Last Sunday, the Gents at Greetham Valley GC played on the Valley Course for the Chris Southwell Salver – Stableford event - and scoring was very tight with the top 20 players all beating par.

The eventual winner was Paul Clark (hcp 26) who totalled 42 points in a round which had highs and lows but a finishing birdie on the last was sufficient to give him the countback victory over Les Kowal (17).

Les had a particularly steady round with only one score worse than bogey and he was unlucky that his stronger half was the outgoing section. Third place went to Steve Roche (16) who also birdied the final hole to bring his score to 41 to beat Andy Bimpson on countback). Steve was strong on the back half, which he completed in only four over gross.

At the halfway stage of the Martin Boughton Order of Merit competition, the top six players are separated by only 10 points with Mark Emmett just leading on 75, from Wayne Porter on 71. In the Ladies' Jackie Friend Order of Merit, Ellie Haughton has a commanding lead with 185 points whilst her nearest competitor is Dee Ginnity on 72.

On Saturday, in the very hot weather, the Ladies played on the Lakes course for the Pat Holloway Trophy and Sophie Beardsall (hcp 1) was the eventual winner with 36 points.

Sophie was almost faultless in her game and was lying 1-under gross at the turn thanks to birdies on the 4th and 6th. Close behind, Jane O'Donnell (26) scored 35 points and she was particularly pleased to accumulate three pars on her card to go with four bogeys. Third place went to Nicola Toon (15) who racked up 34 points, although it was the long par fives at 13 and 15 that caused her most trouble.

During the week, the Mid-Week Stableford was played on the Lakes course and countback was again called into play to separate the top two players who both scored 41 points.

The eventual winner was Charles Heard (16) who was in great form, particularly on the return half, which he completed in only 4-over gross and was only marginally less impressive on the front half.

The runner-up was Mark Holmes (16) who played steadily throughout to accumulate his 41 points but could not match Charles' back nine performance. Third place was taken by Alex Fairbrother (19) who had 38 points and this was after failing to score on the first two holes. Thereafter, Alex got his concentration in tow and scored regularly.

Greetham Valley GC players have had a number of Hole-in-One successes recently and Immediate Past Captain Paul Clegg scored a stunning ace at the Southerness Golf Club when playing in a UKSGA competition over 36 holes). Paul achieved his honour on the 217 yard 15th to great acclaim.

In the Mid-Week Stableford competition David Squires (12) had an excellent Hole-in-One on the 14th although it was not quite enough to lift him into a podium position. Towards the end of June, Syd Bowers was also successful on the 18th on the Valley Course when his 8-iron landed past the pin and backspin took it to the hole.

The Junior team have been having a good run of form recently and the team of Joe Sargood, Luc Affleck, Izzy Haughton and Isabella Condie travelled to The West Lancashire Golf Club to play the next round in the BCCS Junior Match Play Tournament.

This Open Qualifying course was absolutely stunning and presented a tough Links challenge. The two pairs managed to take the match to a play-off situation, but the home team's course knowledge enabled them to win on the first extra hole.

The Ladies recently hosted a friendly match against Stoke Rochford on Wednesday at Greetham with Jackie Friend standing in as captain for the day.

The team of Jackie, Jo Robinson, Annie McCulloch, Eileen Pare, Chris Edwards, Dee Hinch, Fay Taylor and Joyce Squires were expecting the worst as the previous few days had been continuous heavy rain, but on the day, it turned out to be a lovely dry day to play.

With the course in sparkling condition the Greetham team had to fight hard and the match result was ultimately an honourable half.

On Saturday the Gents friendly match against Toft Golf Club was played in perfect weather conditions with both the course and the greens in exceptional condition.

Whilst Toft fielded a strong side, they were unable to cope with the resilience of an equally strong home side, whose confidence was high following the recent win against Brampton Park Golf Club.

Not surprisingly, the home team were able to equal that performance with a repeat 4½ to 1½ win.

There were particular performances from the pairings of Chris Hatch and Harry Sargood who won 6 and 5, Bill Skinner and Micky Fish winning 5 and 4, Packa Risi and Ian Cunningham winning 2 and 1, and Max Maksymiw and Peter Wood, winning by 2.

The pairing of Peter Key and John Morfee, halved their match after the away pairing of Colin Pearce and Graham Day shook hands on the 11th hole when John injured himself, even though they were 2-up at the time…a noble and sporting gesture.

In the Seniors July Medal, played on the Lakes in blustery weather, Ken Porter was a clear winner as he completed his round in nett 70.

Ken (10), who had nothing worse than a bogey on any hole, was particularly strong on the front nine which he completed in only 3 over gross (thanks to a birdie on the 7th) and maintained his form on the return to total a fine gross 80.

In second place with nett 72 was Neil Bradbury (15) who started disastrously by dropping four shots to the card on the first two holes and although he parred the next two holes the 5th caused major problems also and at the turn Neil was 10 over par.

The back nine seemed to play easier for Neil and he finished brilliantly with a birdie on the last. This birdie secured him the runner-up position as he beat Stephen Wooldridge (14) into third spot on countback.

Stephen played the first eight holes in only one over gross (thanks to two birdies) but started to run into problems thereafter as he dropped nine shots over the next four holes; although he finished in better shape, it was not enough to beat Neil.