CLAIRE STARKIE has become the youngest winner of the Bradford Ladies Championship.

Claire, 17, took the title at Keighley Golf Club last week with some superb golf. She was top qualifier in the strokeplay section of the competition which whitled the field down to eight for two knockout rounds.

In the first knockout ropund Claire, a member of Silsden Golf Club, beat Jackie Barraclough of East Bierley 5 & 3 and secured a 3 & 2 vicory over Carol Firth of Bingley St Ives in the final.

This week she has been taking part in the English Girls Championship where she qualified 11th out of 136 competitors in th strokeplay section , but was then beaten on the last hole of the first knockout round.

Next week she heads to Scotland for British Girls Championship which starts on Tuesday.

Claire has just completed he A-Level studies at Skipton Girls High School and is planning to take a year off to concentrate on golf and hopes to gain a place at University in America on a golf scholarship.

The Keighley club was also home to the 52nd Bradford Open Championship on Sunday when high winds and heavy rain tested players early in the day.

A marquee provided by sponsors Thwaites Brewery was blow down in the morning, but event sponsors moved into the clubhouse. While they were taking cover competitors faced a testing time on the course, but winner Simon Bell defied the conditions with rounds of 70 and 73.

"The early conditions were pretty rough but I played solid golf. At one stage I thought I had blown it, but I've been in good form this year and got the shots back," he said.

He was one shot ahead of Andrew Brown of Bingley St Ives and Lee Shepheard of Cleckheaten.

Andy Rhodes was the Keighley Club's top performer shooting rounds of 72 and 73, Andy Utley finished on the same score with rounds of 70 & 75. Teenager Alistair Houldsworth was just a shot behind with a morning round of 74 followed by a 72.

Houldsworth also won the Best Gross prize in the Flixby Junior Open with a 1-over-par 72 to continue the junior section's run of success

Keighley - The Loving Cup Competition , a club wide competition for teams of five selected according to the area in which a member lives, was held on Saturday. The winning team, representing Silsden, with 147 points was: Pauline Luccock, Ian Luccock, Mike O'Neill, Andy Utley and John Whitmarsh. The second best score was 137 points by a team representing Sutton and Eastburn, the team members were Anthony Wilson, Keith Hebden, David Wright, Simon Wright and Richard Watson. The best individual lady not in a winning team was Mavis Pendlebury with 37 points and the best individual man was John Shaw with 40 points.

The Ladies played the Mary Watson Trophy, a 36-hole strokeplay competition. The overall winner was Cheryl Brown 83-11-72 and 84-11-73. The best morning round was Branda Northrop 88-17-71 and the best afternoon round was Pauline Brook 85-12-73.

Riddlesden - The Ladies Cyril Hoare Trophy was won by Mrs Cynthia Brogan (38 points, with Mrs Sharon Heap (34) in second place.

July Medal results Division One: 1 Jonathan Whitley 69-9-60; 2 Andy Salaniyk 69-9-60; 3 James McLean 73-12-61. Division Two: 1 Steve Bradshaw 74-13-61, 2 Richard Brown 77-15-62, 3 Gerry Pearson 77-14-63. Division Three: 1 Phil Earle 84-28-56, 2 Martin Trowers 84-26-58, 3 Alan Gordon 85-23-63.