ALLIANCE president Jim Crompton might have started at the back of the field, but he came to the fore at Ogden in the latest Halifax, Huddersfield meeting.
The Marsden professional and his partner, club captain David Braithwaite, were in the final fourball on the course.
But amid fading light and with the organisers planning a three-way split for the professional prize, Crompton upstaged his fellow pros by a single point, finishing with 36 to take the honours.
Half-an-hour earlier home pro David Delaney and Tony Gerard had come in with 35 points to match the score of Crow Nest Park’s Paul Everitt and Dean Wilson from earlier in the day, and then when Willow Valley’s Lee Shepherd and John Shaw became the third pairing to come home late in the afternoon with the same score, it looked like a three-way tie.
In the Alliance it is traditional for the professionals to share the first and second prizes in the event of a tie, rather than determine positions on countback, as happens in Am-Am.
A big supporter of the Alliance, Crompton, who took over as President from Nick Hirst and is now in his second year, claimed his first win of the season and was delighted with his partner Braithwaite, who bagged a net eagle on the 375-yard par four sixth.
Undoubtedly the round of the day came from the Am-Am winners, Dewsbury pairing Jim Horner and Alan Curley, who despite being second out and having to endure the worst of the rain and howling wind, came in with a tremendous score of 42 points.
Both Horner, off 11, and Curley (7) had four pointers against their names, Horner having a three for a two on the 265-yard 12th, while Curley responded on the next hole with a four for a three on the 525-yard 13th.
Second place in the amateurs went to Independent Fixby members Mick Dempsey (12) and Peter Newey (14), who carded 40 points to just edge out the Davison brothers from Ogden, Darren and Jez, with a better back three after the two pairings had almost identical halves.
The next meeting is at Dewsbury on November 6.
Crompton’s victory puts him second in the Professionals Order of Merit, behind Hebden Bridge’s David Astin, who won the opening two events but failed to get a point at Ogden.
