Seniors kept busy

Seniors’ vice captain Colin Paddon, partnered by John Townsend, led the way in Sidmouth’s home match against Axe Cliff and, as usual the preparation on the first tee was limited to turning the upper body clockwise an inch or two plus bending down to place the ball on the tee peg.

No doubt as a result, our first drives can go anywhere, but Axe Cliff’s Brian Whiting had the advantage of hitting his tee shot across the 18th green and onto the practice putting green. Fortunately, our professional Chris Haigh happened to be there and was able to give Brian some sound advice before he played his second shot.

Despite this, Sidmouth’s pair controlled the game and were dormie 5 up before losing the 14th and drawing the 15th for a comfortable 4 and 3 win.

Tony Crow and John Bainbridge were next off and the visitors were giving six shots to John playing off 21 handicap until he remembered he had been cut to 19.

It isn’t that easy for us seniors to retain facts such as passwords, pin numbers and handicaps you know. A tough game was contested keenly to the last and a draw was a fair result. Barry Jones and I were playing our first game together and, in a honeymoon atmosphere, took a six hole lead at the turn before a spirited fight back from the visitors was finally overcome for our 5 and 4 win on the par three 14th.

The next game was a tough one, with David Lane and Trevor Bradley struggling to keep in touch with strong opponents.

However, they edged in front when Trevor halved the 16th with one of his eight shots and David won the next leaving everything down to the last.

I did manage to get a picture of the tense scene as Trevor casually knocked in the winning putt. David Bromage and Bob Cook faced a hard task next, evidenced by Axe Cliff’s Bryan Dale off 22 handicap carding a birdie on the par three 11th.

Bryan was receiving a shot on the hole, but clearly didn’t need it, although David and Bob triumphed in the end with a 2 and 1 victory.

The last game featured Colin Mitchell and Brian Le Masurier receiving shots from the visitors, and a 4 and 3 win for our pair was probably a likely result on a home course badly in need of rain.

Axe Cliff’s Geoff Hughes felt he could take comfort from his precise chip in on the 13th although our vice captain did point out that it was for a 9 on the par 5.

Another great day on the course was again followed by an excellent dinner for both teams in the clubhouse.

Result: Sidmouth 5�, Axe Cliff �