Following the recent postponement of the Baters Removals Medal due to bad weather, the re-arranged date last Saturday at Sidmouth Golf Club could not have been a better day for golf, with unaccustomed sunshine for most of the day, little wind and a course recovering from the recent deluges.

However, in spite of the good conditions, the scores were generally not very good, although some of the better players were able to take advantage of the drying course which proved lengthy for the higher handicapped players.

In Division 1 there were two good scores of 70 from Kevin Legg and Martyn White, with Legg’s nett 65 just taking the top prize from White’s net 66 by virtue of having a five handicap as opposed to White’s four handicap.

This was a good result for Legg who is now one of the most consistent low handicapped players in the club and rarely seems to have a bad round. White is also having a good year and looks like he will be reducing his handicap even further as the year continues.

In third place with another nett 66 and just losing out on a countback, was David Bater, who no doubt just eased off on the last hole with a disastrous seven to save the embarrassment of winning the Medal competition kindly sponsored by his family’s company.

Division 2 was won by John Game with a nett 64. Game has recently increased his handicap to 12, but on this form should be back down to his accustomed position fairly soon.

Second was Terry O’Brien who had a nett 65 off his 12 handicap and continues to play steady golf in most of the competitions, but now has to do so off an 11 handicap.

Third was Wilf Hudson who had a nett 66 and also a handicap reduction to 15.

In Division 3 the top prize went to Simon Emerson with nett 68 with Greg Wilmington never far from the prizes with a nett 71. Bob Skelly came third with a nett 74.

The improved weather produced some much higher scores in the Charles Stanley Monday Stableford played at Sidmouth Golf Club, writes John Rockey.

However, the round from Justin Meads stood head and shoulders above the rest when he came in with a 10 under par 46 points. Just to show it was no fluke, he got 23 points on each nine. Meads will not see his 24 handicap again for a long while and now plays off 20. Second, five points behind, was Michael Knight, whose 41 points were good enough to get a handicap reduction to six by virtue of his eagle on 13 and birdie on 14 which qualified for a reduction on the Exceptional Score Reduction category! Knight managed to get the nod over Greg Fowler who got third place on a countback and with his good score a handicap reduction to 12.

In the seniors’ section the top prize went to Ken Price with 39 points who beat off the challenge of Jerry Dewhurst (second) and Glyn Hewitt (third) who both had 38 points and had to be separated by a countback.

Things were almost back to normal in the Friday League at Sidmouth Golf Club as George Barber brushed off the disappointment of only a third place in last week’s competition.

He won with 39 points and with victory came a reduction in his handicap to 13.

The highlight of Barber’s round was having consecutive twos on the 14th and 15th holes which secured his victory over Marc Shoobridge.

Shoobridge also collected consecutive birdies, but these were on the 15th and 16th holes which helped him get a good total of 38 points.

Proving that his win in last week’s Mixed Open was not solely down to his partner, Neil Faulkner came in third with a solid score of 36 points to just edge out Steve Crabb on a countback. Crabb’s 36 points after 17 holes looked good enough to get him third place, but a blob on the last ensured that he had to be content with fourth place.

In the race for the Friday League title, Shoobridge takes over first place on 58 points, just ahead of Chris Roberts on 57 points, with Mark Lavers, John Jones and Barber closing in fast after a slow start.