As usual, when the fairways warm up the Seniors' section has been busy playing a series of friendly matches home and away. Seniors' captain Dieter Ritz took a team to Teign Valley and came away with a creditable half.

As usual, when the fairways warm up the Seniors' section has been busy playing a series of friendly matches home and away. Seniors' captain Dieter Ritz took a team to Teign Valley and came away with a creditable half, with the strongest winning point achieved by Colin Mitchell and Les Pratt. Their five and four victory made up for the heaviest defeat inflicted on us, a four and three setback for our first pair out, coincidentally Dieter and the obviously honoured John Bainbridge. As a Geordie German, Dieter said he was up against it from the start when he realised he was playing against Irish German Bernhard Sulzmann and his Scottish partner Bill Hogg. Incidentally, Dieter's reference to an Irish German opponent at Teign Valley is a sign of the times in European and multilingual Britain. Management and I have just returned from a few days in Spain, flying from Bournemouth with a well-known Irish airline. Throughout the flight, the delightful stewardess from Erin's Isle spoke to us all over the intercom and apparently slipped effortlessly between Spanish and English. Unfortunately I was unable to determine which was which, but I think that when she sounded as if she was picking a fight with us, that was English. Result: Teign Valley 3 Sidmouth 3.An away match at the aptly named Windwhistle followed this, and again we returned having shared the points. This time our leader decided to allow Chris Ashley the privilege of partnering him, but another defeat threw Dieter's whole selection strategy into disarray. Windwhistle's 10th tee is quite close to the clubhouse but unfortunately for Julian Taylor and Tony Crow, they didn't lose their match until they had played 13 holes so had to content themselves with studying the wildlife for another hour or so. However, another valuable away draw was earned thanks to wins by Townsend and Flatters, Bromage and Bradley, and top winners Barry Jones with John Sanders. Result: Windwhistle 3 Sidmouth 3. It was third time lucky for the captain at Lyme Regis when he anointed Mike Flattley as his partner, and they achieved a one hole win. Unfortunately the rest of us couldn't live up to this standard, and we all lost of our remaining matches with the exception of Derek Geear and Mike Anderson who earned a half in the last match out. John Hicks did take the reins for the home match against Honiton, and he must have thought he would be required to write a letter of explanation for a personal defeat on home territory. Partnered by Jim Culver, John was down on every hole from the second onwards. However, our leading pair is apparently from sound English stock, if there is such a thing, and levelled the match on the 17th before chipping in for a birdie on the last hole to win. John was relieved, as they would have been the only home pair to lose.