The Famous Easterbrooks competition at Sidmouth Golf Club is a three ball better ball Stableford, kindly sponsored by Easterbrook Eaton Ltd and commemorates the three famous Easterbrook brothers Syd, Cyril and Algy, writes John Rockey.

The brothers not only had an association with Sidmouth Golf Club, but also in their prime were very well known amongst the golfing fraternity in the UK, particularly Syd, who was in the winning Ryder Cup team of 1933 as well as coming third in the British Open the same year.

On a gloriously sunny and warm Saturday, with a nice breeze to cool tempers should they get frayed, 90 competitors took part in this very popular team competition, which caused a lot of difficulty to all but the three top teams.

With their 85 points, the team of Kevin Legg, Roy Turner and Eric McMath, started this year where they left off last year by trouncing all opposition by a clear four points. Second with 81 points were Neil Bunting, Steve Crabb and Lee Wenham who must have thought that their score, which equalled last year’s winning total, was good enough to take the top prize, but they couldn’t get close to the winners.

Just losing out for second place with 80 points, was the team of John Dunn, Martyn White and Nigel Hillier, who also produced a score well ahead of the rest of the field, as the fourth-placed team came in with 73 points, some 12 points behind the winners!! The nearest to the pin prize on the fourth hole was won by Pat McCormack, who put his tee shot within a metre of the pin and the longest drive up the eighth hole was won by club captain Paul Hitchcock.

Paul’s drive was about 20 metres short of the post which marked the length of drive which Syd Easterbrook had back in 1933, before all the advances in club and ball technology which we have today and emphasised to everyone how special the Easterbrook brothers were in their heyday.

Sidmouth Golf Club will travel to Teign Valley Golf Club to play Dinnaton Golf Club on Sunday, June 3, in the second round of the Palairet Trophy, which is the Devon County Golf Union’s premier team event.

The tee off time is 1pm and the Sidmouth team would appreciate support from all those keen to see the club do well in this prestigious competition.

Another lovely day encouraged 79 entrants for the Charles Stanley Monday Stableford at Sidmouth Golf Club, writes John Rockey.

Scoring remains difficult and with 39 points Paul Sexton took the top prize, just beating Mark Seward on a countback.

Seward already had 39 points when he came to the final hole and had victory in his sights, but, when he failed to add to his total, he handed first prize to Sexton who birdied the last hole.

In third place, with 37 points, was Moray Boscence who did not do very well over the opening holes, but rallied to come home strongly and take the last place on the prize list.

Steve Channing was the winner of the Friday League at Sidmouth Golf Club when he beat off a field of over 30 to come in with 39 points to win by one shot, writes John Rockey.

Second, with 38 points, was Steve Crabb who is getting back to his good form of last year and reinforced his return to the winner’s enclosure in managing to grab second place for the second time in club competitions over the weekend.

Third, with 37 points, was Howard Cushing who has started to return to his good form of last year when he regularly picked up prizes.