Martin Start made light of his county presidential responsibilities by winning the Club Championship at Saffron Walden Golf Club for the fifth time last Sunday. The tournament was played over two days, with a qualifying round on the Saturday in which ove

Martin Start made light of his county presidential responsibilities by winning the Club Championship at Saffron Walden Golf Club for the fifth time last Sunday.

The tournament was played over two days, with a qualifying round on the Saturday in which over 90 members played.

The overnight lead was held by Richard Southall who shot an excellent two under par 70 which left him two shots ahead of Martin Start and six shots clear of the chasing pack.

The main contenders set off on the Sunday in good golfing weather. Richard Southall, who the previous day had played near flawless golf, found the fairway bunker off the first tee and took three further shots to get out to run up an eight on the first hole to give the advantage back to Martin Start.

Both then played par golf but looked like being caught by Ian Macdonald who birdied the third and fourth holes. Unfortunately bogies at the next two put Ian back in the pack.

It was then Adam Brown's turn to apply some pressure with birdies at holes eight, nine and 10 to get to within one shot of the leaders, but his challenge petered out at the 13th hole.

In the meantime, Miles Collins was playing exemplary golf and got within a stroke of the leaders. Unfortunately Miles could not find the birdies needed to close the gap further.

Martin and Richard continued to stay neck and neck with the lead changing on a number of occasions, but only ever by one shot until Martin produced a fine birdie three on the 15th hole to Richard's sixth following a pulled tee shot.

Steady pars on the final three holes for Martin was enough for him to run out winner by three shots from Miles Collins, whose solid round of par 72 was the best of the second day.

Richard Southall also had problems on the 16th hole and finished in third place.

- There were two other competitions held over the weekend. Firstly the Seniors' Championship which was won by David Bur from Richard Negus and the Summer Cup, which is the handicap event run together with the Club Championship, which was won by Miles Collin.