Report by Noel Hoppe.
Leonay Golf Club played host to the penultimate Western Sydney Veteran Golfers Association Interclub Challenge for 2026 in the warm spring sunshine last Tuesday and made good use of their home course knowledge by taking out all but one of the major individual prizes available.
Katherine Hadley led the way for Leonay, recording an impressive 43 stableford points (the equal highest on the day) to win the women’s B Grade contest ahead of Dunheved’s Elaine Williams (39 on countback).
The other best score of the day also went to the ladies with Shirley Owen taking out the women’s A Grade section of the competitions with 43. Following was Leonie Manczak for Richmond with 37 points.
In the men’s A Grade Mark Blackburn and Peter McFarlane, both members of Leonay, finished equal on 37 points – Mark taking the top prize on a countback. Neil Johnston snuck into third place with 36 (on a countback) ensuring Penrith got amongst the prizewinners.
It was Leonay again in the men’s B Grade contest with Graeme Parker’s 41 points getting him home just ahead of John Pagett from Dunheved on 40 and Penrith’s Ian Napier in third with 39 points.
Leonay again in C Grade for the men, with Mark White leading on 39 points. Wallacia’s Ian Gibson secured second place on a countback over Joe Ornelas (Leonay) after both finished with 37 points.
While Leonay dominated the individual prizes they were outgunned in the 2BBB events.
The best 2 ball score of the day was recorded by Noel Hoppe and Christine Hoppe (Wallacia), a total of 49 was enough for them to take out the Medley 2BBB ahead of Marrick Jones and Sharon Blacklock representing Richmond who finished with 48 points and getting the prize on a countback.
The men’s 2BBB was just as close and almost as high scoring with the Springwood pairing of Rick Paynter and Jonathan Grosse amassing a total of 48 points to edge out Glen Brown and Ian Wright (Dunheved) who gained second place on a countback.
With only one round to go the Club of the Year and Player of the Year competitions are very close – Except in the ladies Player of the Year.
The points for Player of the Year are the player’s 3 best individual stableford scores over the eight rounds of competition.
In the ladies, Carmen Salkeld representing Richmond Golf Club has a handy lead of 8 points over fellow Richmond member Sharon Blacklock. Richmond are also in third position with Carolyn Lozier on 102. Julies Berg (Penrith, 99) Dorothy Wilmington (Glenmore, 98) and Christine Hoppe (Wallacia, 98) round out the top group.
The men’s competition is extremely close, especially as three of the leading four are from Wallacia Golf Club and so cannot score points at their home course.
After 7 of the 8 rounds of competition, the men’s Player of the Year has Bobby Lees (Wallacia) leading with 112 points. Just behind is Peter Cromer, also Wallacia, with 111. Lai Jayawardane intrudes on a trio with 109, ahead of Noel Hoppe (Wallacia) on 109.
Also with a chance are Sean O’Shea (Dunheved, 106), John Pagett (Dunheved, 105), Glenn Brown (Dunheved, 105), Glenn Vine (Wallacia, 1050 and Graham Anderson (105).
All the best to all players and teams at Wallacia on October 16th.