A shootout was required to decide the winner in Saturday’s Par round at the Blue Lake Golf Club and with Trevor Gartside’s experience with the long barrel he was always going to be hard to beat.

Both he and Shannon Fullerton (15) shot +5 in the Jens Hotel sponsored event but with experience on his side and knowing that consistency was the key, Gartside prevailed in the count back.

With splits of +2 and, +3 thanks to a birdie on the 12th, Gartside (22) made sure every hole counted, not registering a minus over the inward nine.

Thanks to his handicap he even threw in a double bogey on the 13th for a square, but that was the only blemish on his way in.

It was great shooting from Gartside who also gives freely of his time to help out on the course.

In A grade Michael Dedonatis is in a rich vein of form, chalking up the wins at ease.

He took the grade win on Saturday with his round of +3 which was equaled by Tyson Ploenges (2) and Colin Ferguson (6).

Dedonatis (4) had the worst of the opening nine amongst the three but stormed home with a magnificent 33 and +4 over the inward nine (three birdies) to take the win.

The club recently celebrated having three players off scratch or better and that might soon be four with Tyson Ploenges edging ever closer to the magical handicap.

While he missed out on the win via the count back system Ploenges will be aiming for higher accolades and his round of +3 shows he is well on track.

Turning with +2 Ploenges was looking at landing the big fish but a wipe on the 10th meant he had to re-bait which he did with successive birdies.

Another bogey on the 16th saw him give one of those birdies back and had to settle for second place.

Ferguson (6) also showed some great golf on the outward nine with +3 in his pocket at the turn but wipes on the 12th and 14th were too much to overcome even with a birdie on the last for splits of +3 and 0 for third place.

Fullerton had to settle for the grade win but would have had his sights set a lot higher after a superb +5 on the front nine.

Not having a minus over those first nine holes showed what he is capable of and he battled manfully over the inward nine to cover two scrubs with two plusses to come in square.

Tree trouble on the 15th ultimately cost him the overall win, a simple par on one of the easier holes on the course was there for the taking with the form he was in.

There was another count back needed to separate Shaun Phillips (18) and Ben Papps (13) after both returned plus one.

Phillips did what Fullerton could not do by birdying the 15th for a plus ensuring the silver medal

with +2 on the back nine.

Papps (13) did all his scoring on the front nine, having splits of +2 and -1 to settle for third.

In C grade it was a very welcome return to the winner’s circle for David Whitehead.

Still recovering from a health scare some time back Whitehead showed that he has lost none of his ability with a scorching back nine of +4 to take the win.

Having his struggles at the end of the front nine Whitehead turned with -1 but then he let his clubs do the talking by adding four plusses and not a single wipe.

Whitehead did not get it easy though, having to fight off Matthew Zeunert (22) and Wade Chant (26) in a three way count back.

His blistering inward nine was always going to be hard to beat, Zeunert taking second with his plus 2 and Chant being relegated back to third but deserves a special mention with his +6 on the front nine.

Two Eagles were recorded on the day, Brad Talbot needing only three shots on the 17th while Trevor McLean made similar short work of the 15th, going over the top and tapping in for an eagle on the 15th.

It was a swings and round about opening to Jason McCrae’s round on Tuesday’s midweek Stroke competition at the Blue Lake Golf Club with the avid Dartmoor Giants football player either kicking a goal or out on the full.

Opening with a birdie he then went bogey, birdie, bogey, birdie, bogey before registering his first par on the seventh.

A one over 36 had him primed for a Jeremy Cameron ‘specky’ but a double bogey on the 11th saw him spill the mark.

He righted things with three consecutive pars but tree troubles on the innocuous 15th added another double to his scorecard, finishing with splits of 36 and 40 for a net 65.

It was a welcome return to form for the likeable McCrae and helped cement his spot in A grade.

Normally a score of 66 in a stroke event is enough to secure the win but poor Dylan Bromley just fell short thanks to the one bad hole on the back nine.

After turning with 43 courtesies of a birdie on the third Bromley (18) had to just match that for a possible winning score.

He did even better with a 41 but that just was not quite enough to catch McCrae.

Bromley would love to play the 13th again where a triple bogey prevented him getting both the win and a chance to shoot a sub 40 nine.

Tree trouble also halted Michael Egan’s charge to the win, this time trying to go over on the dogleg ninth costing him his only double bogey for the round.

After opening with a birdie, he added another on the 15th for equal splits of 38 and taking third prize.