BRAINTREE had to battle hard to win their second round Thornton Cup tie with Upminster at Stisted.

The visitors held the early advantage in the morning foursomes, before the tide turned in Braintree's favour.

First pair out, Ed Fullalove and Paul Buchan recovered from three-down with four holes to play to earn a half.

om McGee and James Hedger turned round a two-hole deficit to win and further successes came for Matt Sanders and Jon Earl, Anthony Little and Martin Hawes, and Jack Jordan and Adam Crane.

Trailing 4½-½, Upminster began the afternoon singles strongly, but Buchan’s four and three win gave Braintree a precious point towards the four they needed for victory.

Upminster closed the gap to one point with four victories, however, Sanders turned his game round, leaving Braintree requiring one and a half points from the last four games.

Eventually, Braintree prevailed with Crane, Jordan, Hedger and Hawes all winning through in close encounters in a 10½-4½ victory.

Braintree staged a highly-successful inaugural Golf Classic at Stisted, sponsored by a number of companies including Greene King IPA, Braintree Physiotherapy Clinic and GC Executive Cars, with 88 members and guests competing.

Mor than £2,700 was raised for the club’s Development Fund.

A fourball betterball competition with the best two scores to count was won by The A Team of Paul Buchan, Terry Fisher, Steve Hockley and Andy Wiffin with 81 points.

They beat the Forest Homecare four of Frank Ladkin, Paul Willis, Robert Potter and Will Beckwith on countback, while third was the Greene King IPA line-up of Stephen Adams, Richard Butler, Derek Pettigrew and Craig Osborne with 80 points.

There were two subsidiary competitions involving chipping and putting, the former being won by The A Team, while Bunk Hotels 1 won the putting.

The mens’ Saturday stableford was won by Alasdair Groves with 40 points as he finished a point ahead of Tony Craven, with James Hedger third with 37.

The Sunday stableford brought victory for Geoff Goodwin on countback from Steven Hocley after both had 39 points.

Four players returned 36 points and after another countback James Bussell took third ahead of Kristian Fulljames, Roger George and Robert Jiggins.

The ladies' midweek stableford produced a clear winner in Carolyn Harris with 42 points.

Second was Mary Goodwin with 36, while Sue Halls pipped Amanda Jones on countback for third after both had 34.