In clear and crisp weather conditions, the Sidmouth Senior section held their annual Christmas competition, writes Hugh Dorliac.

The format this year was one of individual Medalford – nine holes medal and nine holes stableford, taking the second score from the first to get a resulting score.

Making an excellent fist of it were several players and the leading four places had to be decided on countback as they all finished on a marvellous 14 points each.

Thus, it was that the winner this year was Chris Ashley, closely followed of course by John Billingsley, Richard Seaver and Doug Goodall.

Geoff Stone came fifth on 15. There were two ‘Nearest the Pin’ prizes and they were won by Vernon Ruffle, on the fourth (Vernon winning a bottle of whisky) and outgoing seniors’ captain Tony Stoyle on the 12th, and Tony took home a bottle of gin. Most welcome prizes coming up to Christmas!

In the evening, the seniors brought their wives and partners along to the Christmas dinner, where, after an excellent meal, their new captain Chris Grubb was invested for the coming year.

In turn, Chris handed outgoing captain Tony Stoyle a memento of his year, an inscribed, framed photo of the golf course, featuring the first green overlooking Lyme Bay.

Tony looks forward to a relaxing time after a year which started with incessant wet weather followed by a baking hot summer.

Chris says he is really looking forward to his year in office and hopes all the seniors will enjoy their golf in the coming months.

? There was a close contest throughout the latest Friday Stableford meeting.

Chairman John Barnard played very well to win with an excellent 40 points, edging Nick Gingell into second place on countback with Neil Holland, who returned a score of 38, taking third place.

With three-man teams being asked to record one score on the first hole, two on the second and three on the third and repeat, the Sunday Winter Waltz saw a clear leader in the current league results.

On 82 points, some 10 points over par, were Geoff Lory, Neil Holland and Paul Renken.

Six points adrift were Kevin Howe, Hugh Dorliac and Sean Murphy on 76 with Jonathan Lee, Dave Richards and Mark Thomas in third on 70 points.

This week’s Monday stableford was won by Burgoyne Cup winner Ben Gibbs, with a creditable 38 points given the weather.

Second was Steve Crabb on 36 with JP Lee in third on 34.