On Saturday, the players at Sidmouth Golf Club competed for the Craig Melluish Tiling monthly medal, writes John Barnard.

Played over three Divisions and on a course that is playing relatively hard due to the drought conditions and cold wind. Couple with some tricky pin positions, it made for a difficult day when a relatively few had great rounds and the rest of us struggled.

Paul Hitchcock won Division One with a remarkable gross 67, nett 60 score.

He won by a clear five shots and built his round with regular birdies, on holes one, nine, 13 and 17, and a number of pars with only a double bogie on the seventh to mess things up a little.

Lee Wenham was in second place with a nett 65. He has just bought new irons and was trying them out for the first time and they allowed him to play solid golf with plenty of pars and just the one birdie, on the 11th.

Showing how difficult the course was playing David Cowler as third with a nett 69, not usually a score to get into the prizes in Division One!

In Division Two, Pat McCormack continued his recent excellent form with a nett 62, returning him to a handicap that more reflect his standard of play.

The two most vicious pin positions were on holes three and eight and pat suffered scoring an eight and a seven on these two holes, but three birdies and some steady golf still gave him a great score.

In second place and hoping to win his own competition was Craig Melluish himself!

He also double bogied holes three and seven but a lots of pars gave him a nett 63, often enough to win. Bob Webber was third with a nett 67, beating Kym White on countback

In Division Three, Mike Davis won with a nett 67. After a difficult start, he then managed a ‘Desmond’ on holes five and six (two, twos!) and then kept it steady over the back nine. Andy Truscott was second with a nett 68 and John Nicolle managed a nett 69 for third.