HELENSBURGH Golf Club’s ladies enjoyed a narrow, but memorable, win over their male counterparts in the annual team match between the club’s gents’ and ladies’ sections last week.

Billed as a ‘friendly’ event, there is still much pride to be played for, as well as silverware in the form of the Walker Bowl, and the club’s ladies, led by captain Claire Harper, were out to redress the balance after losing the last two contests.

A late call off from the club’s reigning ladies’ champion, Gemma Canham, didn’t help her team’s cause, and required Jim McKenzie to bravely make up the numbers for the ladies – and though he couldn’t stop his new team falling to defeat in his match, the ladies’ team won by the close margin of one hole overall.

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Elsewhere, Ronald Holmes won the first round of the 2019 BMW competition with a score of 39 stableford points, one ahead of Danny Lafferty.

A third of the way through his round Ronald, playing off a handicap of 16, had no expectations of such a sparkling outcome but 7 pars in the last eleven holes turned around his round and propelled him to the top of the leaderboard.

The gents’ August nine-hole medal was won by Alan Sloan with an outrageous 24 point total – playing off a handicap of 26, he was only eight over par for his nine holes.

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Meanwhile, Helensburgh’s ‘5 to 8’ team saw their league hopes ended by Hayston Golf Club in the semi-final after defeats in both the home and away legs.

The two ladies’ league teams fared no better, coming up short in the closing matches after good starts to their campaigns.