The Sidmouth Golf Club Annual General Meeting was held on Friday evening and this included the election of new club captain Richard Powell and lady captain, Maria Clapp, writes John Barnard.

Richard is a long standing member of the club and is the thought to be the first father, mother and son combination of captain’s in Sidmouth’ s history.

His first round of golf at the club was in 1969 and he joined shortly after. Richard’s mother was lady captain in 1980 and his father was captain in 1983. Richard made various announcements during his speech, including his competition captains for the year and he also announced that his chosen charity was CLIC Sargent, that provides support for young people diagnosed with cancer.

The evening marked the end of Ray Gunston and Angela Coles year of captaincy. Ray was very proud to present a cheque totalling £6440.57 to representatives of the Sid Valley Memory Café, which will go towards the funding of an Admiral Nurse in the valley

On Sunday, club captain Ray Gunston and lady captain Angela Coles ‘putted out’ to signal their end of office.

Then Richard and Maria ‘drove in’ and so officially got their captaincy started.

A representative from the CLIC Sargent gave a presentation on its aims and how the funds raised would be used to help the many young people the charity support.

During the day, after an auction of a golf club, an auction of the VIP parking spot at the club and a general whip round, captain Richard was able to announce that more than £800 had been raised, a great start to his year.

Let’s hope the weather improves as it has been excellent this winter, until now!