MARK Thompson conjured up a brilliant winning round to take the first competition of the summer season at Cleobury Mortimer Golf Club.

He overhauled Jem Jones at the front of the leaderboard to land the honours by just a single point.

The weather was far from summery, with heavy rain in the week leading up to the event leaving the ground heavy and the ball didn't travel as far as normal.

Stuart Humphries and Andy Young both continued their great form to card 38-point scores. However that was only good enough for them to finish in third and fourth place respectively.

Jones made a mockery of the tough conditions on his way to a huge 44 points. He admitted that his wedge play with his Titleist Vokeys was the key to such an impressive score.

With 44 points to beat, everyone else felt they were just playing for second place. But the last group out had other ideas, and Thompson excelled in recording a huge 26 points from the front nine and then 19 from the back nine to finish on 45 and pip Jones for the win.

Thompson was thrilled with the victory.

He said: “My aim is to get my handicap cut this year and this is a great start. I played very solidly and didn’t miss a fairway.”