A CHEQUE for more than £20,000 was handed over to a children’s charity when the Stoke Park ladies held their end-of-year trophy presentation and annual meeting.

Fiona Devine, the founder of the Alexander Devine Children’s Hospice Service, based in Maidenhead, gratefully accepted £20,671.63 from 2016 captain Julie Cunnah – a sum raised by the ladies’ section throughout the year.

At the awards presentation, it was a red-letter day for Edwina Acheson who was acclaimed as the ladies’ player of the year for 2016.

Cunnah then handed over the captaincy to Christine Connelly, who was given a traditional solid-gold lady captain brooch of the iconic clubhouse.

Connelly’s first job was to step up to the tee to take her first official shot of the year and launch a nine-hole better-ball Stableford. Prizes were awarded for both current active nine-hole routes.

Suzanne Hayes, Annie Allen, Joan Kemble and Sue Dickie stormed holes one to nine with an impressive 44 points.

Slough Observer:

PHOTO: Daisy Kennedy is one of three Stoke Park girl scholars to make the England Golf Under-16 Thames Valley regional squad.

On holes 19-27, an impressive 50 points was recorded by Michelle Leveridge, Caroline Coley, Sue Catton and Natalia Bikkenina to put them six shots clear of the rest of the field.

Stuart Collier is director of golf at Stoke Park. He said: “In a year when the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers made headlines worldwide for its negative approach to women golfers, Stoke Park continues to be a beacon for ladies’ golf. It’s a reputation that stretches right back to its opening in 1908.

“This year has seen several outstanding achievements. The ladies’ team won the Bucks Challenge Shield for a fourth successive year and three of our girl scholars – Thalia Kirby, Daisy Kennedy and Izzy Holmes – have been selected for the England Golf Under-16 Thames Valley regional squad.

“Just as importantly for the club and its lady members, Stoke Park was one of the few clubs in England to participate in the worldwide Women’s Golf Day in the summer.

“Last year’s captain, Cunnah, is the first in the club’s history to progress from academy beginner to lady captain, a transition she made in just nine years.

“She should be rightly proud of not just that achievement, but in everything else the ladies section has achieved under her captaincy, including of course that phenomenal sum for a very worthwhile cause.”

E-MAIL your sports news, reports and pictures to rob.stevens@newsquest.co.uk to feature inside the Observer.