By David Aldred

On Saturday, May 4th, the Greetham Valley GC gents played a Qualifying Stableford competition in very cool weather with a blustery and, at times, strong wind, but this did not seem to cause too many problems to the top of the field.

Ryan Thwaites came out top with an excellent score of 38 points in spite of a disaster on the first hole.

Thereafter, Ryan (hcp 17) was never in serious difficulty as he calmly made seven pars along with a host of acceptable bogeys. Close behind Ryan was Sam Bull (12) who had a very steady 18 points on each nine, including a birdie on each half also, but he will be kicking himself for failing to score on the 4th hole.

Third place went to Craig Allan (12) who also scored 36 points in a steady round of eight pars but it was Sam's birdie on the 17th that relegated him into third spot.

Club Captain, Steve Anderson, organised the first of his Away-Days at Grantham's Belton Park GC on Friday and although the weather prognosis was not too good, 43 players arrived to be pleasantly surprised that the forecast rain mainly held off.

Dave Smith and John Sparks came fourth and third respectively and there was a countback calculation to decide the eventual winner as two players scored 39 points.

In second spot, Ian Lidbetter (19) had two very solid halves of 19 and 20 points respectively although he was considerably assisted when his ball, replicating the Barnes Wallace bouncing bomb, careered over the water with three skips on the 16th and ended up near enough to the hole to enable a par.

Top place, however, went to Paul Thwaites (12) who had an excellent return half of 22 points, in which he never scored less than two points on any hole. Harry Sargood, George Grant and Graham Smith won the Nearest-the-Pin elements.

On Bank Holiday Monday, a Texas Scramble was played on the Greetham Valley Lakes course and there was frustration in the Thwaites family as Martin, along with team members Neil Tee-Boon, Wayne Porter and Robert Griffin came third with a nett score of 60.8 (just missing out on a Thwaites triple over the weekend).

Runners-up were Peter Maksymiw, Craig Allan, Russ Aust and John Peyser with nett 59.5. The overall winners, by a five-shot margin were Steve Bennoson, Fay Taylor, Jackie Friend and Bryan Birchall with an excellent score of 54.5.

The Greetham Valley Ladies played their May Midweek Medal and there was a runaway win for Janet Dandeker (24) when she scored a exceptional nett 69 in the breezy conditions.

Janet struggled on the outward half of her round when she had too many double bogeys on her card but the back nine was a complete turnaround as steady and consistent scoring was to the fore.

In second place Margaret Littlemore (22) scored 73 in a round which was highlighted by a fine birdie on the par 3, 6th hole.

This spurred Margaret on for the rest of the half as she steadily accumulated over the next four holes. The 11th was a problem as were the longer par 5's but Margaret was able to complete the round without too many other disasters.

Third spot went to Fay Taylor (26) scored nett 74 in a steady round which included two pars and a succession of acceptable bogeys.

Towards the end of April the GVGC Seniors enjoyed an Away-Day at Beedles Lake in excellent weather and there was some steady scoring, leading to an individual win for Dave Isaac with 39 points, closely followed by Mike Maffei and Steve Anderson on 38 and 37 respectively.

In the team competition Mike Hoye, Peter Giblett and Tony Kine came out on top. Nearest-the-Pin prizes went to Mel Clarke, Gordon Wiles, Steve Anderson and John Morfee.