THE Oake Manor competitive season opened with an icy blast on Saturday with the Christmas Trophy.

It lasted all day and took the form of a 4BBB format, playing in pairs, off a 7/8th handicap.

The weather forecast was dire. Nevertheless, 52 male members took to the field early in the morning with a shotgun start. The weather was very cold, but at that time it was still clear with little wind. The afternoon saw a full field of 88 players including 11 players from outside the club.

Again all were men save for Jill Loader, Patricia Frazer, Shane Bordier and Liz How.

It has always been mooted that ladies don’t stand a chance, even in good weather conditions, against men in such a format. Regardless of their three ‘courtesy”’shots, they had to play off the men’s stroke index anyway. That is probably why so few ladies dare to enter.

In the gruelling weather conditions of the afternoon which featured 20mph winds, minus Celsius temperatures, driving hail and rain storms, the whole field teed off to the shotgun at 12.15 and crashed into the clubhouse just before 5pm to some welcome recuperative drinks. Ladies find it difficult to compete with the men’s length of drive and fairway shots under such weather conditions, or indeed under any conditions, in this competition format. The final results of the tournament were therefore all the more remarkable. The winning score went to Mike and Liz How with a superb 42 points.

Second were Neil Blackmore and Richard Newby with 41 points and third were Jill and Ian Loader with 40 points, after countback.

Also with 40 points, after count back, in the following order were: Harvey Piper and Bob Jones, Bob Tye and Greg Low, Wayne Winmill and Pete Webber and lee Ayres and Jon Ball. Brian Davies and Richard Taylor achieved 39 points, so did terry Davies and Martin Brown while Brian Duckworth and Roger Goodman got 38 points. Nearest the pin on the 16th hole was Roy Milton (from Vivary Park Golf Club) and nearest the pin in two shots on the 18th was Roy Sully from Oake who landed about three feet away from the pin. Fifteen pairs achieved ‘twos’ on par threes including the outstanding mother and son duo Shane Bourdier and Tom Bourdier, who both got ‘twos’ and narrowly missed a top placing have scored 36 stableford points.

The winning morning pair, not in the prize list were Dave Dennett and Tim Gamlin with 38 poits and the winning afternoon pair not in the prize list were Rod Sully and Dave Hill with 38 points.

A total of £444 was raised for the Captain’s charity, which has been the Macmillan Nurses for the past 12 months.

The Ladies held a winter fun competition last Tuesday called Double Odds. The winners were Division 1: 1st Jenny Musgrove 29 points, 2nd Kathy Salway on count back to Patricia Frazer both with 27 points and 4th Nova Dawe with 25 points.

Division 2: 1st Barbara Cozens 31 points, 2nd Jane Harris 30 points, 3rd Jill Loader 23 points and 4th Annie Reid with 20 points.

n VIVARY Park results: Stableford –1 Pete Jeffery 39pts, 2 John Fisher 34 pts, 3 Steve Baker 32pts.

Stableford – 1 Pete Jeffery 40pts, 2 Dave Thomas 37pts, 3 Phil Coleman 36pts (Back 9).

Sunday Stableford – 1 Keith Wood 36pts, 2 Dave Channon 34pts (Back 9)3 Pete Jeffery 34pts.