PAUL Saunders triumphed in the bogey/par competition held as new captains Frank O’Neill and Karen Bridges drove in at The Club at Mapledurham.

Eighty players braved the cold weather to play, and despite the weather there were some fine scores.

Saunders took the men’s section on 4up, one clear of runner-up Ian Piggott, who was in turn one hole better off than Carl Lyons.

Bernie Doyle took the honours all square in the ladies’ event, beating Carole Gardner on count-back. Debbie Harris was 1down to finish third.

At the end of the competition, all the players gathered around the 18th hole to watch the outgoing captains, James Newport and Berni Doyle, putt out before moving to the first tee to watch the incoming captains drive-in.

Players bought lollipop sticks to place where they thought the incoming captains drives would reach, and this raised more than £100 to kick start their new charity, Children with Cancer UK.

The winners were Carole Gardner and Kevin Farrell.

Before O’Neill and Bridges received their blazers as the new captains, Newport and Doyle were given a cheque for £14,000 raised during the year which they will donate to the MS Trust.

Guy Topham won the first overall monthly medal of the year with a nett 66.

In Division One, Paul Gardner shot a 67 to edge Jack Beavan on count-back, Kevin Kersley finishing third three shots back.

Topham’s effort secured him the Division Two title ahead of Richard Barton and Trevor Gray, while Tim Anderson took the Division Three honours at the expense of Tim Mitchell and John Allamby.

The nearest the pin prizes went to Saunders (8th) and Kevin Woods (18th).

  • THERE was a very tight finish to the 4-3-2-Waltz competition at Caversham Heath on Sunday, with two points separating the top three teams.

The fourball of David Wise (16hcp), Chris Stacey (13hcp), Damian Colville (5hcp) and Dennis Sunderland (11hcp) came out on top with 117 points, one clear of runners-up Leon Hutt (6hcp), Paul West (5hcp), Craig Hutt (8hcp) and Calvin Hutt (14hcp).

Third were the team of Angela Adamson (32hcp), Clive Adamson (13hcp), Andy King (10hcp) and Andy Holmes (12hcp) with 115 points.