Birdies are normally reserved for the low handicap A Graders, so Stephen Von Duve had lots to talk about after the 14 handicapper had scored three birdies in Saturday’s Stroke competition at the Blue Lake Golf Club.

After pars on the second and third Von Duve’s confidence was high and he collected his first birdie on the fifth, plus Pro Shot for the day.

Getting a little bit ambitious, a double bogey on the sixth slightly stalled his charge but he bounced back well with his second birdie on the following hole.

A superb outward nine of 39 was going to be hard to beat, but Von Duve started his inward journey with his third birdie.

With another four pars Von Duve finished with just 38 off the stick for a nett 63 to take the outright win.

Normally seen wandering the course with a chainsaw in hand he’s now chopped a few strokes off his handicap.

The good scores continued in A Grade with Bruce Morale also getting on the birdie train, this time on the 3rd and the 15th.

He went even better on the 12th with an eagle to have splits of 37 and 36 for a nett 64.

Morale will be annoyed to have thrown away an even better score after finishing with a couple of soft bogeys on the 17th and 18th but his score was still good enough to take the win.

Trevor McLean has been off the prize winner’s podium for too long and the talented 7 handicapper righted that with equal splits of 38 each.

It was a steady outward nine, unable to convert any of his birdie putts and walked off with three bogey.

He recovered with two birdies on the 15th and 17th to take second place.

In third place Colin Ferguson made short work of the dog leg ninth and closed with nett 70.

Michael Johnston swapped his cricket bat for golf clubs and put them to good use with the win in B Grade with his score of 83-14-69.

Starting with three consecutive pars and adding three more in his first nine holes set him up for an excellent 38 off the stick at the half way mark.

Adding two more pars on the 10th and 11th was like opening the batting to a spinner, but then he gave his wicket away with a triple bogey on the 12th.

More trouble followed with a pair of bogeys, but he had enough runs on the board to take the B Grade win.

A count-back was needed to split second and third placings after Graham Burke (19) and Wayne Dunford (14) tied on nett 70.

Burke recovered well from an ordinary opening nine but gave Dunford a look in after a double bogey on the 17th.

Dunford chased hard and would have had second all to himself except he had to make up just little too much handicap.

There was no count-back needed in C Grade with Simun Lalich being a clear winner with nett 65.

Lalich turned in one his best rounds for quite some time with a sub 100 score.

A distant five strokes further back Matthew Kurzman (22) who held off Bruce Tichbon for second after a count back.

Kurzman had an eye opening charge to the finish with a birdie on the 15th before making a mess of the last hole, while Tichbon did all his scoring on the front nine with an impressive 46 off the stick.

Pro Shots were claimed by Josh Ransom on the 5th and Ian Bown on the 16th, while Michael Egan, David Adkins and Dieter Rostig won their respective nearest the pins.

It was a welcome return to the top step of the podium for the bon vivant Dianne Perryman in Saturday’s ladies stroke competition at the Blue Lake Golf Club.

Playing off 22 Perryman had a tap in par on the second to boost her scoring but gave a couple back on the sixth where she found some tree trouble.

A par on the difficult 11th hole gave her round momentum and she took that to the 13th, 15th and 16th, showcasing her ability.

Eyeing off a personal best round with just 29 strokes up to the 17th, Perryman had another par in her sights.

However, that bubble was soon burst with a disappointing final two holes that robbed her of an inward nine in the 30’s.

It was still a good round of golf from the experienced Perryman.

Continuing her rapid improvement in the game Jorja Morale, fresh from holding her own in the charity Ambrose event the day before, took second place with her round of 106-36-70.

Helping her to get where she is her determination, a trait she inherited from her father, turning around an horrendous start with a startling birdie on the difficult fourth hole.

She still had a smile on her face well after her round.

Karen Panagopolous (33) held off Geraldine Scott (23) for third after both tied on nett 71.

There were some surprised faces from the many golfers who entered their ‘good’ scores of high thirties or better into the miClub computer, only to find they were not even running a place.

Probably the most surprised was club captain David Adkins, who came in with a 41 points.

Expecting to see his name leap to first he had to settle well behind the pace setter, club volunteer Bruce Tichbon who had already entered a remarkable 44 points to take the outright win in Tuesday’s Stableford competition.

Tichbon (27) made sure that he capitalised on his scoring holes where he got two strokes with four point pars on the fourth and the seventh on the outward nine.

With 19 points in his back pocket Tichbon picked up another four pars on the way in he went even better on the 15th with a birdie to confirm a well-deserved win.

Often the worst part of his game, Adkins had his short game in tune for his round, picking up five pars on the outward nine for 20 points with only the relatively easy ninth causing him any trouble where he only picked up the one point.

Picking up an early two lots of three point pars he let one slip after a horseshoe lip out on the 14th.

But after that he parred three of the last four closing holes for splits of 20 and 21 to take second place.

Another golfer who could have expected to have won with 40 points, Derek Sargeant had to settle for a surprise third place.

Sargeant also had his struggles with two double bogeys (7th and 14th) but made short work of the dogleg 15th for a three point birdie.

A host of players had 37 points or better, the most notable being Ian Bown (7) who started with an eagle after his chip shot checked sideways to find the cup.

A word of caution for those walking off the 17th green to the 18th tee to be careful in windy conditions they do not get hit by a falling club after James Rice’s misadventure.