BRANSFORD Golf Club staged the winter league championship day at their Bank House course.

Little Lakes recorded their first finals victory in the competition, which also involved their Bewdley neighbours Wharton Park and Kidderminster’s Burlish Park as well as the host club.

The grand finale saw the total points added up for each squad over an individual four-ball stableford format played on the day.

Bransford and Wharton had traditionally dominated the first three years of the event with two wins for the hosts.

But this time Lakes mastered Bransford’s testing Florida-styled course to triumph by a convincing margin.

Bransford’s squad had their handicaps cut by two shots due to home advantage and several of their players appeared to struggle under the extra pressure.

They just managed to squeeze into third position on 347 points, one ahead of Burlish’s 346 with Wharton runners-up on 354 and Lake’s 12 men way out in front with 394.

The top individual scorers on the day were Lakes’ Marcus Ballinger, who boasts a single-figure handicap, and Wharton’s Brian Wellsbury with both returning 40 points.

Pick of the Bransford team was Dave Miller’s 37, while the top score for Burlish was 35 achieved by Gordon Taylor.

The league competition had been won by Wharton with 30 points from the four meetings with Lakes runner-up on 28, Bransford on 24 and Burlish on 14.

It involved each of the four participating teams of 12 hosting drawn pairs matches against the other Worcestershire clubs.

FULL SCORES Little Lakes 394: Tony Addington (19) 36, John Leigh (8) 26, Mike Crouch (15) 35, Phil Smith (16) 34, Ballinger (8) 40, Gary Coombes (14) 33, Dave Yeomans (13) 33, Alf Heaton (16) 24, Cliff Caddick (19) 32, Paul Bridgewater (12) 37, Rob Wilding (15) 34, Colin Forrester (17) 30.

Wharton Park 354: Wellsbury (12) 40, Albert Grant (9) 29, Nigel Norris (19) 28, Ian Johnston (16) 31, Brian Toon (19) 21, Frank Wheatcroft (16) 33, Alan Bishop (19) 25, David Slade (17) 29, John Endbury (15) 29, Peter Mauger (13) 27, Bryan Richards (17) 32, Bob Marriot (12) 30.

Bransford 347: John Phillips (18) 31, Ian Hamilton (11) 34, Harry Godwin (13) 31, Miller (20) 36, Ferey Ghani (12) 27, Alan Wallcroft (17) 34, Roy Williams (17) 25, Peter Harrison (22) 31, Mike Weaver (15) 21, Trevor Atkinson (12) 28 , Rob Blake (13) 31, Mike Davidge (15) 18.

Burlish Park 346: Mick Hodges (18) 30, Mark Taylor (14) 33, Ray Teague (16) 32, Geoff Willets (24) 26, Taylor (18) 35, Mike Dimbylow (18) 35, Stuart Manser (17) 29, Terry Meaker (24) 26, Stephen Day (16) 17, Ron Lappage (16) 26, Ken Samuels (16) 31, Allan Rollinson (22) 28.