Bigbury Golf Club enjoyed a fantastic turnout for this year’s Prize Giving Stableford competition.

This competition traditionally precedes the Presentation Event and this year there were 77 men and lady players on the course. It was a very tight competition and the winner with 39 points was Tom Pepperell. In second place with a score of 38 points was Michael Rees, with Peter Bird being third with 37 points. In fourth place and the winning lady was Nikki Elliott with 36 points.

Sam Edwards, Bigbury Club Professional, reports that there was a fantastic turnout for this year’s Prize Giving with members and their guests packing the clubhouse for an evening of celebration, good humour and well-earned applause.

New Chairman, Peter Lowe, kicked things off with a warm welcome, setting a cheerful tone as he thanked everyone for their support and enthusiasm throughout the year. He then passed the floor to Club President Eddie Inch, who delivered a fantastic speech congratulating all this year’s achievers, blending sincerity with just the right dash of wit.

A lively roundup of the golfing year followed from our three captains: Mick McNulty, Mary Wilcox, and Charlie Thomson. Between them, they covered everything, from memorable matches to questionable weather, with the kind of charm only captains can muster after a full season’s worth of stories.

Club Professional Sam Edwards then took centre stage to announce this year’s winners. As each name was read out, applause echoed around the room, and the proud recipients collected their trophies, their names soon to take their place on the Bigbury honours board and earn bragging rights for years to come!

Finally, the evening was brought to a close by Nikki Elliott, who delivered the Club Champion’s speech with poise, gratitude, and a sprinkle of humour, ending the event on a perfect note.

The club would like to say a big thank you to everyone who attended, participated and contributed to making the day such a success.

Thirty six Thurlestone ladies played a Green-some competition on Wednesday in sunshine but with a very strong cold wind.

The winners were Pam Adams & Barbara Smith with 30 points, from Anna McGrath & Nikki Smith with 28 points.

In third place were Helen Baker and Jane Edmonds with 26 points. There was only one birdie two scored by Katherine Lawrence and Liz Stewart on the 5th hole, congratulations to them.

On Tuesday the Thurlestone midweek stableford competition was well supported with 50 entries. It was a sunny day but with a cold wind. The winner was Martin Oakes-Monger (17) with 36 points. He only just gained first place on count back from Philip Martin (29) also 36 points.

In third place was Stuart Read (21) with 35 points. There were just six birdie twos, congratulations to Mark Drew, Mark Greatorex, Louis Paul Martin , Christopher Paschalides, Tony Paul, and Matthew Reed.

The Access Golf Program at Thurlestone led by Steve White and Jamie Knight continues to encourage the younger juniors to work towards a handicap and trophies were awarded for Access golf at the presentation evening to George Cattell who won the Tabiner Cup for best effort in Access golf.

The Buckland Tout Saints Trophy was won by Finn Robson. This week two juniors are attending the Devon U14 squad teaching session at RND on Saturday afternoon, they are Oliver Chester and Finn Robson

The weather was so bad on Saturday morning all but 10 competitors cancelled out. The final winner was Mark Greatorex (16) with 24 points from Mark Toogood (15) with 22 points and third was Daniel Cunningham (3) with 15 points.

On a breezy, but dry, Sunday afternoon a team from Thurlestone GC entertained a team from Churston GC in a mixed Golf match that had been postponed from an earlier fixture in September.

The match resulted in a win for Thurlestone by 4½ to 1½ points and was followed by an excellent meal in the clubhouse.

This was the last fixture of another successful mixed season where seven matches were played against teams from across Devon, including the addition in 2025 of Torquay.

Thurlestone is fortunate in having a mixed squad of over 80 players to choose from and all who have played this season are thanked for their continuing support.

Despite the Autumn weather the improvements to the course at Thurlestone continue to pay off and the course was playing beautifully for our last match.

With the promise of decent weather, Dartmouth ladies set off for their November Stableford.

Sadly, the weather wasn’t as good as the forecast had us believe and although there were only three of the four seasons in one day, the three were enough and perhaps explained the scores!

There wasn’t a single blob-free card; one player had 3 points after three holes and was still on 3 when she reached the seventh tee. It’s at times like that that you need supportive playing partners and their words of encouragement did result in 7 points at the turn! Such words were needed in every group - some performed well on the front nine, others found the longer, but more open back nine to be easier. Whatever was going on that day, it wasn’t good and we’ll report places rather than scores!

Chris Mayer was first on count back from Shelley Durrans, with Karen Oldrieve and Jan Cousins a point behind them.

Wednesday’s weather was more benign and brought higher scores, but once again the scores differed greatly on the front and back nine.

Barrie O’Shea was sitting on 21 points at the turn but couldn’t maintain the scoring from there. Conversely, Dean Raspin had only 15 points but then settled into his game to find 21 on the back. Dean took first place with 36pts, Barrie O’Shea came a close second with 33pts and Steven Boyde rounded out the top three with a score of 31.

Saturday’s Mixed Team Stableford started with both wind and heavy rain, resulting in many players being very reluctant to leave the warmth of the clubhouse.

It’s difficult to know if it was brave or mad to battle the elements, but we’ll choose to commend those who took to the course and managed nine holes before reappearing looking as if they had been swimming rather than playing golf.

Hats off to Andy Dix, Alan Foot, Richie Ogle, Keith Sexton, Jeremy Enticknap and Gary Widdicombe, who have hopefully all dried out by now.