Melton Golf Club: Watchorn wins first Major of the summer

The ladies’ section raised £185 on the day for the RNLI, the charity of lady captain Bettyne Norton, by serving homemade cakes at the halfway house.

There was an excellent prize table at the betterball pairs stableford, including golf equipment, clothing and balls.

And competition couldn’t have been closer with the top four places decided by countback, all with 43 points.

Phil Immison (Kettering GC) and Tony Melton (Nuneaton) edged Melton’s Ken Longbottom and Pate Rayers into second place, while Tim Orton and Bob Griffiths (Market Harborough) took third place and Denis Dayman and Dick Chapman (Melton) were fourth.

A score of 42 points secured fifth place for Adrian Parr and Steve Battison (Northants County), also on countback.

Other prizes – Under 70s nearest the pin: David Pearson; longest drive: Adrian Stokes. Over 70s nearest the pin: David Thorpe; longest drive: Stuart Knight.

Prizes were presented by club captain Ian Solloway.

* Adie Stokes shot a six-under handicap nett 64 to win the Midweek May Monthly Medal which comprised round four of the Race to Woodhall Spa series.

Gary Kitchen was again in the mix in second with nett 67, and Brendan Boyce continued his steady form to finish third with nett 70.

Sam Pollard shot the lowest gross score of 71.

Adie’s win sent him to the top of the RWS Order of Merit leaderboard.

Two’s sweep: Adrian Stokes, Danny Raven, Geoff Townsend, Tim Mortimer, Ben Turner.

* The first men’s major trophy of the year, the Marsh Cup, saw the low scoring in the bogey format move the standard scratch down to 69.

Played by 0 to 17 handicap players, Mezz Watchorn took the honours with a six-under handicap score (+5 on the course), while countback separated runner-up Brian Cole (+2) from Billy Kevan in third.

Twos sweep: John O’Reilly, Bev Blake, Billy Kevan, Mick Wilson, Kevin Rate, Chris Boulter.

The 18 to 28 handicap players played the first round of The Compton Cup, an aggregate competition played alongside the club’s five major competitions of the summer.

Doug Woolley won with +2 on the course, one better than Sam Wright who was second on countback from Cliff Daulby.

Malcolm Farrow shot the only two.

The competition was also the first Major Trophy RWS qualifier, with Mezz securing the maximum 600 points available from Brian Cole, Billy Kevan, Doug Woolley and Mick Wilson.

The top 28 qualify for Major points with the rest all receiving 25 points.

* The ladies Muir Cup was won by Jean Moulds with her level handicap score of nett 72, closely followed by Sandie Normanton (nett 74).

Sue Hitchman was third (nett 75) and Janet Bentley was fourth (nett 76 ocb).

* Melton men’s scratch league team visited Humberstone Heights for their second county league fixture.

Despite Melton being the favourites, the Humberstone players used home advantage to run out 5-3 winners.

The hosts pinched a tight first match on the last green, but Melton responded with good 3 and 2 wins for Jake Mogg and Matt Hatton.

Yet despite a late 6 and 5 win by Dave Poolan, Humberstone rallied to take the other four games.

* Melton C team extended their 100 per cent record this season with a fine win at Scraptoft.

John Mair made his C team debut in the opening match alongside Dave Bailey and they fought back to win the final hole and halve their match.

This was followed by wins for Ken Longbottom and Andy Pedlar (4 and 3), Mark Lewis and Don Benzie (2 and 1), and Bill Hurrell and Nigel Blunt (1-up).

Captain Brendan Boyce and partner Colin Kitchen then halved the final match to conclude an excellent 4-2 win.