New member Sophie Clare Knott accepted an invitation from Women’s Club champion Ali Ord to play her first Canterbury GC competition in Saturday’s 15-hole Weekend October Medal - and won!

Clare Knott had played only two previous practice rounds at the club after joining in August but left 10th-placed Ord and 12 others in the shade by scoring 74, net 56, to win by two shots.

With the 11-13 holes loop out of action due to path works, she was 10-over-par on her front nine, with a birdie at the fifth, and covered the back six in four-over.

Second-placed Val Binns was five-over before running up a triple bogey at the 15th for 70, net 58. Jen Rutherford birdied the seventh with seven pars and seven bogeys for 66, net 60, and third.

Clare Knott said: “I’m thrilled to have won my first competition at Canterbury; I certainly wasn’t expecting it.

“I was introduced to Ali by a mutual friend and we’ve struck up a friendship. She said: ‘Do you want to come and play?’ and I jumped at the chance.

“I had a nine on the seventh and had a lovely drive, but the second shot went into the trees on the left and I couldn’t find it.

“But I birdied the fifth with a 7 iron off the tee and sank a 12-foot putt and my driving was very good. I had an 8 iron for my second shot on the sixth, which didn’t quite get on, and then I chipped on and putted in from eight foot.

“On nine, again, I had a big second shot, chipped to just off the green at the back and putted down to a foot away. And on 16, I hit my drive 200 yards, was just off the green with a 7 iron, chipped up to six feet and sank it.

“Then, on 18, I was just off the back of the green in three, I chipped up and went long, and putted it down and close.”

Dean Edmunds liked that Canterbury winning feeling so much he did it twice.

“New York, New York,” quipped Edmunds after scoring 34 points to win last Wednesday’s 15-hole Men’s Midweek Stableford competition, a week after he had tasted victory at the club for the first time in almost five years of trying.

Edmunds covered the front nine in two-under-par, with birdies at the first, fourth and eighth, five pars and a tap-in par miss at the fifth for 23 points.

He parred the 10th and 18th and had four bogeys on his back six for 11 to win by three in a field of 52.

James Shore made five pars, two bogeys, one double and a no-score on the fifth to reach the turn with 18 points and came back with 13 from three pars and three bogeys, to take second on countback from Jon Webb, who had 19 out and 12 back.

Edmunds said: “It’s like buses, nothing happens and then two come along.

“I let a couple go on the back nine, two-under front nine and it could have been better.

“On the first, I hit a driver and a 7 iron from about 190 downwind to just off the green and putted close from about 30 feet.

“On the second, I had a 16-foot birdie putt that was a couple of inches shy and, on the third, I had a 12-foot putt and just missed.

“I hit a good 3 wood off the tee on four, had 147 into the flag, hit an 8 iron and made a 20 footer.

“My putting was really good, almost everything I thought I could make went in or just missed.

“On five, it was probably an 18 footer to leave a tap-in par. I lined it up and missed from 12 inches, it just came off the putter face wrong.

“I didn’t let it faze me and, on six, I had a birdie putt from probably 16 feet and it was tracking towards the hole and came up two inches shy.

“On eight, I hit a 9 iron into wind, it was playing about 127 to a front red flag just over the bunker and it went straight at it to about eight feet and the putt went in.”

Jack Owen was another first time winner at Canterbury when he scared up 29 points to win the juniors’ 15-hole Halloween Stableford event on Saturday.

He was out with 17 points and back with 12 to win by one point from Harry Andrews, who failed to score on the first and double-bogeyed the 16th but otherwise scored 10 pars and three bogeys for 28.

Third-placed Louis Garvey had 17 on the front nine, with a birdie at the seventh and 10 on his back nine.

Kate Jain scored her sixth win this year when she totalled 75, net 54, to win last Wednesday’s 15-hole Women’s October Medal by three shots.

She was three-over-par after seven holes, before dropping 12 shots on her last eight, to win from Claire Wilson from a field of 17.

Wilson scored three pars and 12 bogeys for 72, net 57, and second by one from Gemma Luckhurst 78, net 58.

John Dodd scored his first individual win of the year when he tallied 29 points in Monday’s 13-hole Seniors’ Stableford competition.

Dodd ticked up three pars, five bogeys and one double for a front-nine 19 and, with the 14th and 15th additionally shut for path works, he added 10 on the back four.

He holed four four-foot putts for three-point pars to win overall by two from Phil Johnson, who had seven pars and six bogeys for 27 and second from a field of 62.

Hugh Greenwood birdied the fifth for four points and a total of 26 for third on countback from Tim Jakob, who birdied the second, Sam Plews, Nick Shearman and seventh-placed Division 2 winner John Whiting.

Dodd said: “I scored 40 points two or three times during the summer and never won, so I was pleased. It was just one of those days when everything clicked into place.”