After a long winter break from golf the new season got off to a good start on Monday, writes Chris Grubb.

Despite a reasonable weather forecast the players encountered rain, and hail to some degree during their round.

Captain Hugh Dorliac led the teams of three out and soon found he was, like everyone else, a bit rusty after the lack of golf over the wet winter period. His team couldn’t help him much and they found themselves propping up the leader board from the bottom!

As the scores came in, improvements were seen, with the format involving each team of three taking one of the best of their stableford scores for the first six holes, two best scores over the next six and all three to count over holes thirteen to eighteen. A tough task which certainly sorted the men from the boys!

Coming out top with a credible score of 78 were Graham Rogers/John Carroll/Vernon Ruffle. Second were Les Pratt/John Townsend/ “H” Thompson with 77 points on countback from two teams Chris Timms/Graham Vincent/Keith Ridings and Mark Laird/Brian Sandford/John Sandford in fourth.

The Opening Dinner, held in the evening was well attended, including the seniors invited guests, the club president, captain and chairman. A cheque for £400 was presented to the club captain for his charity which this year is the Campaign for an Admiral Nurse for Sid Valley.