BRIDPORT & West Dorset ladies’ section have won the prestigious Beales Golf Trophy after a 36-year wait.

Sally Woolmington, the playing Beales captain, led her team to victory, and can be very proud of herself and her team, after putting Bridport & West Dorset Golf Club on the map.

The Beales Bronze Ladies’ Golf competition is sponsored by Nigel Beale, president of Beales.

This competition is open to all the clubs in Dorset and also to some over the border in Hampshire and is played in two zones (East and West), Bridport & West Dorset being in the West zone.

It is a ladies’ competition, which caters for players with handicaps between 21 and 35, ie bronze players.

Twenty-five clubs took part, 13 in the West and is drawn in two divisions. Bridport finished top of their division in the West qualifying for the final, versus Parkstone ladies of the East division.

This tense, exciting final, hosted at Yeovil Golf Club, saw the Bridport ladies win four matches to three, with the last group finishing on the 19th.

This is the first time in 36 years that Bridport has reached the final let alone win.

Men’s Section

THE Sunday competition was the Gordon Fox Trophy, a Texas Scramble for three-man teams, writes Peter Crowter.

Ten teams entered and scores were very close with little more than one shot separating the top four teams. Alistair Gibson (12), Martin Drennan (13) and Dave Franks (9) won on the day with a score of 62.6. Close on their heels were the runners-up Ian Thacker (19), Barry O’Mahony (7) and Nathan Dunford (16) with 63.

Lewis Craddock (3), Josh Hicks (19) and George Brown (12) were third after scoring 63.6.

Veterans’ Section

THE Thursday competition was a self-entry, single division Stableford and 38 entered with the top eight players all scoring 36 points or more.

There was plenty of daylight between winner Graham Topp (13) and runner-up Ray Southcombe (13) when Topp came in with 42 points on his card.

Southcombe’s 39 points was more than respectable however, and this was followed by Dave Buckland (22) and Tony Burt (14) who both carded 38 points with the former taking the third spot on countback.

Peter Davies (23) came in fifth scoring 37 points.

Bridport hosted a match versus Parkstone and after a great contest the visitors came away with a narrow victory 3.5-2.5.

The second home match, this time to Wareham resulted in a win for Bridport 4-2.