Sadler Rides the Berkshire Breeze to Victory
The wind takes its toll at The Berkshire – (surely stunted, ed) pic by Dylan Dronfield. Words by Nev Appleton.
Making his PGS debut, Crispin Sadler battled the weather to claim The Sun Challenge Trophy at The Berkshire.
With a newly refurbished clubhouse, The Berkshire hosted a strong PGS field for both morning and afternoon rounds with the usual spectacular lunch seamlessly integrated in-between. The scene was set for a great day and the first scoring event for the 2026 Wryter Cup.
The Berkshire’s Red Course was in stunning condition with lush fairways and fast greens but the weather leading up to and during the day was wet and very windy making it play long and to add to the challenge, the pin positions on every hole seemed to be setup for some serious singles competition.
The only player in a field of 33 to finish with a score in the thirties (31) tells you how hard a day it was but Crispin seemed to dovetail with the weather to finish with a 2 shot lead over Colin Hancock.
He said “Coming to the Berkshire as Storm Amy bore down, and in the company of seasoned hacks and low handicap golfers, was daunting to say the least. But on a delightful course, with good company and virtually no rain (yes a bit windy), my golf came good, although I had no idea I would end up on top of the leaderboard. It’s a great honour for my first outing and hopefully there will be many more to come!”
Crispin won Division 2 ahead of Colin Hancock (29) and Phil Edgar-Jones (26) with Division 1 being claimed by Andy Glen (28) after a three-way countback with Steve Lewis and Ian McIlgorm also on 28.
The afternoon Greensomes playing for the Sir George Sutton Salver was an also unique opportunity for Captain Jamie Weir to try out 15 of his Wryter Cup team and hone their game. With slightly improved weather and much friendlier pin positions scoring was slightly better. However, after some shenanigans with a card not being handed in, the previously awarded third place to Javed and McCormack was soon taken away and handed to Tony Smith and apprentice magician Andrew ‘is this your card’ Porter. Second place, by just one point, was Captain Jamie Weir and Dylan ‘ice baby’ Dronfield, but on the podium once again was Colin Hancock and Benn Todd with 35 points to claim the silverware.
It’s balls out at The Berkshire – pic by Phil Edgar-Jones. F
Following pics thanks to Nick Toksvig, Evan SamuelJonny Bramley, Dylan & Phil!