Carpenter home and dry
Golf Parkrun
Maidstone professional
Matt Ford produced his best performance of the season on the European Challenge Tour with a joint fourth-placed finish in the Euram Bank
Open in Ramsau, Austria.
The 41-year-old returned a 13-under-par total of 267 at the Golf Club Adamstal, five shots more than the winner, Scotland’s Calum Hill.
Ford started the final round in second place, three shots behind Hill, but after four holes had drawn level with the Scot. Hill, however, kept playing steady golf to return a bogey-free round of 66 and so clinch his second Challenge Tour title.
Ford is now 40th in the Challenge Tour rankings.
The week before, Ford tied for sixth at the Le Vaudreuil Golf Challenge in France.
Wildernesse Golf Club’s Richard Partridge finished best of the rest at the Kent Senior Open.
Partridge shared second place with Chestfield’s Richard Punyer, the duo four shots behind Canterbury’s John Coupe at Faversham Golf Club. With the rain ceasing just before the start, Maidstone’s parkrun saw 432 runners take part on Saturday. There were two familiar faces setting the pace, Tom Carpenter being the first finisher in 16min41sec and Charlotte Bates leading the ladies in 20.31. Carpenter’s time also made him the top age-graded performer with a score of 78.22%.
Matthew Field took second place in 18.08 with Luke Reeves third in 18.57.
Following her third place three weeks ago, Georgie Offer took second for the ladies in 21.23 with Vera Hunter a close third in 21.29.
There were 242 runners at Malling, which also managed a dry start, with Christopher Humphreys taking the honours in 18.57.
On his first visit to the course, Gavin Lau came second in 19.35, just ahead of Stephen Poole who crossed the line in in 19.39.
The leading three ladies all set new bests with Jennifer Benett finishing first in 24.00, Vicki Bowman second in 24.30 and Joely Hill third in 25.12. Best age-graded performer was Paul McAuliffe. He finished 16th in 21.31 to record a score of 76.53%.