THE Rookery Winter Quads Greensome produced an SW victory march. Simon West paired up with Shaun Winney to score 40 points and gain a narrow win. Their round started with a spectacular birdie when a precision iron shot by Winney was sandwiched between a long drive and a sound 4ft putt by West.

THE Rookery Winter Quads Greensome produced an SW victory march.

Simon West paired up with Shaun Winney to score 40 points and gain a narrow win. Their round started with a spectacular birdie when a precision iron shot by Winney was sandwiched between a long drive and a sound 4ft putt by West.

The rest of the round depended on the steady golf of Winney, with West playing the odd good shot just when it was needed, especially long putts. In general, West rated it as one of the worst games he has ever played, with only three out of his 18 tee shots being used.

On the 10th hole he had to play a good drive by his partner and hit it just ten feet, straight under his opponent's caddy cart. Somehow the pair rescued a six for five points. The final 'salt in the wound' for West came when, despite his poor golf, his handicap was cut by three shots.

It meant that his handicap has been cut by nine strokes in just ten months and he now plays off 17. He believes that having his handicap cut so drastically in such a short time is the biggest mystery since he finished a round of golf recently only to find that his car had suddenly caught fire and burned out whilst he was playing on the course.

His partner, Shaun Winney, is now down to 10 and is hoping to press for a place in the Tolly team.

They were both pleased to beat the pair they played with, Hambro and Stenson stars Chris Lay and his son Matt, who repeatedly knocked his drives some 50 yards past theirs.

They were also especially pleased to beat their friends Paul Perry and Joe O'Dwer, who took second place on a countback from Ralph Flatt and a resurrected Bo Bidle and Robert McGill with Nigel Wigg. All scored 39 points.

Star junior Luke Thompson cursed his luck in finishing second to a young rival in both of the recent Mid-Week Stablefords. In both cases, however, he was well beaten, finishing four shots behind winner Chris Soanes in one competition and three shots behind Ben Wallis in the other.

Chris Lay, as the new Stenson and Hambro captain, intends to pair the top youngsters with the more experienced golfers. He expects respect for the team ethos by all of those selected and any players not having the good manners to stay on for the after match speeches will be axed from the squad.

David Batley