On the penultimate Saturday in April, the Sidmouth B team (captained by Mike Dommett) and the Emerton Court seniors (captained by Nick Bater) played the first leg of the Ken Titherington Trophy, writes Paul Lewis.

The trophy is named after a much-loved member and B Team player who sadly passed away at a young age.

As usual, the two captains teed off first. Mike Dommett chose B team ‘rookie’ Mike Gosling as his partner whilst Nick Bater chose seniors’ captain Tony Stoyle. The format is match play, off 90 per cent of handicap with the best score to count on each hole.

Nick Bater and Tony Stoyle won the opening match two-and-one.

This lead was immediately cancelled out by club captain Colin Macklin playing with Allan Malcolm, beating David Fish and David Cowler three-and-two.

The next two matches went the distance, finishing all square on the 18th hole.

The Emerton Court side then won the next three matches and things were not looking good for the B team. However, the pairing of Brian Leach and Don Cooper stopped the rot for the B team as they beat Pat McCormack and club president Roger Bawden three-and-two.

The experienced B team captain had kept some low handicap players back for the closing matches and despite giving lots of shots won the last two games on the 17th hole.

So the day finished honours even going into the second leg, which is to be played at the end of September.