THE John Smith Trophy was claimed by Paul Bacon and Dick Harvey on Saturday with a combined total of 78 points.

The Blind Pairs event saw the duo both card steady rounds of 39 points individually.

When all the scorecards had been drawn this total was one better than Steve Barker who also had 39 and Steve Eley who returned 38.

Mike Hurman had the best individual score of the day with an impressive 42 points but he was drawn out with Brian Read who could only card 32 and this left them back in third spot. Dave Bradley also reached the 40 point mark on the day but also missed out on the pairs prizes after the draw was made.

The closest finish of the year at Brean came in Sunday's Turkey Betterball Stableford competition.

No less than six pairs handed in scorecards of 44 points and the countback system went into overdrive to decide the winner.

Of those six duos three of them also scored a very impressive 26 points on the back nine! Eventually, by a (parson's) nose, Mark Elvins and Steve Vowles were declared the winners courtesy of their better back six holes. Barry Fellows and Jordan Hills were the runners up thanks to a 4 pointer at the last which just nudged them ahead of third placed Ron Edmondson and Mike Short.

The three pairings that fell 'fowl' of the countback and missed out were Jerry Brueford/Roy Fletcher, Dave Bradley/Nigel Ellis and Steve Martin/John Ham.

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FOR the first game of the winter season of matches, Enmore Park Seniors welcomed their friends from the Minehead & West Somerset club.

This was to be the last match with captain Graham Pain in charge before he hands over the baton later this month.

And he finished his reign in successful fashion, with a resounding 6 & 5 victory along with partner Ian Edwards.

The other winners in Enmore’s 4-2 victory were Mike Sullivan with Dave Keates, and Mike Rossiter with Paul Waplington (both by 4 & 3), while Chris Willsteed with Steve Lukins claimed the win by 3 & 2.

Bob Kippen and Matt Kippen, meanwhile, earned victory in the men’s 4BBB competition played on November 10.

They needed countback to win it, though, after having finished level on 44 points alongside Ramsey Dingle and Ian Huxtable, as well as a third pair, Bob Read and Peter Clarke.

The Mixed 4BBB contest the following day was won by Alan Vickery and Steph Bristow, who came back with 46 points.

Kevin Lewis and Christine Lewis were in second place with a total of 44 points, and Colin Galbraith and Angie Brown were in third spot with 43.