Junior Championship

The Junior Championship was played over 36 holes on Friday, August 20.The eventual champion with two fine rounds of 75 and 80 Gross was Chalmers Phin.

Runner up was the consistent Finlay McLellan with rounds of 78 and 78 gross. The nett competition was won by the “in form” Callum Flett on countback with impressive scores of nett 75 and 68 from Harry Brown who despite returning an initial round score of Nett 67 unfortunately stumbled to a nett 76 in the afternoon.

Birthday Vase

Playing conditions for this prestigious Club competition could not have been worse particularly for those competitors who teed off later in the morning.

Rapid heavy torrents of rain left most competitors seeking out their rain gear only to be too late to prevent them from being soaked to the skin.

The lucky ones who had only just started their rounds found some of the greens to be flooded and sought the welcome refuge of the Clubhouse.

Given the atrocious conditions, it is remarkable that the top 12 nett scores were all under par.

Even more remarkable was the winning score of nett 62 returned by Neil Crowther, who now has to be one of the candidates for player of the season.

Second place went to Alan Selby with a valiant nett 63.

Another of this season’s “high riders”, Gavin Allen was third with a nett 64.

Fourth place was taken by Leighton Rees with an equally fine nett 65, but he could take comfort as his gross score of 72 was the best of the day.

Being no strangers to the winning enclosure, Stephen Bishop, Martin Dyer and Richard Fenton Jones all returned a nett 66 with the relative finishing order above being determined on countback.

Talking of strangers, it was good to see John Lovatt (nett 67) making a welcome return to the paddock after his recent sojourn in France.

B Team

As the match season starts to draw to a close, the Cirencester B Team continued their away match form with an impressive away win against close rivals Minchinhampton GC.

Captain Jonathan Wells and Keith Hodgson blended in well to win their opening match 3 & 2.

This was followed by an equally fine 3 & 2 win for the dependable pairing of Howard Jones and Brian Kelly.

Unfortunately, the team were to suffer their first loss of the afternoon when David Michael and Andrew Miles went down 3 & 1.

John Morris and Mike Stopps then steadied the ship with a 2 & 1 win followed by another away team point from a halved match by Duncan Barnes and Paul Jenkins.

It was left to David Murray and Leighton Rees to “bring home the bacon” with a tantalising 2 & 1 win.

Final match result: Minchinhampton 1½ Cirencester