Melton Golf Club welcomes new captains for 2017

The first to drive in was incoming lady captain Bettyne with a drive of 107 yards, followed by club captain Ian, who unfortunately topped his shot as nerves played their hand, sending the ball 51 yards.

The traditional handover of captaincy then took place in the clubhouse where the photographs of outgoing skippers Jack Inguanta and Liz Snow were replaced by club president Terry Brown and lady president Chris Cook.

Terry congratulated Jack and Liz on their superb year before Liz, Jack, Ian and Bettyne made small speeches.

A buffet followed, prepared by club cook Carol Coller and her team, while the event was overseen by clubhouse manager Angela Gauntlett.

The guess the yardage sweep was won by Ann Espin, sister of new captain Bettyne, who estimated the captain’s drive at 100 yards, while Ann Evans was only one yard out with the distance of the lady captain’s drive with 108 yards

The combined drive total was won by club member Alan Smith with 200 yards.

Ian’s charity for his year in office is the Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Rutland Air Ambulance, while Bettyne will raise funds for the Royal National Lifeboat Institution.

* Jack Inguanta ended his year as club captain in some style as he played a four-man Texas scramble on Saturday.

He shot a hole-in-one on the par three 16th, to his delight and that of his playing partners and team.

The ace added five points to his card, and earned everyone in the clubhouse a whiskey, but it was not good enough to move them into the prizes.

It was a close contest with the top three teams all carding 48 points with the result decided by countback on the back nine.

Tim Buxton, Jon Cliffe, Jevan Goddard and Kevin Robertson got the verdict from runners-up Steve Wright, John Harvey, Martin Wheeler and Steve Brown, while Matt and Ray Catton with Colin and Gary Kitchen took third place.