THURLESTONE members played a Greensome competition on Easter Monday in some very windy weather with an excellent field of 51 players, but the bright breezy day made scoring tricky.

Junior George Inch continued his good form by winning Division One with 38 points.  Ashley Pigott was second, also with 38 points, and Malcolm Toone was third with 37 points.  Joe Beck had the best score of the day with 40 points, winning Division Two with Stuart Read second with 36. Third was Mary Swan with 35.  There were nine two’s.

l The forecast was woeful for the Bank Holiday Greensomes but fortunately the really bad weather did not materialise until much later in the day.

Taking advantage of the good weather and winning were Annabel and Stephen Lark with a very good 41 points, just pipping Victoria and Simon Gibbens also with 41.

Bridget Lafferty and Paul Millburn-Fryer were third with 39. There were five twos by Jane and Richard Walker, Alan and Lindsey Mann, Annabel and Stephen Lark, Roger and Tess Brownill and Julia Dorey and Mark Latham.

λ On Thursday April 6 the seniors hosted Dartmouth in the second friendly match of the season, reports Gary Keen. 

It was mostly a dry day, but the wind was gusting very strong. Thurlestone had a great result winning 4.5 to 1.5 with wins for Stewart Barnes and Ken Lee, Malcom Pryor and Richard Lungmuss, John Mahood and Phil Colman and Hugh Bodger and Owen Rees.

 Paul Millburn-Fryer and Ken Riley managed to halve their match and unfortunately Gary Keen and Neil Mackay was our only lost match.  The captain of the Dartmouth team said he would like to pass on the team’s compliments to Russell and the greens team for presenting an excellent course and all were very impressed with the condition of the greens.

λ Thurlestone juniors William Hoskin, Aiden Mulligan and Bill Gary were in action for the Devon County Basil Steer knockout on Thursday against Exeter at Churston but although they fought hard it was not their day and they lost 3-0. The junior team will be in the Tamar Cup knockout and National Golf knockout later in the year and we wish them good luck. 

λ On Thursday, April 13, Thurlestone seniors hosted a team from Churston Golf Club. After some appalling weather the day before, the sun came out and both teams enjoyed a dry match with the usual Thurlestone winds.

Unfortunately, Thurlestone did not win this week and were beaten 3.5 to 2.5. There were wins for Gary Keen and his partner Steven Gallagher, Phil Colman and Owen Rees, Mike Croft and Mark Beal managed to halve their match with losses for Bill Hutchison and Alistair Proctor, Patrick Robinson and Neil Mackay, Bill Campbell and Mike Allen.

λ The April Juniors’ Stableford competition had eight juniors playing in good conditions on Saturday. 

The winner was 11-year-old Aiden Mulligan with 39 points, which included two birdie twos. Second was Martha Massingham with 37 points and third was William Hoskin and Alfie Tabiner both with 34 points. 

Eight Thurlestone juniors from Kingsbridge community college are playing in the Devon Schools championship at Downes Crediton on Tuesday. We wish them all good luck and will report on their progress next week.