THE ladies and men at Bigbury Golf Club once again enjoyed their annual Christmas golf and lunch, over two days. The weather wasn’t as kind as they would have hoped, but the ladies wrapped up warm and battled the elements, writes Sarah West.

The 11-hole Stableford competition took place before the meal which all the ladies completed but wisely declined playing the remainder of the course due to a bitter north easterly wind.

Despite the weather conditions, the scores were quite impressive with Jane Rickman coming in second on 18 points, behind Lady Captain Linda Hanbury, who notched 19. Sarah West had the only two.

In true Bigbury spirit, all the ladies had a prize to take home. The men decided to go with a Greensomes format, the top 12 greensomes pairs were each drawn at random with a pair from the bottom 12 pairs, no one knew where they stood until the results were announced. Champagne for the winners and assorted Christmas goodies for the rest.

Back in a cosy warm clubhouse, 44 ladies took their seats at the tables and enjoyed a quiz hosted by Lorette, whilst the final touches were being carried out in the kitchen for our traditional Christmas two course meal- huge thanks to Maggs, H, Zara and Tina for a superb meal as always.

Volunteers mustn’t be overlooked either, Seniors Captain Andrew, Men’s Vice Captain Mick and Seniors committee member Neville serving as waiters with Lynn P, Jan D and Sarah W returning the favour for the men.

To finish off the afternoon, the ladies did their rendition of the 12 days of Christmas and all are pictured on the day.

MOVING over to Thurlestone GC and the ladies’ competition last Wednesday was planned to be an 18-hole Stableford, including playing for The Britney Shield. Cold weather kept a third of the field in the clubhouse though and so instead, 14 ladies played 14 holes, reports Steve West.

The Britney Shield was first played for in Brittany and organised by a relative of Pam Adams, the Ladies Captain. Four years ago, Pam was asked to take over the running of the competition. This year Pam thought it would be a good idea to combine it with a monthly stableford.

Liz Sharman came out on top with 25 points, ahead of a trio on 24: Sarah Loader, then Sheila Fairley and then Kaz Phillips. Liz was presented with the Britney shield plus a bottle of wine.

On Friday 13, the club held their second Traders, Tinsel tournament, with nearly 50 local traders taking part in a shotgun start Stableford and all having a blast. Apologies to anyone who tried to contact an electrician, plumber or carpenter that day!

Next up was the annual festive junior event, mixing things up this year with a 6-hole Texas scramble competition.

36 players donning Christmas jumpers and hats took to the course in mixed teams, with older juniors able to help the younger ones along the way.

It went right down to the wire with the quartet of Ollie Chester, Max Brooker, Ted Clayson and Zeb Willis winning at five-under-par. Completing the podium, both at four-under-par were Will Robson, Bella Brooker, Harry Robinson and Toby Lavers & professional Tracy Loveys, Seb Giles and George Smallridge.

Santa paid a visit and gave out presents to the competitors for their hard work, all of whom are pictured.

NOW for Dartmouth GC and there was another Christmas competition for Dartmouth ladies this week with chocolates and fizz on the line, writes Chris Mushens.

Despite the shift to the more challenging Championship course, the scores were slightly higher than the previous week, perhaps owing to the mulligans.

Jan Cousins, Barbara Dally and Karen Oldrieve led the way ahead of Chris Aresti, Shelley Durrans and Sharon Jones in second and in third; Chris Mushens, Alison White and Anne Woodward.

In the men’s midweek Stableford off of the red tees, Philip Green was the only player to finish under par with 38 points in Division One. Second place went to Trevor Pretty (35pts) whilst Division Two was spearheaded by Nigel Osborne (30pts) and Rob Knight (25pts).

The ladies hosted a Christmas Wreath workshop and were tutored by the excellent Linsay Johns- many were shocked as to their abilities thanks to Linsay’s support. Along with the beautiful wreaths being made, over £100 was raised for the captain’s charity, Hearts Together.

Paul Marels, Malcolm Barrett, Ian Black and Lee Marels won the weekend’s Mixed Better Ball Stableford on 97 points, with the added twist of the best two Stableford scores being multiplied together.

Most teams did manage to score on each hole, but there were some sad cards showing one player with a decent score but only a zero as the multiplier.

Second went to Keith Sexton, Richie Ogle, Mark Scrivener and Darren Lockley whilst Peter Hannaford, Dave Nicholls, Matt Young and Andy Dykes were in third, both teams scoring 90 points.

Bobby Wotton takes the prize for resourcefulness - having found that he had a right-handed glove but needed a left hand, he simply wore it back to front. His teammates weren’t entirely convinced that it had been intentional!

FINALLY, to the Dartmouth seniors and John Garner carded a hole in one on the par three third hole to kickstart their Christmas Texas Scramble on Monday, December 16. This equated to a minus two score against the final gross tally, reports Gordon Holmes.

By the end of the 18 holes, each player must have had a minimum of four tee shots selected and a max of five.

11 teams were drawn by the competition secretary with equality of handicap in mind. Last years’ Nett 56 was top of the shop. There was a two tee start on the 1st and 10th holes to allow all teams to finish within a 60-minute timescale.

A team led by Rob Barrett came out on top with a fine Nett 61, just one shot ahead of team Jewell.

Alongside Rob were Ian Black, Terry Farkins and Mark Mitchell whilst Gordon Holmes, Bernard Young and David Ward accompanied Geoffrey Jewell.

Finishing in third and only losing out on the silver medal via countback were Simon Hobbs, Philip Green, Rob Isaacs-Berry and John Cousins.

30 birdies and one eagle were recorded across the event which must be a record on what was a fine, dry day for golf, the course in excellent condition for the time of year with just a hint of sogginess underfoot.

Many thanks to competition guru Nigel Osborne, Richard Bevan for organising the lunch and the pro shop for collecting the loot. The Christmas lunch was well attended by past and present members with full marks going to the chef. A minute silence and raised glasses was observed for those who passed away during the year.

The Rides Cup for support to the seniors’ captain was awarded to Gary Bonser. Special thanks by means of prizes were awarded to Terry Farkins (Head Greenkeeper) and the professional shop for their unwavering assistance over the past twelve months.