MONMOUTHSHIRE were crowned Welsh Ladies County champions for the first time after beating Mid Wales in a rematch of last year’s final.

It was Mid Wales who ran away with proceedings in the second-half of the final 12 months ago, but on this occasion there was no stopping Monmouthshire as they dominated the singles matches.

Trailing 2-1 after the foursomes at Ashburnham in West Wales, Monmouthshire hit back in style during the one-on-one encounters to seal a 6-3 victory and revenge for last year’s defeat.

County champion Lauren Hillier secured two points for her team, the first coming in the opening foursomes alongside Angharad Evans as the pair beat Sharon Roberts and Judith Davies 3&1.

However, Monmouthshire’s good start hit the buffers when Chris Harries and Cerys Jenkins lost to Sherrie Edwards and Angharad Basnett on the 18th, then Jessica Evans and Patricia Fernon were beaten 4&3 by Sara Rees Evans and Ellen Jones.

Despite that, Monmouth-shire flew out of the blocks in the singles and were boosted by Hillier’s emphatic 6&4 thrashing of Sara Rees Evans before Jessica Evans, included in the Golf Union of Wales’ national performance squad, hammered Jones 7&6 to give her team the overall lead.

Rhiannon Thomas backed that up with a resounding 4&3 victory over Davies and then, needing one point to take the title, Harries cruised to a 4&2 triumph against Edwards.

As there was no way back for Mid Wales, the Fernon-Basnett and Jenkins-Roberts games were halved.

Llanwern’s Harries and Dewstow’s Fernon have the chance to keep that winning feeling going when they travel with Wales to Elie & Earlsferry in Fife next week to take part in the Senior Ladies’ Home International.

IN the men’s equivalent last week – the women’s event runs from October 2-4 – Wales finished third but Newport’s Andrew Williams can take pride in the fact that he contributed three-and-a-half points to his country’s cause in the games against Ireland, England and Scotland.

Ireland, deprived of a fifth title in a row by England, beat Wales handsomely 7.5-1.5 with Williams picking up a half in his singles clash with Garth McGimpsey.

Against England, Williams beat Chris Reynolds 4&3 but couldn’t prevent a 6-3 defeat to the eventual champions.

However, on the last day of competition Wales beat Scotland 5-4 with the Newport man adding two points to the Welsh total.

Williams and Paul Bloomfield edged past John Fraser and David Gardner 2&1 then Williams beat Fraser by one hole to round off a positive few days on a personal level.

CONTINUING the Newport theme, last weekend the Rogerstone-based club celebrated 100 years of golf at their current home with some special anniversary events to mark the centenary.

The club held junior, veteran, ladies and men’s team competitions with the winners given a special commemorative plate to mark the occasion while there was also a champagne reception, dinner and presentation.

A number of local dignitaries were invited as well as past club captains, local club captains and those of Glamorganshire, Radyr and Brynhill whose predecessors were invited to Newport a century ago.

A prize draw raised around £1,000 for the captain’s charity, Children with Cancer UK, and the urology department at the Royal Gwent Hospital.

Prizes were donated by the likes of Phillip Price, Jose Maria Olazabal and Paul Lawrie and sponsored by Heineken Breweries.

ST PIERRE'S Liam Bond starts out on his quest for a European Tour card next Tuesday at Frilford Heath in Oxfordshire in the last section of first stage qualifying.

Bond needs to get through two stages before the gruelling test that is final qualifying at the PGA Catalunya Resort in Spain next month.

After 15 failed attempts, Bond won a place on the tour in 2011 but couldn’t hold onto his card at qualifying school last December. However, he has thrived on the PGA West Region circuit with five competition wins to his name in 2012.

Fellow St Pierre golfer, amateur Richard Bentham, missed out on the second stage of qualifying by seven shots at Wychwood Park in Cheshire last week.

He shot rounds of 74, 78 and 75 to make the 54-hole cut but could only manage a final round 74 to end on +13 and a tie for 40th place.

PARC Golf Academy’s Richard Dinsdale finished fifth in the PGA West Region’s South Wales Festival, 11 shots behind winner Stuart Man-ley.

He fired rounds of 69 at Ashburnham, 73 at Mach-ynys Peninsula and another 73 at Pyle & Kenfig to pick up a cheque for £500.

Newport’s Paul Mayo was 13th on eight-over and both St Pierre’s Craig Dun and Raglan Parc’s Chris Murphy were two of four men tied in 16th place on +14.

THERE wasn’t much to cheer about for Gwent as they came fourth in the Welsh Inter Counties Final at Borth & Ynyslas as Glamorgan took the title from Dyfed with Denbighshire in third.

Denbighshire’s Alyn Torrence won the individual award, returning a two-round score of 135, with Jack Davidson (144) the best-placed of the Gwent contingent in joint eighth. Rhys Barber (147), Otto Mand (148), Jonathan Davidson (149), Stuart Westley (153) and Daniel King (161) helped take Gwent to an aggregate total of 740.

On a more positive note, Bentham, Mand and Jack Davidson, like Jessica Evans, have been selected for the national performance squad.

Results

Pontypool: President’s Cup (Fourball Stableford); 1 D Ford & L Jenkins 40pts, 2 S Morgan & M Stevens 40, 3 D Clark & C Taylor 40 Monmouth: Gwyn Richards Texas Scramble; 1 M Hunt, C Hunt, A Swain, M Pryce net 53.8; 2 T Pontefract, S Spary, L Roach, B Kennedy 55.7; 3 A Nunn, G Price, A Jeremy, P Adam 56.2.

South Wales Plumbing & Heating Golfing Society: Wenvoe Castle hosted the seventh meeting of the Society and the tough course proved a good test.

Garay Nelson was the monthly champion with an excellent score of 32 slableford points.

Monmouth Golf Club will host its last meeting of 2012 on Friday, October 12, tee off 12.45pm.