Round up of golf in East Devon

THE weather was perfect for the annual drive in for the respective captains of the ladies’ and men’s sections of the club. Announced by Lyme Regis Town Crier, Phil Street, and, accompanied by members of the ladies’ section bedecked as cheerleaders, ladies’ captain, Rhoda Elwick, was first to drive in. Undaunted, the men’s captain, Ray Farrell, then took his place on the tee and, also drove well up the first fairway. Formalities successfully concluded, the impressive gathering of club members then enjoyed a buffet lunch.

? On another day perfect for golf nine of the “elder statesmen” played the annual Octogenarians golf competition.

Played over 11 holes and with the participants adopting a varied means of transport around the course, the 2009 winner, Ray Roebuck, successfully defended his title with a highly creditable 20 points. In second place, on countback, was recent qualifier for this competition Bill Giles, with 19 points, narrowly beating Derek Sewell into third.

?THE Seniors played a new competition, a three-man Bowmaker Stableford for the Silver Salver at Axe Cliff, writes Janet Dack.

In this event, one score only is recorded over the first six holes, two over the next six and all three over the final six. The winners, way out on their own were Geoff Hubbard (19), David Field (19) and Clive Davie (18) with 79 points. Five points behind in second place, with 74 points, were Rob Grove (16), Gilbert Cox (18) and Bob Heard (15).

Two teams returned scores of 71 points and third place on the inward half ruling went to Brian Wilkes (12), Roger Wright (22) and Don Lee (26) with Geoff Hughes (16), Peter Knighting (14) and Norman Stone (23) the team to miss out.

Early leaders in the Winter League, a two ball better ball Stableford are last year’s winners Rob Grove (16) and Bryan Dale (22).

The Ladies enjoyed their last friendly match of the season with the Sidmouth Ladies, but unfortunately lost.

The winner of the Axe Cliff Cup will be the lady with the lowest net score from three rounds. This weeks’ winner with a nett 74 was Sandra Walker (16).

The Main Club competed this past Sunday for the October Stableford. Winner of Division One with 38 points was Brian Kelland. Second with 37 points was Charlie Griffin who had a better back nine than third place Andrew Hellier with 37 points. Winner of Division Two was Gerry Binmore with 37 points. Second with 36 points Ian Burraston and third with 35 points Nigel Garwood.

?The ladies’ Progressive Bowmaker was played in reverse with drawn teams of two and three at Lyme golf Club, writes Ellie Langford.

One advantage of drawn teams is that everyone gets to play with people they don’t know. Luckily, the weather stayed fine and sunny, easing the pain if you were playing badly. I’ll just mention a favourite saying of the ladies: “It’’s just lovely to be out here.”

Winner of the pairs competition were Gilly Madill and Felicity Horton with 63pts. Winners of the three’s competition were Liz Thompson, Mary Golding and Marjorie Johnson with 75 pts. Runners up were Julia Coote, Gloria Lott and Sheila Claringbold with 74 pts ocb.

There were four ‘holes-in-two’; Diane Smith on the 3rd and 8th, Jenny Scott on the 8th and Glenys Phillips on the 11th.

HONITON - The winter season is upon us and although the weather was crisp and clear, those frosted mornings with temporary greens beckoned. We were playing the Ha Ha winter league knockout qualifier, a Foursomes Stableford to see who the last 16 teams would be to progress to the knock out stages, writes Andy Wagner.

Many a good pairing has come unstuck at this stage and this year was no different. Choosing whose drive was better placed to attack the green can be very testing, even off similar drives in the middle of fairways as Andy Harrison and Chris Earle learned to their cost. Andy felt compelled to take Chris’s drive up the 18th and then treated his partner to the sight of his chubbed second shot trickling straight into the fairway bunker six feet in front of him, a shot that even brought the four ball behind them on the 18th tee to their knees in fits of laughter. But a weekend’s golf up at Honiton is played in that manner of enjoyment. The three leading qualifiers and leading seeds in the draw for the next round were J Drew and D Noar 39pts, M Fowler and R Reece 38pts and H Cook and J Gillingham 36pts. Good luck to all in the next round.

? Treble Six was the format this week for the Mixed competition, but slightly changed. Holes 1-6 Greensomes, 7-12 Foursomes and 13 - 18 Better Ball. This proved very popular, especially with Christine Bradshaw and Terry Dimond who won with a score of 44pts. Second place were Penny Blackburn and Max Pipe with 37pts, third were Barbara Eastwood and Peter Shepherd 36 pts.

? Sunday a small ladies’ section field played a EWGA Medal. The winner was Elizabeth Davies.

Wednesday was also a EWGA Medal with a large field taking part. Silver Division winner was Jane Watts, nett 76. Bronze 1 winner was Val Daniels, nett 77, and Bronze 2 winner was Sharon Dacre with nett 76.

? The Seniors were given a taste of the professional life this week with a competition played off scratch handicap. Although it was a Stableford format many players found scoring difficult, but it certainly concentrated the mind in managing the way around the course. To sweeten the pill Stableford points were added at the end, equivalent to their handicap.

The outstanding performance was from Jim Wallis in Division 1 who with a gross score of 72 and a 10 handicap amassed a total of 43 points to earn first place. Mike Stroud 39, , Stan Squire 38, Bill Spice 37 and John Fleetwood 36 were the other winners.

Division 2 was won by newly- appointed captain Bill Nicholls with 38 points on countback from Bob Milton. Dave Morgan 37, Peter Blake 35 and John Weeden 35 were the other prize winners.

Also this week the keenly contested match was played versus the Ladies for the Otter Trophy. Played off the men’s card a good deal of discussion and comment (sic) occurs regarding additional strokes given to the Ladies. It is, however, a tough task for the Ladies over the longer holes but a fine performance from Andrea Squire and Jane Watts saw them triumph over the Seniors pair. Overall however the Seniors proved just too strong and held the Trophy. A very sociable event was enjoyed by all.