EACH year, Theale invites professionals from other local golf clubs to enter a competition called the Winter Pros Scramble, which is open to pros, guests and members.

This year five neighbouring professionals took up the invitation to play among the 19 teams of four.

It was one of the rare recent days without rain and despite almost five months of deluges, the green staff managed to provide an excellent course, which helped towards the high scoring. Twelve of the 19 teams broke the magic ‘60’ mark.

It was Don Boyce and his team from Donnington Grove, Scott Holland, Ray Ford and his son Alex who took the honours.

They came in with a score of 56.9 and it was 10-year-old Alex who clinched their victory with a 20-foot put on their final green. This was such a vital putt as four Theale club members, Jack McCarthy, Simon Nixon, Micky Wheeler and Kevin Allum achieved the same score, but had to be satisfied with the runners-up spot as the Donnington Grove team had the better back nine score.

NICK Jones won the men’s Saturday stableford at West Berks with an impressive 44 points, four points clear of Phil Clare who beat Keith Hawton on countback to take second place.

Having won the March medal last weekend, Gale McAuley continued her fine form by winning the ladies’ stableford with 31 points. Tina Mulford was two shots behind in second place while Jane Brackenbury with 25 points beat Georgie Seaman on countback to take third.

Having fallen foul of the weather on three occasions, Round Five of the men’s winter league was finally played on Sunday.

John Carroll and Nigel Huszarik won the greensomes competition with 45 points, while Rob Griffiths and Tom Wickstead with 43 points beat Keith Wilkins and Carl McCartney on countback to take second place.

* The men’s team, which plays a series of friendly matches throughout the year, started the season in fine style with a 4-2 win away to Sonning GC on Saturday.