Visitors take top honours

Golf

VISITORS dominated Gala Golf Week at Crompton and Royton.

Four players from Haydock Park, Hindley Hall, Great Lever and Farnworth won the four-man team event as S Owen, K Finch, J Johnson and J Osborne scored 128.

They finished one shot clear of home players Dave and Josh Briddon, Andrew Bottomley and Simon Mooney.

In third place with 131 were High Barn players Gary Melling, Andrew Simpson and Andrew Allen and Rochdale’s Ken Hardy.

Stand’s C and C Harding, R Savage and K Freeman emerged the victors in the mixed foursomes with a score of 83.

They finished three shots clear of Charlie and Andrea Lowe, Mick and Brenda, from the hosts.

Mick Nield, Gary McHugh and Denis Wright, representing Crompton and Royton and Brookdale, triumphed in the three person team event with a score of 131.

They finished five shots clear of Knott End’s Gareth Hill, David Holyoake and John Brodkin while one stroke further adrift in third spot were home players Bob and Stuart Hopkinson and Tony Sutherland.

Stamford’s Norman Firth and Arthur Gartshore headed the field in the seniors four-ball Stableford.

Runners-up were Jim Booth and Mike Hambley while third place went to Landy Wild and Eric Frier, both pairings from the host club.

Home players dominated claiming the top three places in the four-ball betterball Stableford.

Landy Wild and Eric Frier triumphed with 42 points, Gary McHugh and Brian Howarth (41) were runners-up while third place went to Mick Nield and Denis Wright.


THE men’s Chronicle Cup is to be replayed on Saturday, June 20 after last weekend’s event at Brookdale was washed out.

Play got under way at eight o’clock, but after 90 minutes the event was abandoned after heavy rain left the greens waterlogged.

Head greenkeeper Derek Crewe took the decision to call off the event rather than suspend play as the forecast for the remainder of the day was poor.

The starting sheet for the rearranged date will be the same as for last Saturday.


LOCAL players Roger Smithies and Chris Rabbich featured in the prizes in the Hulbert Trophy, a Mitsushiba Northern Order of Merit event at Manchester Hopwood.

Royton-based Smithies, the former Bluecoat School pupil, lost out on the card for second spot after shooting rounds of 72 and 78 for 150 on his home course.

Crompton and Royton’s Chris Rabbich finished ninth with 155 after returning scores of 80 and 75.


PAST Brookdale captain Joe Loughman scored his first hole-in-one during a society visit to Lockerbie, Scotland. It came at the 118-yard par three eighth hole and was achieved with a wedge on a hole where there was a nearest-the-pin prize.