This week I would like to start by paying tribute to Neil Gamble. The former Exeter School headmaster stood down as chairman of Sidmouth Cricket Tennis and Croquet Club earlier in the year.

At the club AGM last week Fionn Wardrop spoke about Neil after his remarkable 16-year tenure as chairman of the club. He went on to say that Neil had left the club in a far better place than he found it.

As a small gesture of the club’s thanks Neil was presented with a framed aerial photograph of the ground taken by local photographer Kyle Baker.

Continuing the sporting theme, I went over the border to Wellington last Saturday to support Sidmouth Rugby Club 1st XV who were defeated by 20 points to 12. A feature of the game was the number of injuries and subsequently the amount of added time that had to be played. One disappointing aspect for me was a small section of the Wellington crowd found it necessary to boo as our fly half ran up to attempt a conversion. I sincerely hope this was a one off but it did leave a bit of a sour taste on what was a glorious autumn afternoon.


A friend has asked me to mention the turnstones that are once again gathering on Sidmouth seafront. He has counted 13 of them in a flock and thought it would be interesting to see if this number increased. With the mild weather it is quite likely that a number of them have not yet returned from their summer breeding grounds in Greenland, Iceland and Scandinavia.

On the weather front I understand that a mini tornado hit the Regency Gate area of the town last week. Apparently it did damage to some roofs in the area and a garden shed roof was blown off and landed in a neighbour’s garden. I saw it reported that for 5 minutes the rain was as intense as any ever recorded in Sidmouth.

I was lucky enough to travel to Portugal last week and I must say the Covid regulations that you have to go through at the moment are quite exhausting! This started with a PCR test which you can also take as an antigen test. Before you leave you have to complete a passenger locator form for Portugal and whilst you’re in Portugal you have to complete a passenger locator form to return to the UK. After returning you have to have a PCR test that you book before you go away. Some countries do accept the double vaccination certificate from the UK but Portugal is amongst the countries that don’t accept it. Perhaps it is therefore not surprising that a lot of tourists are choosing to go to Spain rather than Portugal at the present time.

At Sidmouth Golf Club last week The King of Chit, Kym White, was successful in the Digger Cup. This is an annual bogey competition (if you don’t know what a bogey competition is I suggest you google it as I haven’t got enough room to explain it here!) There is no doubt that his golfing form seems to have improved dramatically since starting his two year reign!

On the property front, at the time of writing, there are only 6 sold prices showing in EX10 on the internet for June and nothing for July or August. Expect a barrage of completions to show on the Land Registry website soon!

Finally I would like to make a request through the columns of this paper to ask people to please pick up after their dog has done it’s business. We have had a number of incidents in Connaught Road recently and I’m sure this is also true in other areas of the town. At the same time can we thank those who do pick up. These responsible dog owners undoubtedly form the large majority.