GOLF: O'Connor holds on to title

6:49pm Wednesday 23rd April 2008

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Katherine O'Connor cruised to victory in the BB&O Girls Championship at her home course Tadmarton Heath.

O'Connor, 18, finished five shots ahead of Beaconsfield's Charlotte Nutt to make up for losing her Oxfordshire ladies title the previous week.

Victory saw the one-handicapper become the first Oxon girl to retain the title.

O'Connor, who has also been the Oxfordshire girls champion for the past three years, started with seven straight pars and held her advantage throughout.

Despite the conditions, Tadmarton Heath proved to be a perfect venue for the event with the tight fairways and fast greens making the course a real challenge.

• Eddie Pepperell's succession of near-misses in top amateur events continued when he lost a play-off in the Peter McEvoy Trophy at Copt Heath.

The promising 17-year-old from Drayton Park, who had led by a shot going into the final round of this leading boys tournament, fired a one-over-par 73 to finish tied with Sunningdale's Stiggy Hodgson.

At the first extra hole, the Abingdon youngster drove into a bunker and hit his next shot out of bounds, to leave Hodgson, who had shot a final-round 68, as the winner.

With the second round reduced to nine holes because of the weather, Pepperell, who had finished third in the Berkhamsted Trophy earlier in the month, shot 69, 34, 74, 73 for a two-over-par tolal of 250.

He had led for much of the final round, but bogeyed the 16th hole and needed a birdie at the last to force a play-off.

Afterwards he said: "It was so up and down all day, and I had holed no putts bar that at the last."