Team ALder take narrow lead as winter league tees off

The Precision Cables Winter League kicked off with some excellent scoring which resulted with Captain Alan Uzell’s Team Alder taking a slender lead two point lead in to Round 2.
 
David Corrigan and Derek Teather were their top scorers both contributing 34 pts to team score while  team captain Alan Uzell had 33pts and Ultan Gaughran with 31pts was their fourth and final scorer.
 
Team Hawthorn captained by Brian Ward are lying two points behind. Tony Ryan was their top scorer with a tremendous 35pts resulting in an overall team score of 130pts with three other players – Seamus Bailey, Paschal Keenan and Conor Murray - also contributing 30pts plus to the cause,
 
Team Hazel captained by Sean Ward are third on 129pts. Sean himself scored 34pts and was only bettered by teammate John McKeever with an excellent 35pts.
 
John was top individual scorer in week one of the Winter League with only Gearoid Ó Conluain from Team Birch matching his 35pts over the weekend.
 
While week one saw a big turnout of players, Team Alder were the only one of the ten teams to have all eight players playing so the other captains need to make sure their teams have maximum participation in each round.
 
A spectacular start with birdie threes on the first two holes for back-to-back four
pointers set Ben Walsh, playing off a 13 handicap, on his way to bringing in the joint best score, with 38 points, in the weekend Singles Stableford competition which was played in tandem with the Precision Cables Winter League over 14 holes with the four closing holes not in play.
 
With no overall prize, Ben, for the second week running, claimed the honours as the winner of Division 2 and shared the best score of the day with Brian Crombie, playing off a 20 handicap who also finished on 38 points.
 
Ben built on his impressive start and continued with a streak of solid points scoring
with straight pars at the par four fourth, par five sixth and par three ninth holes, all for
three pointers, while also tagging on three two pointers to finish the opening nine
holes with 25 points.
 
On his closing five holes he accumulated four three points in a row with pars from the 10th to the 13th holes and, while only securing one point on the final fourteenth hole, he finished the closing five holes with 13 points.
 
Brian Crombie had a faltering start with three points after two holes and but he quickly recovered and set off on a scoring spree, parring the index one par four fourth, par five seventh and par four eighth holes, all for four points, adding three pointers at the fourth, fifth and ninth holes, to complete the nine holes on 26 points.
 
He struggled to maintain his high scoring momentum on his final five holes, a brace of three points and three two pointers, brought his back five to a conclusion with 12 points and his overall 38 points saw him win Division 4.
 
Competition was also very tight for the Division 1 honours with Graeme Smith (4),
thanks to a better closing five holes score, just edging past Mark Cumiskey (9), after
both finished on 34 points.
 
In Division 3 the spoils went to Alan Uzell (15) with 33 points, his better closing five holes taking him past John McKenna (17) who also finished on 33 points.
 
Saturday, 30 November and Sunday, 1 December - Singles Stableford - Division 1: Graeme Smith (4) 34/23/16 pts, Mark Cumiskey (9) 34/23/15pts. Division 2: Ben Walsh (13) 38pts, Andrew Shekleton (12) 37pts. Division 3: Alan Uzell (15) 33/23pts, John McKenna (17) 33/21pts. Division 4: Brian Crombie (20) 38pts,
David Corrigan (28) 34pts.
 
Precision Cables Winter League Standings after Round 1: 132pts - Team Alder (Capt Alan Uzell). 130pts - Team Hawthorn (Capt Brian Ward ). 129pts - Team Hazel (Capt Sean Ward). 124pts - Team Ash (Capt Patsy Cole ). 119pts - Team Birch (Capt Sean Hession), Team Cherry (Capt Colm Coburn ). 117 - Team Rowan (Capt Tommy Renaghan). 114 Team Oak (Capt Nigel Giff). 113 -  Team Willow (Capt Austin Shaw). 110 - Team Elm (Capt John McCann).