Teign Valley Seniors visited last week to play against Sidmouth, writes Charles Oram.

One of the difficulties faced by the captain of a senior side is that team members can be forgetful!

When Sidmouth seniors played at Teign Valley, the playing partner of Nigel Sharp failed to arrive on time, in the mistaken belief that he was due to tee off an hour later!

Now it was the Teign Valley captain who found himself with no partner. The missing player was out shopping with his wife, convinced that the match had been arranged for the following week. It was therefore no surprise that Sharp, teamed with former ace golf reporter Terry Carter, beat the partner less Teignbridge captain five-and-four.

Next up was nearest-the-pin specialist Les Pratt and his partner Bob Cook. They triumphed three-and-one, but continued playing, to give Pratt the opportunity of winning another bottle of wine on the 18th.

His second shot landed on the green but, sportingly, he left it a good 20-yards from the flag to give others a chance to claim the prize. (In the event no one else managed to keep their ball on the putting surface, so Pratt collected his customary reward!)

The match involving Alan Billinghurst and Vernon Ruffle was all square after 17 hard-fought holes, but the away pairing took the honours on the last hole. Chris Grubb is a keen alpine walker, so the hilly Sidmouth course presents no problems for him. Playing with Glyn Hewitt, the home duo won four-and-three.

Colin Paddon and Brian Lemasurier won the first three holes of their match before their opponents came to life.

Despite both home players missing the last green with their approach shots, they won the hole, to take the match two-and-one.

Sidmouth’s rearguard consisted of two past captains in Dieter Ritz and John Bainbridge. Ritz is a polyglot from Newcastle, who speaks fluent German and Spanish .

After losing six-and-five, he was heard muttering in a foreign tongue. It sounded a bit like: “Eeh man, ahm gannin te the booza”, which is Geordie for: “ All right, I’ve had enough, I’ll see you in the bar”. Better luck next time, Dieter!

Sidmouth’s victory by four matches to two reduced the aggregate deficit against Teign Valley, over two legs, to just a pair of matches.