Sidmouth beat Honiton 4-2 in the home fixture last month, and John Bainbridge was looking for more than two points in the return match as he led off with Chris Grubb against Norman Fleet and Alex Lynn, writes Terry Carter.

Sidmouth’s pair was giving the shots but up for the challenge, and Bainbridge hit his long tee shot to the centre of the fairway. Unfortunately it was the third fairway, but he recovered with a great second shot to the green and putted for the first point. The next two holes also went the Sidmouth pair’s way, and a chip in on the fourth from 20 feet by Grubb left the Honiton pair reeling.

Fleet and Lynn did recover well and were only one down by the 16th but, despite receiving a shot on the next they lost it to go down 2 and 1. Bob Skelly was playing his first seniors match as he partnered Ray Gunston against home pair Trevor Bradley and Peter Bates, and was in at the deep end as they went four down by the sixth. The margin between the pairs settled as the four golfers eased their way round the course, and were seen shaking hands on the 14th green. However, this friendly gesture wasn’t because they had managed to complete the first 14 holes in less than three hours, but because Bradley and Bates had won 5 and 4. Charles Warren and I, off 24 and 14, were next off against Ron Rogers and Peter Dart who were receiving five and six shots, and lost the first but pulled it back by the third. In another close game we took the lead and held it until the 15th, when Rogers rounded off a fine back nine with pars on the next three holes plus receiving two shots for a win.

Peter Emery and Bob Johnston had a tough challenge facing home pair Ed Backhouse and George Smith with Backhouse giving the shots. Fortunately 15 of them were to his partner, who in a very close game sank a 30-foot putt on the 17th and then won the last to halve the game.

The next looked like a rout in the making as Roger Freer and Nigel Sharp took a seven-hole lead by the 10th, with the Honiton pair fearing the worst and discussing the handicap system. In fact they did have the stronger back nine but only managed to reduce the deficit to five with four to play.

The last game out had Tony Crow giving the shots as he and Terry Blackler attempted to earn a win for Sidmouth, but lost six and four to Chris Street and Alec Gosling. Persistent readers may remember that Alec Gosling had Sidmouth players running around after him gathering up clubs, jackets, bottles etc in the match last month, but that was clearly no isolated incident. As we sat in the clubhouse waiting for the call to dinner, we noticed that our Terry Blackler was carrying his Honiton opponent Alec Gosling’s jacket for him. Strange!

Result: Honiton 3� Sidmouth 3�