By Dave Bruce

What a change a week can make in golf. Last Wednesday Axe Cliff Golf Club ladies battled against a gale but at least it remained dry.

Despite the tricky conditions some reasonable scores were achieved with Jo Hopgood taking the honours with 32 points, closely followed by Ang Higgins on 30. Jill Wellington was in third place with 29 points.

The previous week they enjoyed a calm and very pleasant day for their monthly Stableford. This time Stella Thompson showed her true class by winning with 35 points but was pushed all the way by Sandra Waker who was second on 34 points.

The Seniors where not so lucky last Friday which was rained off but they did manage to play their last friendly match of the season on Tuesday against a strong team from Cricket St Thomas at Axe Cliff. It was nip and tuck all day until Axe Cliff's last pairing of Mark Wisby and your truly went out knowing that they had to win win to give the team an honourable draw. Mark played well for the first nine holes to ensure we were all level at that stage and I came into my own on last nine which gave us a 3 & 2 win and the team a 3-3 draw. Amazingly we also drew 3-3 at Cricket earlier in the Season when I partnered old Geoff Hughes and they won the last leg again.

Geoff is in hospital at the moment with heart trouble giving the nurses a hard time with his endless stories but we all wish him a speedy recovery. He assures me that he is following our progress on Sky.

The previous Friday was also very difficult weather conditions but a good number finished their round for the prestigious Silver Salver Trophy.

This is played in teams of three, in stableford format, with one score to count on the first six holes; two on the next six and all three to count on last six so a little bit of individual pressure not to let his team down. Not surprisingly, the winning team comprised three good players in Alan Morgan, from the Valleys, retired Stuart Mackie and ever reliable Nigel Pritchard with a solid 77 points. They were pushed all the way by Chris Read, Richard Bush and Simon Wellington who had 76. Another good team of top chef Nigel Tarr, old publican Norman Bowles and Phil Clarke took third place with 75. 

In the October Medal the Mens' Section did tremendously well with Stephen Pritchard coming first with a fantastic 45 points, David Steele second with 44 leaving Brian Waller to earn third spot on 43 points.

Winter rules start this week but we hope to continue on green tees rather than mats. This means we can get relief on the fairways to mark and clean our balls which can get very muddy in wet conditions. The little white balls are difficult enough to hit at the best of times - you can imagine what an additional lump of mud can do! "