Sharp dressed man

Dawlish Warren 3�, Sidmouth 2�

Due to the senior section’s progressive committee structure, a succession of roles is fulfilled by a potential captain in the lead up to appointment, writes Terry Carter.

Nigel Sharp is planned to be the next vice captain and was in charge of the team’s visit to Dawlish Warren, partnering Glynn Hewitt against Mike Redman with Alan Whiteman, who was giving the shots.

Hewitt apparently putted well but I expect he would have had plenty of practice, as, in an earlier B Team match there, players had found they could use the putter from 20 yards off the green! A comfortable 4 and 3 win for the home pair was followed by a 6 and 5 defeat for Charles Warren and John Townsend, with their disappointment tempered only by the news they had earned the dubious honour of collecting the match fees after dinner.

Brian Cole and Paul Blay ran them close with the third lost point, going down by the marginally better 6 and 4.

The team captain was by now wishing he had stuck to Seniors’ Opens organiser for the time being, but Mike Teague and Brian Skittrell picked up a point with a 3 and 2 win despite giving the shots to the home pair. Next off David Lane was thrilled that his partner Terry Blackler had arrived at Dawlish on time and without a detour. Lane was giving 6 and 8 shots respectively to the home pair, which is a tough obstacle on a course that so strongly favours home golfers, but Sidmouth’s pair played well for a fine 4 and 3 win.

Ian Brown and Charles Oram had it in their power to secure a critical point in the last game, and fought their way to four up with five holes to play.

However, they let it slip and had to settle for a half, which left Sharp with a narrow defeat in his first match as team captain. We just hope he won’t expect us all to follow his example and wear grey and white check shorts in 2014.