IT WAS a shame that after one of the hottest summers ever on record that the weather for Keswick Golf Club's Finals day on Saturday turned out to be probably the wettest day of the season.

It was a particularly hard day for Ian Pettigrew and Matthew Airey. They contested the 36-hole club championship with both rounds played in wet and windy conditions. Ian won 4 and 3.

The rest of the finals were all played over 18 holes in the afternoon. In the first of these Steve Grogan won the handicap championship for the second year running when he ended three up on John Hartshorn.

It was a disappointing week for John who last week met six handicapper Bob Thornton in the final of the seniors knockout, Bob winning for the second year running 5 and 4.

For the second year running the final of the ladies club championship saw Pam Dobinson and Janette Messenger in an exciting match that ended with Pam winning by 4 and 3.

Lesley Kitto partnered Sheila Simey to win the Marchbank Trophy beating Judy Figg and Margaret Hayes 3 and 2. Val Simpson and Helen Charlton contested the Bronze Scratch Championship for the coveted Rose Bowl with Val winning 2 and 1.

The last match of the day was the mixed doubles final that was won by husband and wife Attilio and Sharon Savasi. They won the final against Peter Terry and Carolyn Davis.

The winners were a team that teed off at 11.30am and they deserve great credit for returning such a high score for this event in which the best three Stableford scores on each hole have to count.

While the field included competitors from clubs throughout Cumbria and the Borders it was no surprise that local knowledge proved the decisive factor with teams either led by or made up solely of Keswick members taking the first six places.

First place went to the Keswick quartet of Barry Gaskell, Chris Robinson, Martin Bell and Gary Todhunter playing as The Royal Males with 115 points.

In second place with 104 points came The Four Swingers made up of Craig Yerkess, Bernard Riley, Grant Doherty and Steve Birkbeck. Third with 103 points were The Motherby Mafia led by Ian Rogerson and including Nick Curry, Steve Barnes and Keith Burns.

The next two teams both scored 102 points with the places being decided on countback. Attilio Savasi, Paul Morton, Joe Perruzza and Ian Applin known as The Idiots took fourth place while Shaune Coulthard, Paul Pridmore, Mark Murphy and Alan Smith playing as We Don't Care came fifth.

Sixth place went to Billy Bob Thornton's Dazzlers on 100 points with Bob Thornton being teamed with Keith Downing, Mik Brown and John Mitchell.

A team from Dumfries known as Crichton 2 made up of John Coutts, Lee Sterrit, Bill Herd and Jim Parker finally broke the local domination. They took seventh place with 99 points after countback from Keswick's Richard Dobinson, who was teamed with Fred Harrison, Alan Warwick and Alan Dickinson all from Penrith and known as The Rough Diamonds.

The Fellmen, captained by Tim Cooper travelled to North Lancashire for the furthest of their annual away fixtures at Bentham. The men from Keswick however found the Bentham Seniors to be in excellent form and could not overcome local knowledge going down by 5½ to 2½.

This is cache, read story here