THE fourth round of the South West of England Open Winter Foursomes competition was held at Yelverton Golf Club on Sunday. The weather was cold and raw, with a moderate easterly wind increasing the chill factor.

Simon Gilder and George Gawman (Tavistock) won convincingly 6 and 5, due to some excellent putting by George Gawman. Rob Herring and Chris Gill produced an accomplished display of golf to beat the home pair of Bryan Blaber and Shaun Northey 3 and 2.

Churston Professional Neil

Holman, and Emma Frain had a convincing win over D Parke and S Warne from Stover 4 and 3.

The largest winning margin was by the father and son duo of Terry and Chris Cook, who beat the scratch pair of A Fox and L Clarke by 7 and 5; both teams played par golf, but the 5 shots conceded by the pair from Exeter was too much.

D Arnold and P Crump beat R Joint and M Daniels on the 18th hole, and Tim McSherry and Laura Eastwood won 4 and 3.

Barry Austin and Sue Pearman had a walk-over as their opponents were in warmer climes, in the Algarve.

Finally, to no-one?s surprise, the young pairing of Tom Squire and Matt Allen went to the 19th hole to finally defeat the mature pairing of John Gilmour and Mike Beveridge.

The first round of the Plate competition was also played; 12 teams fighting for eight places.

With only nine pairs turning out for arctic golf the wooden spoon went to Tony Jeffs and Stewart Kedge, the remaining eight pairs to play a knock-out in conjunction with the main competition on January 12.