Leighton Buzzard Golf Club juniors reach national finals
Three junior golfers at Leighton Buzzard’s Plantation Road club are to represent Bedfordshire in the finals of a nationwide competition next month.
Josh Lock, a 14-year-old Cedars Academy student, Hannah Walsh, an 11-year-old pupil at Brooklands School and Florence Worth, a ten-year-old pupil at Swanbourne School, won the Bedfordshire County Inter-Club championship after carding a total of 118 stableford points to clock the first county win for Leighton juniors for ten years.
The national finals are a three-day event at Spalding Golf Club from August 11.
*Three-handicap golfer Simon Allder, 55, has been named as new vice captain of the Leighton club, taking over from John Latimer in January, subject to ratification at the club AGM in January when John will be installed as club captain for 2026. Avril Simpson is to be vice captain of the ladies section when Josie Sheridan succeeds Stephanie Howlett as ladies captain in the autumn.
*An annual competition in memory of a Leighton member who died several years ago has been won by a fourball team of low handicappers.
Phil Coumbe playing off 0, Paul Dowdeswell (off 13); Julian Scarr (off 12) and John Brawn, (off 3) carded 118 points to win the Colin Wilson Remembrance Bowl by three shots.
Runners-up were Colin Beesley, Tim Mitchell, Kamil Shah and Greg White with 115 points, two clear of Daniel Lamont, Gareth McCready, Oliver Mortimer and Rob Sprague, and Martin Carmody, Richard Burchfield, Stephen Boyd and William Carmody.
Saturday’s Presidents Cup competition was won by Lewis Monk with a nett 67, a shot clear of fellow 16-handicapper Tony Brinded, with Josie Sheridan taking third on countback from Seniors Captain Graham Westlake-Tritton and Oliver Wilson.
Postman Manny Barker has delivered a first-class double winning the Leighton Captains Day competition at Berkhamsted with 42 points, two clear of Roger Hughes and Howard Till, just weeks after winning the Captain’s Cup at his home-town club.