THE Maxfli South West of England open winter foursomes, second part of first round, were played on Sunday at Yelverton Golf Club.
A strong wind made golf difficult and favoured the better and more experienced golfers. As a result only five of the 32 matches went to the 18th green and no matches required extra holes to obtain a result.
Mike Lavers, the holder of the amateur course record at Yelverton, and partner Devon County captain Dave Roberts, despite being 3 up after 6 holes, were beaten by Ian Northey and his 15-year-old son, Mark, by 2 and 1.
China Fleet professional Bobby Moore, playing with China Fleet's general manager David O'Sullivan, was beaten 4 and 3 by Richard Keith and Edward Shapland of Looe.
Keith and Shapland, with handicaps of 12 and 14 respectively, dropped only 5 shots to put over the 15 holes they required to dispose of Moore and O'Sullivan. Brothers Martin and Jerry Butcher of Torquay Golf Club overcame Yelverton's Kevin Norris and Paul Woods by 8 and 6. Thurlestone professional Peter Laugher playing with 3 handicap amateur Daryl Day won by 7 and 6 over Yelverton's Derek Silk and Chris Snows.
Dainton Park pro Martin Tyson and Matt Broughton went from 2 down after 6 to 2 up after 12 with birdies at the 7th, 11th and 12th holes before winning by 3 and 2 over John Chapman and his son Chris.
Another pair who had 4 birdies were ex-Yelverton professional Iain Parker, based at Ferndown in Dorset, and Jon Davey (Yelverton) against another former Yelverton professional, Graham Goldring and Bernie Pennington of Tavistock, winning by 3 and 2.
Former winners in 1995/96 Darren Desmond, assistant professional at Tavistock, and Plymouth University student Pete Southcott were 2 under par in beating Elfordleigh's David Jones and Roger Webb by 6 and 5.
Another pair of previous winners of the tournament, Tony Clarke (Staddon Heights) and Eddie Anning (Wrangaton) nearly pulled off a shock result losing by 1 hole to one of the leading all amateur pairings of Dave Eva (Thurlestone) and Nick Lane (Wrangaton) having been 5 down after 9 holes.
After the first round, 17 of the 23 professionals who teed up in this year's event are left in and looking to collect the £1,000 prize for the leading professional.
Last year's runners-up Rob Brockington and John Hirst are due to play the current Devon County amateur champion Graham Ruth who is playing with his son, James, 14, who plays off a handicap of 4.
Yelverton's promising 15-year-old Laura Eastwood, playing with Devon County player Nick Horrocks, earned the opportunity to play against former Curtis Cup player Lynda Simpson, of Trevose, partnered by Lostwithiel Professional Tony Nash.
Yelverton professional Tim McSherry and Terry Cook (5 handicap) can expect a tough match against Dartmouth club secretary Simon Bawden (3 handicap) and his partner Christine Clayton (7 handicap).
The all-professional pairing from Exeter, Mike Rowett and Jodie Bee, are playing against the experienced John Gawman (Tavistock) and Chris Gunn (Yelverton), to whom they must give 8 shots.