THE Worcestershire Golf Club elected their new captain at a clubhouse dinner attended by over 90 members last Friday.

Simon Tinkler succeeds Mel Stocker who now steps down after a most successful year. An Old Malvernian, Simon joined the club 30 years ago and has been a club director on two separate occasions.

An excellent golfer, Simon plays off a handicap of seven and has captained the club's A team for the past three years. His parents are keen golfers and his mother is a former lady captain of the Worcester Golf and Country Cub.

Simon is employed in the sales and marketing department of MG/Rover at Longbridge. He has chosen the Macmillan Cancer Relief Fund as his charity and a raffle held at the weekend for a reserved car parking space at the club raised £300 for the charity. Charles Poole was the lucky winner.

The captain's inaugural competition was a Four Ball Better Ball competition in which 176 golfers took part. In each team of four the two best scores on each hole would count.

Those players who chose to play in the morning were at a distinct disadvantage as the weather was cloudy, misty and cold. In contrast the afternoon players enjoyed glorious sunshine with no wind; conditions idea for golf.

The team of David Jones, Colin Lane, John Pilgrim and Neville Clark were in exceptional form and won the Stableford competition with a score of 92 points. They were eight points better than the team of Steve Lamb, Clive Gallimore, Mike Day and Mike Bothma who scored 84 points. The team of Roger Blackwell, Charles Davenport, John Daly and Nick Cave also scored 84 points but were placed in third position.

In Division One of the Midweek Stableford competition local general practitioner Andrew Meredith was in exceptional form returning to the clubhouse with a score of 38 points to be placed first. Steve Bradshaw also scored 38 points but was placed second on the usual count back system. Senior golfer, John Farley was third with 37 points.

In Division Two, Andy Ditchfield scored 40 points beating Trevor Southall by one point. Trevor came second with Graham Hughes in third place with a score of 36 points.

In the Mixed Golf competition 28 couples played a Four Ball Better medal in fine weather but with a very blustery wind.

Despite the conditions ten pairs returned to the clubhouse with scores of par or better.

The winners, with a net score of 68 points, were Andy Greene playing with April Wilding. Both second and third pairs returned identical scores of 70 points. Terry and Anne Goode were placed second with Trevor and Brenda Cox in third place.

In the Ladies' Four Ball Better Ball competition Jane Tromans playing with Diane Meakin were placed first with the excellent score of 44 points. Ursula Pearson and Freya Recordon were second with 42 points.