Clwyd Championship played at Prestatyn and Wrexham Golf Clubs
With the Clwyd Championships but eight days away from today’s date, the annual Welsh Merit Award competition has attracted a very strong field for the seventy two holes event which plays over the Prestatyn links on Saturday 8th May and then concludes at Wrexham for the deciding thirty six holes the following day.
The closing date for entries was last Monday and the organizers placed the initial cut off point for handicaps at 2.8 strokes with sixteen reserves now available up to five handicap.
This year the event will start from two tees at each club, so compressing the time on the golf course by some one and a half hours, a particular consideration for players who have to travel to South Wales following the presentation on the Sunday
The field has been extended from sixty six players to seventy two because of the aforementioned manner of play so all we want now is a kind spell of weather.
The starting times for the Welsh Youth Championships to be held in Wrexham on the 29th and 30th May have now been released by Mrs. Liz Edwards, the Championship Secretary to the Golf Union of Wales. The times are probably only of interest to the actual players, but of the sixty six competitors, no less than forty two are scratch or better with the remaining twenty four off one handicap. The strongest player is Johannes Diederichs off 3.5 in a field which includes Rhodri Fieldhouse of Wrexham off +1; Luke Jackson of Mold, also +1; Adam Tuft of Mold and Gareth Ephraim of Old Padeswood, both off a handicap of 1. Again there is an extensive list of reserves awaiting the call to play.
The Vale of Llangollen Veterans’ played their match against Eaton as an away fixture and lost by eight games to four.
The annual match between the Ladies and the Veterans was based on a draw for partners format with a Stableford scoring system in place. Winners were Rowena Sylvester and Howard Hewitt with 43 points from Linda Williams and County Secretary, David Ethelston, in second place with 41. Nancy Durkin and Spencer Povah were third with another 41 point card followed by fourth placed Margaret Jeffreys and Dennis (S) Jones on 39.
Wrexham hosted the qualifying round for the Hospitals’ Cup in which the players compete to become one of the four leading men, or one of the four leading ladies, to go forwards to the match play rounds with the final being played on Finals’ Day in September. Prior to play, and after the handicap differential is worked out, the ladies are granted one courtesy stroke to be added to their handicap before play commences.
The leading ladies were Kath Norman, net 70; Janet Sharley 71; Shirley Williams, 72 and Jacqueline Williams on 72 also. The men will be represented by Tony Phillips, net 67; Chris Marsden, 68; Oliver Hughes, 68 and Nicholas Jones on the same numbers.
The Competition Scratch Score for the men ran out at 72, two over the par for the course. What with little rain over the past month, and the course very dry and fast, there were many scores several strokes over the expected return, even for experienced players.
The ladies also played their Cancer Relief and Simmons Bowl in an event which witnessed a win for Dorothy Davies on 37 Stableford points followed by Jo Davies, 36; Janet Lloyd 36; Jacqueline Williams, 35 and Janet Brunyee, also on 35. Forty one ladies contested the event.
The Crowther Cup was also the focus of attention and was played in two handicap divisions. Winning the Silver division was Hazel Parry with net 73 followed by Shirley Williams 75; Marlene Willetts 77 and Carole Jones also on 77.
The Bronze division went to Angela Miller with net 67 from Ladies’ Vice Captain, Janet Brunyee on 70, Mary Bainbridge on 73 and Greta Jones with 75.
Clays Golf Club supplied members with an excellent choice of competitions this last week with Derek Lyon, our press correspondent from Clays reporting from Torquay where he is on holiday. The GUW Handicap qualifier was played in two divisions and resulted in a first division win for Iwan Bonds with net 65. Second came Clive Davies with 67 followed by Karl Matthias on 68. The second division went to Michael Scott Carnell with a 64 who was in turn followed by Andrew Jones with 67 and Colin Brand on the same numbers. The Shop Sunday Stableford went to Rhys Millington with 37 points off a handicap of two. Steven Evans came in second with 36 and the Gareth Parry on e stroke in arrears for third place.
A combined medal for both ladies and gentlemen was played last Friday with Diane Dare being the overall winner with 65 from Kevin Lee Roberts in second place on 68 followed by Michael Platt on 69. Last Saturday the shop organized their Stableford competition which was won by Danny Williams with an excellent 41 points. Phil Dunning came into second place with 39 with Steve Williams third with 38.
The junior summer Stableford league featured a win for James lee with 40 points from Patrick McHugh on 38 and then Thomas Matthews on 39.
The Ladies Challenge Bowl was also played last Sunday through two handicap divisions. Denise Bromley took division one with net 71 from Anne Richards on 72 and India Friswell on 82. Kim Harcombe was in fourth place with 83. The second division featured a win for Pauline Peacock on 73 with Janet Johnson in second place with 80 and then Rosalind Carman third with 82.
Michael Platt featured in the Sunday Stroke play event by winning with net 67 from Phil Dunning on 70 and Colin Bryan on 71.