Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
Steele recovers nerve to clinch Bowl victory
Canterbury GC Faversham
Nigel Steele overcame two potential disasters in the final five holes of Canterbury’s bogey competition, the Winch Bowl, on Sunday to take the top honours with a score of five-up against the course.
The 58-year-old businessman had played solidly throughout his round and had compiled a competitive score, going five-up at the 12th.
But an unexpected three-putt on the 14th threaten to derail his progress.
However, the 11-handicapper repaired the damage with an excellent par at the 15th and followed with another par at 16, both for wins.
His joy was shortlived when he saw his tee shot at the 17th drift left into the Devils Duke, leaving Steele with an horrendous lie from which to fly the bank and stop on the green.
In fact, his shot cleared the bank and disappeared over the green and Steele was unable to get up and down, suffering a loss before closing with a par for a half.
Steele, from St Margaret’s Bay, had produced most of his best work over the opening nine holes, scoring four wins, one with a birdie at the third and halving the rest to reach the turn four-up.
Second place, one hole in arrears, was Ricky Balcombe, playing off 13.
He also had four wins in the first nine holes but also suffered two losses.
Coming home, he had four more wins but another two losses that left him one hole short of the winner.
Highlight of four-handicap Tim O’reilly’s round was a phenomenal albatross two at the par- five seventh hole.but despite adding birdies at the eighth, 13th, 14th and 18th, losses at 15, 16 and 17 effectively ended his challenge and he closed on three–up. Leading scores: +5 N Steele (handicap 11); +4 R Balcombe (h13); +3 T O’reilly (h4); +2 R Beer (h8), J Wigg (h11), D Danton (h1); +1 T Grove (h8), Peter Johnson (h7), A Bundock (h9), N Williams (h20), S Walsh (h19), A Cowell (h16), M Bidwell (h6); level C Shaxted (h14), D Williams (h17), M Cunningham (h9), D Pilbeam (h9), C Gellatly (h5); -1 A Dance (h11), J Hewlett (h8), J Thompson (h5), P Blake (h11), D O’donoghue (h9), M Lambton (h6), J Kennett (h20); Jake Bushe l l c l aime d Faversham’s Mick & Jean Money Trophy and the Scratch Cup on Sunday after some outstanding play.
The three-handicapper shot a two-under par 68 in the morning and followed it up with a 71 after lunch to finish with a net 133.
Bushell will be top seed for the Club Championships later in the year, decided by the best 16 gross scores of the year.
Keith Broomhead was six shots back in second playing off eight while John Nelson (h12) was third on countback after a net 141.
Lyndsay Abraham was the morning winner with a net 69 playing off 10 while Glen Burden took the honours in the afternoon with the same score playing off 11.
Vivienne Atlee and Martin Watson teamed-up to win the Mixed Open at Faversham last Thursday.
Nearly 30 pairs competed in fine weather but Atlee and Watson were first with 39 points, one ahead of Mark and Linda Wilding with David and Julie Manderson in third with 37 points.
Canterbury extended their lead at the top of East Kent League Division 1 after a 2.5-2.5 draw at Sittingbourne
Latest tables, page 59.