Pamela and Barbara only East vets at Belvoir Park in Belfast

Only two East Vets are playing in the Senior British Ladies' Stroke-play Championship at Belvoir Park in Belfast. Pamela Williamson (Baberton) and Barbara Biggart (North Berwick) have completed Round 1 in fairly horrible conditions where the remnants of Hurricane Katia are making playing conditions very difficult. Noreen Fenton (Dunbar) and West Vets, Helen Faulds and Jennifer Mack were unable to get across to belfast from either Troon or Cairnryan, when the ferries were all cancelled due to the dangerous high seas and disappointingly had to withdraw from the competition.

Conditions today deteriorated as the day went on. Pamela managed to bring in an 82 which leaves her in joint 18th position in a high class field. Best Scot at present is Heather Anderson (Blairgowrie) with 81. Pamela was only three above par after nine holes but the increased tempo of the wind clearly made it so much more difficult to hole the putts and she dropped seven shots in the second half. However, she did have two's at both the eighth and fourteenth holes. One of her playing partners, Catherine Reilly, also had a two at the fourteenth but went one better with a hole in one two holes later at the 16th which does wonders for anyone's score! The players in joint 40th position will all qualify for the third round so Pamela is in a comfortable position going into her second round tomorrow.

Barbara is at present in joint 49th position. Going out much later in the day, she unfortuunately hit the more severe weather and had an 87. She also had a birdie two at the 14th but ran up rather more bogeys than pars. The last few holes were particularly difficult in the "brutal" conditions so Barbara, as did most of the competitors, found the finishing stretch more than a little tough. Apart from the birdie at the 14th, she had no pars in the second nine. However tomorrow is set to be a little calmer so fingers crossed for a sparkling score tomorrow for both our players.

Leading score and Scottish scores.

75 Jane Rees(Wales)
81 Heather Anderson(Blairgowrie)
82 Pamela Williamson(Baberton), Mary Smith(Tain)
84 Lorna Bennett(Ladybank)
85 Anne Ryan(Tain)
87 Barbara Biggart(North Berwick)
89 Kathleen Sutherland(Royal Montrose), Alison Bartlett(Royal Dornoch)
91 Janice Paterson(Drumpellier)