FORTY-four Thurlestone Golf Club ladies braved the cold and windy weather on Wednesday to play a shotgun start Turkey Trot American Greensome Competition. The winners were Gill Hicks & Sally Huntley (pictured) with a great score of 41 points, from Sue Curry & Tsai Wharton with 38 points.

Third were Maggie Best & Claire Guard with 36 points and fourth were Melanie Adcock & Heather Spencer with 35 points. There were three birdie twos, so congratulations to Melanie & Heather, Janet & Barbara and Lesley & Hayley.

The clubhouse was very colourful as everyone wore their Christmas jumpers All won vouchers for Aune Valley.

There were also prizes for the best Christmas hats and jumpers, won by Wendy Stewart and Tricia Swindell. After the competition, everyone enjoyed lunch together and all generously brought raffle tickets for six fantastic Christmas hampers. Over £300 was raised.

On Tuesday, December 3, the seniors held the Ron Bancroft Cup. The weather thankfully was ideal and all enjoyed a lovely sunny day.

This year’s 2024 competition was held over 11 holes, namely one to nine, 17 and 18. 30 players in total entered the competition, making for a magnificent turnout. The competition played was Greensomes and a draw was held prior to the competition to select playing partners.

David Horne and Steven Gallagher (also pictured) were the overall winners with 27 points, playing off of a combined handicap of 23. In second place were Malcolm Lee and Peter Coates with 23 points.

There were two separate nearest-the-pin competitions in two shots on holes one and seven which were won by club captain Jim Stewart with his playing partner Peter Barnwell and the second, by Gary Keen and partner Gus Kemp.

Gary also excelled at the nearest-the-pin-in-one, winning one of them as well whilst Bill Campbell notched the other. After the event, all of the players enjoyed a hearty breakfast bap before the prize giving.

The weather turned really nasty on Thursday and only eleven members completed the 18 Midweek Stableford Competition with the rest walking in. The winner was Martin Oakes-Monger (17) with 35 points from Craig Blount (17) with 33 points. Third was Owen Rees (25) with 31 points.

Switching over to the Dartmouth GC ladies and with it being December, it was time for them to get out the festive jumpers and tinsel and have some Christmas competitions - dressing up is essential and all players were warned of a one-shot penalty for non-compliance!

First up was Biscuit and Booze, a better ball competition played on the Dartmouth course. The first hole is a tricky par three with an uphill tee shot needing to be accurate to avoid the trees and long enough to avoid the grassy hollows just in front of the green. The first group fell foul of the various hazards and, having finished the hole with just one point between them, knew they were in for a tricky day.

The antlers that two of the players were sporting were quickly removed and the points tally began to rise. Sadly, the A Team of Shelley Durrans, Jan T-G and Alison White were showing that you have to start well and get the points in the bag from the off - their six-point starting hole setting them up well for victory. It wasn’t a runaway victory though - their 38 points was matched by Chris Aresti, Marion Bell, Jan Cousins and Marilyn Lucas, but they had a point deducted for being the only four-person team.

Third place also suffered a penalty shot with one player having failed to comply with the dressing up rule- commiserations to Jan Brooking, Barbara Dally and Anne Woodward. The prize for most festive dress went to Chris Mushens, whose Christmas teddy bear headband, while something of a hindrance on the course, proved to be the winning accessory.

For the men, it’s the Grotty Cup that signals the start of Christmas. To ensure that it is fun and non-qualifying, the second and third holes are played from the Gold tees and the Red tees are used on the seventh and 18th holes.

Nigel Osborne started slowly but then scored three points on each hole from the fifth to the ninth, accumulating 22 points overall to win the front nine. Ian Metchette waited for the back nine to play his best golf and, with five pars and 22 points, was the back nine winner.

Paul Brown looked to be cruising to overall victory but blobs on the final two holes cost him dearly as he lost out to Robin Steer on countback, both finishing with 36 points. John Oldrieve scored the only two of the day on the fifth. Thanks to Andy Birss and the staff at The Dartmouth Arms for hosting the prize-giving.

Storm Darragh put paid to Saturday’s competition - apart from the safety implications, the general feeling was that it would be impossible to play in such windy conditions!