The annual seniors versus ladies competition was held at Sidmouth with Anne Blackler the lady captain and John Bainbridge the seniors captain choosing their best pairings, writes Gill Paddon.

This is a friendly fixture which the ladies of the club anticipate winning and the men lie awake at night with the fear of losing.

To even matters up the ladies receive extra shots, including an extra one for narrowly losing last year.

In several matches it was not unusual for the ladies to be receiving an extra 10 or more shots, this may have accounted for some seniors approaching their ball with trepidation, indeed, the first hole is often played appallingly and often lost or halved in eight or nine.

We played a Greensome format where everyone drives and the best drive from each team is chosen, from then on only one ball per team is played with alternate shots until the ball is in the hole.

When playing individually the men would be expected to hit the ball further and the extra shots which the ladies receive should make up for this difference in ability.

However, such is the male need to win that they find themselves suddenly trying too hard, or indeed trying to impress their lady opponents, which often leads them to miss- hit easy shots.

Marian Thomas and Linda Reynolds were paired with David Roberts and Brian Skittrall, on the third, the marker post was blocking Thomas’s shot, Roberts being the perfect gentleman lay the marker post on the ground out of the way but to no avail, Thomas swung the club, hit the ball and the marker post!

Terry Blackler and Jim Shearer were a good pairing, the combination of Shearer’s long game and Blackler’s short game worked well, Blackler was holing putts all the way round, making it look so easy.

Their match against Gill Paddon and Sheila Skittrall was nip and tuck until the 18th, Blackler’s shot to the green was just too good and too long and much to the delight of Paddon and Skittrall the ball went right through the green into the rough and the girls won the match.

The overall match was won by the seniors 8-3 which means that the ladies will receive seven courtesy shots next year.

On Ladies Day we played for the Moore Cup in conjunction with an LGU Medal and Yvonne Anning was the winner continuing her run of good form, scoring a net 75.

The runner up was Julie Lye with a net 78, Lye also had the lowest gross. Maria Clapp won division two with a net 82.

The results reflect the difficult conditions and Anning was actually thinking of walking in, because she felt it was so bad.

Obviously the moral of the story is never give up there is always someone who is playing much worse than you! Anning will have to rent a trailer when it comes to prize-giving to carry home all her Trophies and Cups. Well done Yvonne!!