On Saturday, the first round of the Stretham Trophy was played, writes John Barnard.

This is a better ball competition played over five rounds (depending on the weather) during the winter months with the final in March.

On Saturday, it felt like winter had arrived as it was cold and drab. However, the scores were good with 44 points achieved by three teams so countback was needed to separate them.

Dave Cowler and Phil Spencer just came out on top as two teams had scored 25 points on the back nine, but Phil and Dave’s back six was just better.

Steve Jones and Shaun Murphy were the disappointed runners up. Steve must have been very tired by the end as he came in on all the back nine holes to score 25 points on his own and carried Shaun all the way, something quite a few of us would have struggled to achieve!

Craig Melluish and Moary Bosence were third having just scored 23 points on the way in!