Dish delight for six qualifiers
NO less than six players qualified for the Kirkman Dish on the back of the ladies' par competition at Tiverton on Wednesday.
It was the first time many of the 36-strong field had completed a full 18 holes this year and while the weather conditions were good, the course was playing long and that was reflected in the scoring.
Sue Persey, the new Devon ladies' captain, won the Silver Division with a score of -3 on a countback from Hannah Grant. Teresa Birchmore (-4) took third place on a countback from Judy Phripp.
All four players qualified for the Kirkman Dish, to be played in April, along with Marian Stevens and Liz Hall.
Stevens took the Bronze Division One prize with -3 ahead of Hall (-4) and Linda Knowles (-5).
In Bronze Division Two, Beryl Walters (-5) was the winner in front of Kath White (-6) and Jean Adshead (-7).

Sue honoured to take Devon captaincy

NEW Devon ladies' captain Sue Persey is presented with the badge of office by outgoing skipper Maureen Harris.

TIVERTON golfer Sue Persey is the new Devon ladies' captain.
Sue took over the reins at the Devon County Ladies' Golf Association AGM on Friday, after serving as vice-captain to Torquay's Maureen Harris for two years.
The Tiverton Golf Club member will captain the first team and be a figurehead at the many strokeplay and matchplay tournaments the DCLGA runs for all levels of player across the county.
“I'm honoured to have been elected captain and I'm looking forward to working with the team, the committee and all the 45 clubs in the county, with over 3,700 members,” she said.
The first big challenge of Sue's two-year term will be the first team's match week against Cornwall, Dorset, Gloucestershire, Somerset and Wiltshire at Dudsbury, near Bournemouth, in May, when the winning side will qualify for the national county finals in September.
And the South West Ladies' Championships in July are of added significance for Sue as Devon are the hosts and Tiverton will be the venue.
This year brings a number of changes to the ladies' system, including a new governing body, now called the English Women’s Golf Association, with the South West region consisting of six counties.
Sue, who works with her husband Roger on their organic dairy and poultry farm at Broadhembury, was the Devon junior girls' organiser from 1999 to 2003.
She started playing golf at Tiverton in 1990 and was the ladies' captain in 2004 following spells as ladies' secretary and ladies' competitions secretary.
Sue, a 14-handicapper, is not the only Tiverton lady to have been busy golf-wise away from the club.
Lesley Crossley was the captain of the Devon Lady Captains’ Golf Society in 2007, Carolyn Maynard has recently retired after being on the English Ladies' Golf Association executive for the past four years, serving the South West, and Jackie Leonard continues as the East representative on the DCLGA committee.
Jackie and Sue will represent Tiverton's ladies in the Daily Mail Foursomes national knock-out tournament this year.

Ed and Tony storm through
ED Tansey and Tony Wood-Wright booked their place in the knock-out stages of the men's Winter Foursomes at Tiverton after carding an excellent bogey score of +5 in the third qualifier on Saturday.
After five postponements, finally the weather was kind to the players and Tansey and Wood-Wright took full advantage to record a comfortable win.
Simon Legassick and Shaun Vickery went into the last 32 as runners-up on +2 while Andy Frankum and Cedric Gibbons were third with +1.
Mike Angus and Laurie Lindsay-Carl would have been third but were disqualified and that let in Simon Budden and Phil Moulding, who sneaked through in the eighth and final spot on -1 after they had subsided from +4 after nine.
Winter rules were in play through the green due to the recent saturation of the course.
The final eight qualifiers will be decided in a medalford competition this weekend.
Qualifiers: 1 Ed Tansey and Tony Wood-Wright (+5); 2 Simon Legassick and Shaun Vickery (+2); 3 Andy Frankum and Cedric Gibbons (+1); 4 Colin Taylor and Tony Lavery (0); 5 Martin Selby and Neil Carthew (-1); 6 Ray Pratt and Ian Gunn (-1); 7 Sean Hughes and Martin Taggart (-1); 8 Simon Budden and Phil Moulding (-1).

Trio return with Texas triumph
FOLLOWING the cancellation of the previous week's stableford, Tiverton's ladies returned to action with an 11-hole Texas scramble in teams of three on a mild day on Wednesday.
Teresa Birchmore, Helen Scriven and Shirley Ward posted a nett 43 to be joint winners alongside Val
Walker, Margot Seamer and Sandra Blackmore.
Each player had to contribute at least three drives and 10 per cent of the combined team handicap was deducted at the end.
Results: 1= Teresa Birchmore, Helen Scriven and Shirley Ward (43); 1= Val Walker, Margot Seamer and Sandra Blackmore (43); 3 Sheila Marwood, Hannah Grant and Anto Hajduk (44); 4 Sheila Ball, Janet Simpson and Joan Reed (45); 5= Chris Bacon, Liz Hall and Jean Adshead (46); 5= Gail Stuckey, Phyllida Dunn and Julie Sampson (46); 7 Judy Phripp, Jane Kerr and Rosemary Perry (47).
Next Wednesday the ladies have a par competition that will count for the Kirkman Dish.

The rain-hit men's Winter Foursomes is due to resume on Saturday – a week after the fifth postponement of a frustrating qualifying campaign.
The first two qualifiers were completed as scheduled before Christmas but week after week the wet weather has prevented the remaining two being played.
The next two weekends should finally decide the last 16 pairs to take their place in the knock-out stages, which start in mid February.