AS the competition season nears its close, attention has been focussed on the finals of two prestigious knockout competitions, which have been running throughout the Worcestershire Golf Club's season.

For the men, the final of the Meredith Cup took place between the ever reliable Peter Lupino and the very competitive Andrew Meredith. Andrew came to the final in good form having beaten the club's former captain and course record holder, Stuart Bird, by two holes in the semi-final. On finals day however Andrew had an off day, while Peter was in excellent form. The final is a 36 hole competition and after the morning 18 hole session Andrew found himself five down. Peter continued his excellent form in the afternoon and try as he did Andrew was unable to make any inroads into Peter's lead. The match finished at the 31st hole Peter winning six up with five to play.

The finalists in the mixed knockout competition play for the Rose Bowl, a competition introduced many years ago by Jim Ainscough when he was club captain. This year's final was played between the well established mixed partnership of Terry O'Donnell and Mary Horobin and the relative new members of Ian and Pauline Belsham.

Ian and Pauline were in good form and with Ian consistently out driving Terry from the tee, they soon edged ahead of Terry and Mary. Ian and Pauline were in such good form that they won the Rose Bowl six up with five to play.

In the Mid-week Medal competition three players returned a one below score of 70 in Division One and could only be separated on the count back system. Nigel Allam was placed third, Dave Finbow second and first place went to the every improving junior player Chris Goodrum.

In Division Two Trevor Southall was the clear winner by seven shots. Trevor returned a score of 68, the best score of the day. In second place was Mark Smith and senior golfer David Coffey third.

In the first round of the Winter Better Ball competition very high scores were recorded by many partnerships. Graham Wallace and Wes Curtis returned with 42 points and were separated on the count back system from Charles Daveport and Andy Greene who came third. Veteran golfers Jeff Jones and Derrick Phillips returned a score of 45 points but the winners were Phil Dance and Stuart Bird. The partnerships of Jeff and Derrick together with Phil and Stuart will now play in the match play stages of the competition.

Pat Fletcher won the Ladies Winners' Cup returning a one below par score of 70. Pat was four shots better than Jill Piner who came second and Diane Meakin who came third. Pat Fletcher's round was memorable in that she obtained a hole in one at the third hole after one bounce on the green. Pat is the fourth lady to obtain a hole in one during this season.