Paul Hitchcock, Sidmouth Golf Club’s new Club Captain, together with the new lady captain, Anne Blackler, have driven in to office, writes John Rockey.

They marked the official start of the golfing year with a drive-in watched and encouraged by about 120 members and friends.

Paul, who has been a member at Sidmouth for over 20 years, has served the club on many committees and was instrumental in the upturn of the club’s junior section as well as one of the driving forces in gaining the ‘Golfmark’ recognition for the course.

Paul is a low handicap golfer who has represented the club in all its major teams.

In 2005 he won the Challenge Cup, which is the premier prize at the club.

Paul has chosen the Devon Air Ambulance Trust as his charity for the year.

The choice recognises the importance of the Trust in serving Devon with unrivalled helicopter hospital transportation for emergency cases.

Paul is now looking forward to a year in which he hopes to expand his representation in club teams, when he joins up with Anne in the forthcoming mixed matches against other clubs.

In the latest of the series of winter four ball better ball competitions, Steve Channing and Moray Boscence won the fourball better-ball with 47 points, writes John Rockey.

The late entrant pairing of Carl Sheehan and Mark Thomas, who scored 45 points, were second, with Graham Davies and Martin Crockett coming in third a further point behind. The win by Boscence brings him up to second place with 37 points in the winter league table, but he is still two points behind Sheehan who leads with 39 points with Jonathan Lee third on 35 points.

These three are pulling well clear from the rest of the pack. However, with 13 matches completed and another seven still to be contested, there is plenty of opportunity for a change at the top and, with a singles competition worth double points this weekend, anything can happen.