The Balfour & Houldsworth Golf Challenge Cups

The Balfour Cup

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Peter McManus  - Winner 2015

The Balfour Cup Competition in its 118th year was held at Swinton Park Golf Club on Sunday 17th May. 

In extremely tough windy conditions Peter McManus from Chorlton cum Hardy Golf Club managed to card the winning score  of  gross  78, nett 71 to win by 1 shot  from 2nd place Worsley player Ray Crozier.
The best gross prize was 77 scored by Gary Spann from Stand GC playing off -1.
Other players in the prizes came from Worsley GC, Fairfield GC, Heaton Park GC and Altrincham GC.

The playing conditions were not good with very strong winds which contributed to a high CSS of 74.

All the results can be seen on our website , click on the link on the front page.

Next year the committee have decided to move the date and the the Balfour Cup will be held at Northenden GC and will be nearer to the end of May. This will be available using online booking.

The Houldsworth Cup

​The Houldsworth Cup has been won by Stand GC players Craig Cuthbert and Tony Cahill with an excellent score of 8 up.
Craig and Tony who play at the host club led a strong contingent from Stand GC, who took the first 3 prizes.
Runners up were Simon Naylor and Craig Matthews from Stand GC with an impressive 6 Up score and also from Stand GC and taking 3rd place were players Justin P Mole and Trevor Mole with 5 Up.
Ellesmere golfers Anthony Gaynor and  Keith Edge managed to break in between more Stand players with the best of the 4 Up scores.

We have been using online booking for these competitions and this seems to be a more popular way as we had 70 pairs representing 18 golf clubs from within the 25 mile radius of Manchester Town Hall.

The top scores can be seen on our website using the link on the front page

Tony Cahill and Craig Cuthbert  - Winners 2015

The GS Lancashire Trophy

Congratulations to Alan Rudman & Lady Vice Captain Sue Rudman from Marriott Worsley Park Golf Club on winning the GS Lancashire Trophy at Worsley GC on Sun 12th July with a great score of 44 points.

They have won this prestigious trophy previously at Swinton Park GC in 2012.

​All scores can be viewed on our website.
http://www.balfourandhouldsworth.co.uk/

Well Done from All of the committee.

The Senior Balfour

Didsbury were proud hosts for the first time of the Balfour and Houldsworth Seniors Balfour Cup competition.     There was a great turnout of over 150 players from 31 clubs in the BB Stableford format, and Didsbury provided a superb course and excellent clubhouse service which drew great praise from the competitors.

The competition proved to be a real cliff-hanger with four pairs locked on 43 points for a long period of the day, led by Stand Golf Club’s Jeffrey Clements and Keith Gardner from Tony Williams and Allan Schofield (Deane), Dave Torkington and Jimmy O’Reilly (Swinton Park) and David Holden and Clive Fiveash (Fairfield).

But as so often happens there was a real sting in the tail provided by the last group out with Stand’s William Taylor and Terry Brown taking the lead with a great haul of 45 points, and their playing partners Gordon Fryers and John Jones (Sale) who finished with 43 points and a great back nine that pushed them into second place.

The win by Lancashire Seniors star Terry Brown completed a remarkable B and H hat-trick as he has already won the Balfour Cup, and GS Lancashire Cup for mixed pairs with his wife Ruth, and he now has the Houldsworth Cup for Men’s pairs in his sights to complete a clean sweep.

The top home team scorers were Ged Ford and Tony Taylor with 41 points.

The Junior Balfour & U16 Trophy

The Junior Balfour was a great success with 56 junior golfers representing 22 local golf clubs.
There were two prize categories U19 and U16, but the Junior Balfour winner could be from either category and due to the increased number of entrants we decided to award 3 prizes per category

The winner of the Junior Balfour Cup and winner in the U16 category was Will Biddle from Stamford GC with a great score of nett 63.

The winner of the U16 trophy and runner up in the U16 category was Charlie Ward  from Ellesmere GC also with a nett 63.

Missing out by one shot was Sale GC home player and Junior Captain Calum Perry with a nett 64,

Calum wins the U19 category.

The committee were very pleased with the eventual number of players and our thanks go to all the junior organisers at the various clubs who managed to increase our players from the 2 weeks previous.

The committee has met and assuming we have enough entries, we have agreed to add a gross prize for next year’s event at Worsley GC on Sunday 11 September 2016.