Lisburn win Bradbury Cup in close contest at Dunmurry

George Gillespie, Captain of Dunmurry, right, presents the Bradbury Cup to Peter Cairns, Vice Captain of Lisburn.

This competition is held between teams of 25 players representing each of the four clubs, Balmoral, Dunmurry, Lisburn and Malone with the top 15 cards from each club counting. This was a closely contested event with only 11 points separating the top team score from the bottom team score.

The Lisburn top 15 cards amounted to 546 stableford points averaging over 36 points per card to secure the Bradbury Cup for them just two points clear of the home club Dunmurry.

The top individual score was 44 points from Patrick Dean of Malone. Michael Black of Dunmurry and Neil Thompson of Lisburn both had 41 points with Michael taking second prize with a better finishing 9 holes. Lisburn also had two players, Trevor Murphy and Paul Watters, each scoring 39 points. The best gross prize for the Lisburn team was won by Norman McNellis.

Another Lisburn team did not fare so well in the first leg of the final held at Castle Hume Golf Club, Enniskillen. All five pairings lost their matches. Jason Smiley and Billy Friars were the only pairing to take their match to the final green where they lost by one hole. The Lisburn team have a mountain to climb to win this final. However, they have turned around a 5-0 score in an earlier round and could do it again in the return leg on Sunday 22nd September.

The Lisburn Seniors team under the captaincy of Marshall McConnell completed their season on Monday in the final round of the MUSA Seniors League at Lurgan. This round played in difficult windy conditions and with tricky pin placements returned much lower scores by all teams across the board. This was the closest ever finish in the 27 years of this competition with 2 points separating first from third. After 10 rounds Portadown finished on top of the league with 1397 points, Downpatrick second with 1396 points and Lisburn third with 1395 points. Best score for Lisburn on the final day was Derek McAfee with 39 points.

On 11th September, Tom Jeffers (9) won the Wednesday Stableford event with 41 pts. The weekend medal play competition was won by Stephen Wilkinson (20) with a net 65. Ryan Symington also had a gross 71 to take the gross prize.