First-4-Golf

The DGU Championships were held ten days ago. Chirk is an excellent venue for such an event with its inherent length and degree of difficulty to test all abilities. A partially disappointing field of twenty nine players competed in the thirty six holes event which encompassed the Youths’ event as well as the Mens.

After the morning round, Alyn Torrance of the Plassey led the defending champion Rod Fieldhouse of Wrexham by a single stroke but in the afternoon Rod reversed the situation, again by a single stroke, for them to complete the thirty six holes of normal play on equal numbers of 147 gross. A sudden death play off over holes ten and eighteen resulted in solid par fours on the tenth only for Alyn to place his second shot on the par four eighteenth inside that of Rod and succeed to hole the vital putt for a birdie three and the Championship. Third place was Tom Partridge of the Vale of Llangollen on 149 followed by Josh Green of Clays in fourth place on 150.

As the competition runs a “one prize” rule, other prizes were awarded to Jerome den Dubbleden of the Moss Valley for his morning round of 77; Lewis Morgan of Clays for his afternoon round with a 76 and to Sam Higgins of Wrexham for the best thirty six holes net score of 151 as a result of a count back.

Thanks are directed to all the volunteers of Chirk golf club led by Terry Dodd the DGU Vice captain whose home club this is.

Earlier in the month, Wrexham played their Kenyon Cup qualifier which required eight top scorers to move into match play rounds with the final to be contested on Finals Day in late September. Leading qualifier was Andy Wynne with 75 – 11 – 64 followed by second placed Ian Johnson on 82 – 16 – 66, Andrew Harrington with 76 – 10 – 66; Dewi Sides with 72 – 6 – 66; his brother Malcolm Sides on 74 – 7 – 67; Paul Hogan with 78 – 10 – 68; Richard Derosa on 87 – 19 – 68 and in eighth place, Andrew Jones with his score of 79 – 11 – 68. The pattern of the draw places first against eighth, second against seventh and so on down the list.

The G.M.Crewe trophy is played in memory of auctioneer and developer Geoff Crewe who passed away in the eighties. A past captain of the club he was a very effective Greens chairman for many years. Winner of the competition, which is traditionally played mid week to enable all to compete, was past Captain Alan Scarratt who returned an excellent 75 – 10 – 65 followed by Graham Wright on 85 – 19 – 66. Sandwiched between these two scores came Chris Corcoran who plays off twenty five, but with an event upper handicap limit of twenty, his score of 90 – 25 – 65 was unfortunately discounted.

A week ago was the occasion of the 2010 Captain’s Day when incumbent Keith Miller hosted the day. In blazing sunshine the competition was won by Cliff Hopley with 75 – 10 – 65 to win by two shots from Dean Mullock on 77 – 10 – 67 and Mark Jeremy Williams who returned 76 – 9 – 67. The best senior golfer was Haydn Jones with

88 – 19 – 69, and the best gross of the day went to Andrew Shaunessey with a 74.

Wrexham’s Open week was initiated for the Centenary year of 2006 and has enjoyed excellent support and popularity ever since. The week starts with the Ladies’ Centenary Cup played as an individual medal. The 2010 winner with 96 – 26 – 70, and the result of a count back over the back nine holes was Ladies’ Vice captain, Janet Brunyee followed by Jackie L Williams who returned 95 – 25 – 70. Rita parry Tunnah was in third place with 88 – 17 – 71.

Monday’s event featured an Am Am event for any combination of players. The winners from Vicar’s Cross, Chester were J Evans, S Challinor, C Gillam and G Gillam with 91 points. Second came a Wrexham quartet of M Lowe, D Lowe, C Whire and D O’Hare with 90 points whist third place was won by R Williams, G Jones, D Jones and S Evans of the home club with 89.

Wednesday’s better ball Stableford event was won by the home pairing of Barry Stevens and Paul James with 45 points, one point better than runners up Chris Davies and Glyn Williams on 44. D Johnston and J Travis of Todmordon golf club were in third place with the better of two 41 point cards the other, for fourth place, going to father and son combination of Carl and Charlie White, also of Wrexham.

The hugely popular seniors’ open day on Thursday attracted a full field from start to finish, and a spread of prizes across many clubs in the North West. Winners from Northenden, near Sale, Manchester, were T Spencer and M Saxon with 48 points. Second came S Challinor and J Evans of Vicars Cross with 46 followed by Gil Hunt and Derek Colllis of Wrexham with 45. B Allanson and A Mallon of Upton by Chester were fourth with 45, and then came G Heggarty and S Jones of Bromborough, and D Williams and T beaver of Bromborough, both pairs on 44 points.

Teams of four of any combination of partners played the Am Am of Friday which resulted in a win for Wrexham’s captain Keith Miller partnered by his wife Angela with Andy Moth and Andrea Vaughan – Smith on 83 points. Second were Mike Norton with Helen Milner, Andy Povah and Mary Clarke for 82, a score repeated by third placed Phil Tunnah, Rita Parry, Peter Brand and Janet Brand. Alan Howells, Joan Hacking, Susan Jones and Peter Jones of Abergele were fourth with 79.

The final event of the week was the Mens’ Centenary Cup played on Saturday and only for home based players, not an Open event. With a score of net 66, the winner was Huw Gryffydd Williams on 86 0 20 0 66 from Dewi Sides who returned 71 – 5 – 66 to occupy the runner up spot. Dewi also had the best gross of the day and won the division one medal which was run concurrently with Cup. Second division winner was Steve Kavanagh with 68 from Andrew Harrington on similar figures whist the third division went to veteran golfer Ron Jackson with 67 in celebration of just passing his seventy fifth birthday. Brian Moffat was in second place with another 67 net score card.

Huw Gryffydd Williams also won the fourth division with his aforementioned score and he in turn was followed by Colin Coulbourn on 67.

Wrexham Junior lady Chloe Williams, daughter of club professional Paul Williams scored a 73 gross, net 70 to lead the qualifiers in the North East Wales Schools event played at Rhuddlan just three weeks ago, and in the County Girls’ championships played at Llangollen she handed in a level par gross to win the event with club mate India Friswell second on six over par

Wrexham’s junior team won the DGU round two of the Junior League played at Denbigh with five scores to count from six players, all net scores to count, not gross. The team managed net 263 followed by Denbigh on 265, Clays on 263 and Clays and Abergele tying on 265 for equal fourth place. Star player on the day for Wrexham was young Thomas Williams who handed in 71 – 9 – 62 to record the lowest net score of the event with last years junior captain, Sam Higgins scoring 70 for the lowest gross score.

The Vale of Llangollen veterans section played three recent matches against local clubs, recording a loss to Chester by 8 matches to 4, a win against Henlle Park by 6 ½ to 3 ½ and a loss to Caldy at Caldy for the second leg of the Caldy Shield by 7 – 3. The club did however win the shield as a result of a heavy win earlier in the season by 8 ½ to 1 ½      which balanced out at 11 ½ to 8 ½ overall.

My thanks to Derek Lyon of Clays who has armed me with no less than eleven A4 pages of results going back four weeks. Sheer lack of space concentrates my attention on the recent performances with apologies to earlier competition winners.

Clays seniors played against Ellesmere Port at home and won by the healthy margin of 9 matches to 2.

The club are staging a special Open golf event to co-incide with the Proclamation of the Wrexham and District National Eisteddfod of Wales for 2011. Teams of four can play on Wednesday 30^th June for £15.00 per person in what can only be described as excellent value for money. Contact Clays on 01978 661406 for information.

The seniors’ Stableford played on 22^nd June resulted in a win for Bill Kelleher on 40 points from Geoff Morris on 39 and then Harold Hughes on 37. The Saturday Shop Stableford witnessed success for Tim Lloyd with 40 points from Vic Mohun on 39 and Martin D Jones on 38.

The Tom and Kathleen Jones Trophy saw James Lee hand in 42 points from Peter Lynch on 39 and Michael Healey in third place on 38.

Finally this week our congratulations to sixteen year old Jessica Jones who played the Conway club last Monday in a scratch match and secured a hole in one on the second hole of play by using her rescue metal to good effect. A six handicapper, she plays alongside Chloe Williams in all the prestigious events on the Girls’ calendar, usually accompanied by India Friswell who also plays off six. Jessica is off to Scotland next week and Chloe is playing in the European Girls Championships at the same time.