THE Worcestershire Golf Club’s ladies left their handicaps in the locker room when they took on the Malvern Wells course to play for two scratch cups.

With the course in excellent condition and the greens at their most challenging, sound skills and a steady nerve were required.

In the end, two players returned gross 87 with Sally Dare edging out Chris Urry on count-back to take the Silver Scratch Cup and June Jones (91) third.

Competition for the Bronze Scratch Cup was even more intense with three players returning 100.

After count-back, Liz Bird lifted the trophy, ahead of Lisa Digings and Janet Manning Cox.

Urry continued her good form to win the ladies’ open three ball alliance with playing partners G Muir, of Droitwich, and D Barker from the North Worcestershire club in Birmingham.

Recording 80 stableford points, they beat The Worcestershire home team of Corrine Mills, April Wilding and Tina Juckes on 78.

Liz Evans steered her partners A Guyver, of Broadway and Kings Norton's S Birch into third place on 77, ahead of visitors L Organ, W Rawlings and D Barwell (75).

Meanwhile, Tom Howells secured Division One in the club’s mid-week medal.

Playing off a handicap of two, he carded a nett 69, one stroke ahead of Stuart Green (handicap 13) and Ian Belsham (11).

But the best round of the day was by Martin Field, who took Division Two with an excellent 68 off a handicap of 19.

Malcolm Garner (handicap 23 nett 75) and Euan McClelland (21-77) finished second and third respectively.

In match-play, The Worcestershire’s duo of Mike Hanna and Richard Sebok continued their fine run in this year’s national Daily Mail Foursomes knock-out competition.

Having beaten pairings from Puckrup Hall (two-up), Perdiswell (7&6) and Ross-on-Wye (7&5), they met a pair from Evesham in the fourth round.

Despite giving the visitors seven shots, Hanna and Sebok secured a fine 5&4 victory and progressed to round five.

A club team dodged the heavy rain showers to play against Sapey in Herefordshire.

Despite unpleasant black clouds, the rain skirted around the Bromyard area and allowed the players to enjoy an encounter which was again popular and well-supported.

Captain Roger Brierly and Andrew Perkins started a good afternoon against Tanfield and Leadbetter with a close 2&1 victory after both pairs swapped birdies on three consecutive holes.

The Worcestershire eventually won 5&1 with Barry Caswell and new member Paul Parnham gaining the biggest margin of victory for the visitors of 4&3.

However, the ‘A’ team were less successful when they travelled to Evesham and came away with a disappointing 4½-1½ loss.

The high point was a win for the in-form Phil Birch (handicap six) and his partner Steve Carter (11), who triumphed 4&3.

Steve Lane (+2) and Paul Wakely (10) managed a creditable half with the former in particular outstanding on the day.

However, there were losses for Howells (1) and Andy McCabe (5) 3&2, Dave Tucker (9) and Sebok (7) one-down, Lee Whitall (6) and Nick Smith (5) 3&2 and Mark Read (4) and Marcus Holman 2&1.