SKILFUL putting from Nick Day, Allan Davies and Roy Cale saw them claim the honours in round one of the EW Evans Centenary Stableford at The Worcestershire Golf Club.

The trio did well to card 38 points on recently cut and rolled greens to finish on top in the three divisions.

In glorious weather, Day (handicap nine) took Division One and secured the Wormington Salver for the best nett score by a member of 10 or more years standing, with 20 points on the back nine.

Colin Jones, who returned the same score, missed out on countback whilst Pete Hill (12) was third, on 37.

Division Two went to Davies (14), one ahead of Paul Meakin (13) on 37 and David Radley (15) on 36. Cale (handicap 23) secured Division Three ahead of Ian Brazier (18) on 37 and Mike Elston (20) on 36.

Meanwhile, The Worcestershire’s ladies competed for the Len Phipps Cup. Debbie Minett best handled the challenge, returning with a very creditable 38 points to lift the cup and take Division Two by one stroke from Cynthia Guest.

Pauline Savage, Christine Goody and Sandra Schofield followed them in on 32.

Alison Tuck was a clear winner of Division One, with 35 points. Four players vied for the minor placings, finishing on 33 points. In the order of merit, they were Chris Urry, Jackie Marks, Sue Boardman and Mary Horrobin.

The nine-hole stableford was won by Kate Cross with 18 points ahead of Marie Willis on 17 and Davina Taylor on 15.

The club’s mid-week stableford saw a return to winner’s podium for Andrew Bird. The 11-handicapper played the best round of the week to take Division One with 40 points ahead of Josh Marshall (handicap 6) on 38 and David Horn (11) on 37.

Graham Chatterton (15) won Division Two with 37 points ahead of John Whitehead (16) on 33 and Richard Bird (15) on 32.

Division Three went to Michael Travis (21) on 36 points from Jon Lane (18) also on 36 and Trevor Simmons (20) on 35.

Inter-club fixtures saw a fine 3 ½ : 0 ½ home win for the club’s ladies against Ross-on-Wye. Ladies’ captain Elsie Kelsall led the field with partner Joan Herbert to win her match two up.

The pairings of Joyce Duncan with Julie Saunders and Jenny Musson with Pauline Savage both recorded 4&2 wins, while Jill Exell and Joss Penrhyn secured a respectable half.

The first mixed match of the season proved rather less successful when The Worcestershire entertained a strong Droitwich side at Malvern Wells.

Pleasant playing conditions saw a tightly contested match with most games finishing on the 18th hole but, despite a valiant attempt to overturn last year’s 10:2 defeat at Droitwich, the home side eventually went down by seven matches to five.

They hope to return to winning ways at Burghill Valley.

Elsewhere, Urry had a fabulous day at the County Lady Veterans’ Spring Meeting at Droitwich Golf Club, shooting a gross 79, nett 65, to lift both gross and nett trophies.

She also qualified along with fellow club member Diane Meakin for the match-play championship, which took place a few days later. Both players went out in the semi-finals with Meakin losing to Biddie Denton from Stourbridge and Urry to the eventual match-play champion, Kings Norton’s Sue Yau.