John Sparks the retiring President at Greetham Valley Golf Club, hosted his final President's Invitation Day recently and although the event was reduced to a nine hole Texas Scramble some 100 players turned out for golf and lunch with guests.

The winners of the two scrambles were Iain and Luc Affleck with George Chubb and Izzy Haughton (on the front nine) with an amazing score of 7-under gross; whilst the back nine winners were James Ablett with Ian Cunningham and Kevin Burdall who were 4-under gross.

At the luncheon, John Sparks presented the Roy Jones Award to Liz Haughton for her outstanding work with the Juniors over the past years as well as her involvement in so much of the club's activities throughout his time as President. This announcement was particularly well received by everyone present.

The Past Captains recetly played for the Bob Ford Trophy on the Lakes and there was a comfortable win for Micky Fish (hcp 16) who scored an extraordinary 45 points. Micky was the height of consistency with no score worse than a bogey on any hole and this, coupled with nine pars and a birdie, meant that he racked up 22 points on the outward half and 23 points coming home.

The various Nearest-the-Pins and twos competitions were shared between Micky, Trevor Smith and Shaun Denholm.

There was some very competitive scoring in the Martins Mixed 4somes competition and the eventual winners were the team of Graham Smith and Sue Brand who scored 63.2, followed by Trevor Smith and Stephanie Craft with 65.5. Third spot went to Simon and Teresa Black with 66.0.

The Greetham Valley Ladies team played away at Belton Woods in a four-way match against Spalding, Belton Woods and Melton Mowbray. The team was Chris Edwards, Rachel Southwell, Dee Hinch, Lesley Young, Susie Ellis, Liz Haughton, Fay Taylor and Jackie Friend.

As the current holders, Greetham were optimistic about retaining the trophy but did not manage the winning score this year; however hopes are high to bring the trophy home next year when the club hosts the match.

In the Mid-Week Medal, Paul Thwaites (11), who recently just lost his Single Knockout Final, continued his form with a nett score of 70 to take top spot.

Paul described his round as an 'almost round' as he eased through the front half in only 3-over gross and was well placed to replicate this score on the return until he ran into a small problem on the fifteenth which cost him a double bogey.

But this was his only fault in a very impressive round. Taking second place, David Bull (9) had a nett 71 with a strange round which included a double on the second hole but he still finished the front nine at only two-over gross.

Double bogeys on 13 and 14 did restrict his overall scoring but with 11 pars and a birdie this was a steady round. Third spot went to Chris Thomas (9) who also totalled 71 thanks to successive birdies on 13 and 14 but a triple on the last mitigated against him in the countback calculation.

The ladies played a Mid-Week Medal on the Lakes course and it was Irene Bastow (17) who finished first with an excellent score of 73. For the first nine holes it seemed as if Irene would be set for an even lower score.

The return, however, was more challenging as double bogeys crept onto her card but a par finish meant top spot was hers. Finishing as runner-up was Sue Wiles (20) who, like Irene, had a better score going out than coming home.

This was however distorted by the twelfth hole which caused many problems for Sue but, that apart, she was consistent thereafter. Third spot was taken by Pat Jamieson (15) who scored 76 and was particularly thrilled to card a birdie on the ninth (this following a par on the eighth).

Those holes aside Pat was frustrated by the back nine holes where the ball just did not seem to want to do what was required.

The last two delayed club knockout finals saw Graham Smith defeat Steve Roche in the Seniors (Division 1) Trophy and Peter Mccall (20) beat Stewart Macdonald (34) in the Seniors Division 2. Graham Smith eventually won 4&3 but the score does an injustice to Steve over the greater part of the match.

Iinitially two-up after two, Graham, was pegged back to all square before easing ahead and his greater consistency eventually paid off even though Steve tried to reduce the deficit. In the Division 2 Final the game was very much a game of two halves as Peter took a hold of the match early on to reach the turn at 5-up; thereafter Stewart clearly suddenly found his form as he won six of the nine back holes and after 18 the scores were level (thanks to Peter's win on the 11th). The first play-off hole eventually resulted in a win for Peter Mccall.

In the Seniors section, a stableford qualifier on the Valley course was won by John Dowding (16) with a score of 39 points. Just behind, but losing out on countback, was Ian Cook (28) and Keith Stevenson (10) was third with a score of 38, just beating Barry Shaw on countback, following a round of great steadiness on each half.