Look Hughes the new ladies' captain at Cowdray Park

The new ladies' captain at Cowdray Park, Terry Hughes, was escorted to the first tee by two handsome gents, Harvey Terry and Dave Balfour.

And when she got there, she was duly crowned by her vice-captain Polly Davenport.

After Terry’s drive-in on the first, a shotgun start announced the competition of teams of four, two best stableford scores to count.

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To make it more interesting, Terry introduced a joker hole which was drawn after everyone had set off and on this hole – the tenth – the score was doubled.

The winners were Stephanie Bevis, Barbara Parker, Rob Hogg and Martin George on countback with 97 points, ahead of Roger Murphy, Andy McFarlane, Steve Lucking and Dave Lucking, also with 97.

Third were Chris Cummins, Kevin Raishbrook, Dave Coombes and Todd White with 91, while best ladies’ team were Sue Brown, Lil Cummins, Jenny Clegg and Janice Leath with 82.

Terry’s charity for the year is the Macmillan Trust (Midhurst) and the day raised £1,019.99.

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As the competitive summer season draws to an exciting climax for Cowdray Park seniors, their championship was the first to be decided.

This featured 48 players, who qualified by finishing either first or second in competitions during the year.

The format changed to medal, which makes the lesser players blanche at the thought, although everyone battled on to the bitter end.

It was going to take something special to win this year, and Roger Poat triumphed with a nett 65, a new championship record.

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He had qualified only the previous week by finishing joint first in the monthly stableford, and he almost replicated his superb back nine of the previous week, this time with a gross 38.

Second was the ultra-consistent seven handicapper David Heard with an excellent nett 67, while Phil Harrison came third with 69, continuing his challenge for all the trophies this season.

The Seniors’ Eclectic picture is not a lot clearer following the October stableford. Graham Evans leads Dave Hirons by 1.5 points but closing in third is Phil Harrison, a further point behind Hirons.

The Carter Trophy also has only one qualifying event left, the November stableford.

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Phil Harrison has retained his lead over Evans, despite finishing one place outside the points. This is the fifth time this season that 36 points has failed to qualify for points, showing how the quality of players in this section has improved this year.

The seniors’ section has enjoyed a highly-successful season under the captaincy of Wally Mitchell, with both the numbers and quality of players growing during the year.

The performances of all the players in the competitions throughout the year, and in the inter-club matches confirm this.

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