Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
Danton retains trophy as weather hits second day
Canterbury
Heavy rain and a threat of lightning reduced Canterbury’s 36-hole Club Championship to a single round at the weekend.
The result was declared on the scores from the first day which meant 25-year-old Dean Danton retained his title as scratch champion while 12-handicap Steve Eeles topped the leaderboard in the net competition.
Danton was one of the earliest starters among the 92-strong field but he immediately showed he was wide awake as he picked up three birdies in the opening five holes, making pars at the second and fourth.
Despite bogeys at the sixth and ninth holes, Danton turned in one-under but returned to level par with a bogey at the 10th.
That was still the situation after six consecutive pars but the sequence ended when the one-handicapper’s 7-iron tee shot missed the green at the 195-yard 17th and the ball bounced into rough on the right.
Danton was unable to find the green with his recovery shot and a chip and two putts cost him a double-bogey.
However, a fourth birdie went some way towards repairing the damage and he signed for a gross 72
hat was two strokes better than playing partner Richard Askham, whose consistency was only marred by two doublebogeys when he found sand at the third and the 15th.
After a birdie- bogey start, Askham found the left-hand bunker with his approach to the third and he followed his sand shot with a three-putt.
A birdie at the fourth lifted his spirits and Askham finished the first half on two-over 38 and still in touch with the defending champion.
He launched his second nine with a run of five pars but then found the left-hand bunker at 15. He failed to emerge first time and went on to drop two shots.
A birdie at the last saw Askham close on 74, one stroke better than 17-year-old Dan Smith, who reached the 12th in level par but whose hopes of a higher placing was ruined by a double-bogey seven at the 18th.
In the handicap section for the Victory Bowl, the consistent Askham again had to settle for minor honours when his net 67 was beaten by an outstanding 65 from 12-handicap Steve Eeles.
Eeles laid the foundation for his success with birdies at the first and third that helped him to the turn in 37, one over par, with plenty of shots to play with.
The 48-year-old dropped only five strokes on the homeward journey, making no worse than bogey and signed for 77 gross, 65 net.
Askham took second on countback after his 67 was matched by 13-handicap Paul Jefferson, with seven-handicap Mark Williams two strokes further back. Leading scores – George Cup (scratch): 72 D Danton; 74 R Askham; 75 D Smith; 76 M Pilbeam, M Williams; 77 D Gillie, S Eeles, M Bidwell; 78 Peter Johnson; 79 M Lambton, A Wigg, A Grove, J Macdonald; 80 J Bristow, S Leggatt, N Bedford, P Jefferson. Victory Bowl (handicap): 65 S Eeles (h12); 67 R Askham (h7), P Jefferson (h13); 69 M Williams (h7); 70 M Pilbeam (h6), A Grove (h9), M Bidwell (h7), B Dancer (h13); 71 C Buttenshaw (h13), D Gillie (h6), D Smith (h4), D Danton (h1), J Counsell (h17); 72 M Lambton (h7), A Wigg (h7), J Wigg (h12), P Bundock (h10), Peter Johnson (h6).