Dowd’s Long wait is over

MAJOR SUCCESS . . . Graham Dowd made the most of his excellent form by winning Crompton and Royton’s first big event of the season.

GOLF: BEATEN in a three-way play-off last year, Graham Dowd went one better when he scooped the first major of the season at CROMPTON and ROYTON.

The 54-year-old, from Shaw, landed the Long Handicap after carding 86-20-66.

It made up for the disappointment of 12 months ago when Dowd was edged out by Simon Higgins and Colin Hopkinson in an 18-hole shoot-out.

He said: “I’ve been playing OK for a couple of weeks, so I thought I was in with a chance.

“I played steady golf, with no real foul-ups. I had a few pars, but nothing spectacular.

“My playing partners, Tony Power and Mick Millett, were a big help as they offered lots of encouragement.”

Dowd, a former member at Springfield Park, is no stranger to major success as he is a previous winner of the Zacharias Cup.

The runner-up in the Long Handicap — restricted to 17-28 handicappers — was Lennie Hayes (85-17-68), on a card play-off from George Shepherd (87-19-68).

In the subsidiary medal handicap for scratch-17 handicappers, Tom O’Leary landed top honours after shooting 82-14-68, on the card from Cliff Wood (80-12-68).

Mark Sinfield (79-10-69) was in third place, also on the card from John Haigh (81-12-69).

In the Mail on Sunday foursomes, Mark Barrett and Kris Sutcliffe emerged victorious over Tunshill by 5 and 3.

Sutcliffe won his match in the Dunham Forest competition at Lymm, but he could not prevent Crompton and Royton from slipping to a 4-3 defeat. Andy Allen and Jordan Flint were the other winners.


DEREK Johnson carded a superb 81-19-62 to win the Lowe Trophy, Stamford’s first major of the season.

Runner-up was Richard Margreave (75-10-65), who beat Roy Cunningham (80-15-65) in a card play-off.


DAVE Rhodes collected the Spring Eclectic Trophy, WERNETH’S first major of the season, with a fine 76-16-60 and a five-shot margin over runner-up, the evergreen Eric Smith (86-11-65).


A subsidiary medal was won by Mark Bentley (79-17-62) from Geoff Garner (84-20-64).

The midweek 13-hole Stableford was claimed by Chris Cordwell (29pts) ahead of Kevin Roberts (27pts).

Other results:

SADDLEWORTH

PGA medal

1, Bryn Lawton 81-16-65; 2, Tim Edwards 76-11-65; 3, David Green 79-13-66.

OLDHAM

Chronicle cup qualifier

1, Jack Roberts 76-15- 61; 2, Matt Radcliffe 73-11-62; 3, Norman A Radcliffe 67-4-63.

Four-ball, better-ball Stableford

1, Gary McDonald, Steve Halliwell 45pts; 2, Dave Beech, Vinney Jones 42pts; 3, Pete Dunbar, Ray Fry 41pts.

BLACKLEY

Foursomes Stableford

1, John Hibbert, Colin Cobain 44pts; 2, Alan Lane, Dave Baldwin 43pts; 3, Steve Newton, Billy Girdlestone 42pts.

Ford Competition first round

1, Darren Duerden 64pts; 2, Danny Speight 65pts ACPO; 3, Gareth Saxon 65pts.

Kennedy Cup first round

1,, Carl Murphy 645pts ACPO; 2, Ray Jones 65pts; 3, Marc Littlewood 66pts ACPO; 4, Cliff Barrett 66pts.

Weekly medal round one

1, Duncan Teal 67pts; 2, Dave Foulner 70pts ACPO; 3, Steve Hyde 70pts.