Steve Pearson was the star of the show as Sidmouth SE defeated visiting East Dorset in a South West Federation Golf Croquet League meeting, writes David Butler.

The match was played out on the hottest day of the year to date, and some of the play matched the delightful weather!

The visiting side had a team of seven with their lowest handicap being one whereas the home side of five had a lowest handicap of four.

After the morning session of three doubles and nine singles it was eight-and-a-half to three-and-a-half in favour of the visitors’.

During the session the Sidmouth players had difficulty playing East Dorset’s low handicap players with only John Coombes enjoying a good win over one handicap player Mark Hamann.

Lunch came at a good time with then players clearly delighted to escape the heat!

Sidmouth won three of the first four post-luncheon singles and so reduced the overall deficit to three.

With only four single remaining it certainly seemed as if the home comeback might end in glorious failure.

However, Sidmouth were successful in the next two games, sealing a 7-4 win and then enjoyed a 13th hoop victory by Richard Thurlow (7-6).

This levelled the match scores up with one game to play!

Steve Pearson was charged with playing the final game and, after five minutes of excitement and apprehension, Steve, a player in his second year, won the match, beating East Dorset’s more experienced player six hoops to four.

It all meant an overall ten-and-a-half to nine-and-a-half win for Sidmouth SE, their first victory of the season!

Most players played five games and the Man of the Match has to be Steve Pearson who won four and drew the other in his five games. John Coombes won three games and drew one and Michael Hide won three games.