going to Bev Hendle, and Ngaire Wilton took the one for the second group. There were also two nearest to the pins, with those going to Shirley Simpson and Noeline McGovern.
On Tuesday, the veterans played in a two person ambrose competition. The top pairing on the day was that of Yvonne Allsworth and Coll Isherwood, who finished with a nett score of 37 ? . Nancy Baylis and Bill Graham were second on 42 nett, just a half ahead of Maureen Flynn and Sylvia Sladden. Fourth place was shared by the pairings of Pat Gard and Bill Christiansen and Betty Loader and Ian Gemmill on 43 nett.
There were tow nearest to the pins on the sixth hole, with the women's one going to Jean Bayly and the men's one to Bill Christiansen.
Next Tuesday, the veterans will hold their closing day for the season, with the competition being a stableford round.
This coming week-end will see the third and final round of the Greenaway Cup being played on Saturday. For those men who do not have partners, the competition will be a stableford round. In the evening, the annual presentation of trophies will start at 7.30 pm.
Then on Sunday, the Club holds its annual Christmas Stableford Tournament, which has the first players starting around 8.30 a.m. and the last ones around 12.30 p.m.
There are still some gaps in the field, so it is still not too late to enter. The starting sheet is in the club house foyer.