Ross Golf Club’s series of five monthly winter stableford competitions, from which ultimately emerges the winner of the Club’s annual honours board major Barnfield Trophy, has taken on board a new dynamic for the season of 2018/ 2019.

Now available to all sections of the club, the events welcome lady members who are taking part. The second round, spread over two days to accommodate the numbers involved, resulted in 15 handicapper, Sarah Forrest, becoming the first lady member to qualify for the Final in the history of the Competition.

The top 12 performers qualify from each of the five rounds so that a 60 player start-sheet will contest for the Barnfield Trophy title in March, 2019, in which Sarah will rightly take her place. The rounds have three handicap divisions from which the top four players in each division share the prizes.

For Sarah, her 38 points total placed her 7th overall, with 107 members taking part. Of these members taking part there were just five lady members, so it was an impressive performance by Sarah who achieved 1 birdie recorded and results in a 1 shot handicap reduction, and an effective outcome as she is now also entitled to a share of the prizes.

The combined final score-sheet showed nine handicapper, Richard Brough, as the stand-out winner, and it was also noted that rarely does an overall winner come from Handicap Division 1, so this proved to be a very special achievement.

Richard’s 40 points haul, which included two birdies and nine pars, was a model in consistency. This achievement resulted in him playing four shots better than his usual handicap.

Fellow qualifiers were Roger Alford, whose 40 points score saw him just miss out on the top spot on count-back, followed by Tim Lewis, the 2017 Barnfield Trophy Champion with 39 points.

Tim Fewell, Jason Skidmore and Club Secretary, Ian Griffiths, also carded 39 points totals with Robin Ledbury, Seniors Captain, David Price, and Antony Graham joining Sarah Forrest in the list of 38 points qualifiers. Of the 37 points scorers, Andrew Reeves and Nigel Yates make up the list of 12 from the second round which means they will contest the final showdown that will take place in 2019.See this week’s paper for more stories like this, available in shops and as a Digital Edition now.