THE Worcestershire Golf Club played host to the Worcester-shire County Men's elite players in a pre-season friendly match played off scratch.

Some notable performances came from the Worcestershire players with wins in the singles for Peter Lupino, Steven Lane, Paul Yorke, Dave Baker and Rob Coe. In the afternoon four-ball matches there were wins for Phil Dance teamed with Matt Pugh and hard-fought halved matches from the pairings of Mark Read and Jamie Dunster and Dave Harding and Alan Watts. Having enjoyed an excellent day's golf, the Worcestershire players beat the county team 7-5.

In the ever-popular Ted Evans Stableford competition, a full field competed and the standard of play was high. In all three divisions, the first six players all bettered the 36 points par for the course.

Former club captain Mel Stocker won division one with the excellent score of 41 points. Tim Wilson was second with 40 and there was an excellent return to form for Phil Shurmer, who came third with 39.

Division two was won by Richard Phillips with 40 points. In second place was Peter Basten with 39 points and in third place was Derek Phillips with 38 points.

Andrew Wickett won division three with one of the best scores of the day, 41 points, Richard Kay was second with 40 and Les Facer third on 39.

The mid-week medal competition drew a large field of competitors. Gerald Bird won the first division with David Baker second and Phil Shurmer third. Chris Jolly won the second division with Simon Phillips second and Paul Butler third. In division three, Clive Amphlett headed the scores followed by David Fawbert and Mike Frechette.

A team of 12 golfers competed in the away mixed match against Hereford, played in blustery condition. Led by club captain, Barry Schofield, and lady captain, Ruth Scott, competition was keen and the Hereford club won 6-5.

For the Worcestershire team there were excellent wins for Brian and Linda Marsh and John and Marcia Macfarlane, who won their games by the substantial margins of five and four and three and two respectively.

Scoring was close in the ladies' Queen Mother's Cup competition. More than 50 players competed and only one point separated the top five players.

The winner was Evelyn Hill with 36 points, four ladies returned the same score of 35 points and could only be separated on count back. As a result, Ann Moody was second, former lady captain Jane Tromans was third, vice-captain Veronica Shaw was fourth and Sandra Schofield was fifth.

The junior section saw 26 pairs compete in an adult pairs greensome competition, where an adult golfer partnered one of the club's junior players. The winners of the 18-hole competition were Andrew Curtis, partnered by his father Tim, the former Worcestershire CCC captain.

The winners of the condensed seven-hole competition for very junior golfers were Jordan Hick, and his grandfather, Steven Evans, a member of the Droitwich GC.

In the Junior Stableford competition, the winner with an amazing 44 points was Charlie Griffiths, second was Richard Tuck with 43 and third was Dan Long with 40. As a result, Charlie's handicap has been reduced to 12, Richard's to 16 and Dan's to 14.