MARCUS Ballard is the new club captain at Harwich and Dovercourt Golf Club.

He was voted in at the club's well-attended annual meeting last Friday.

After his acceptance speech, he conducted the election for the incoming committee and his vice-captain, Phil Elwood.

Saturday saw the annual captain's drive-in competition and there was a total of 93 players.

The fine, dry and sunny conditions led to some excellent stableford scores being returned.

Katie Burrows produced a very impressive winning score of 47 points.

This has resulted in a five-shot reduction of her handicap.

In second place was Charlie Steel, with 39 points, and in third was Steve Lyons, with 38.

Marcus Armstrong won the men's longest drive competition.

Kate Fender won the equivalent ladies' contest.

Nearest the pin for the men was Jeff Woodgate.

Burrows won the ladies' nearest the pin.

Prior to the presentation, the captain had to attend to one of his first duties - the traditional drive-in tee shot from the first tee.

Eric Bushell won the prize for correctly predicting where this shot would end.

On Sunday, the club hosted Langdon Hills Golf Club in the first round of the Thornton Cup.

In the morning, there were five foursome matches.

After winning four of these and halving one, Harwich had a healthy lead going into the afternoon singles.

The result of these ten matches was a 5½-4½ victory, so the overall score was 10-5 to Harwich.

The team was Gillett, Matt Adams, Neil Blackburn, Eric Bushell, Phil Elwood, Stuart Henshall, Tom Neale, Luke Parr, Nick Rate and Jordan Slater.

They now look forward to the next round on May 7.