With the ‘Young Guns’ preferring to play EDL at Padbrook, and Brian ‘the Snail’ laid up with gastropod-enteritis, the captain chose to call on some of the more mature members of the B team squad to play the second leg of the Jurassic Trophy at Axe Cliff GC, writes Steve Milton.

With a combined age of around 750 years, this was by far the most experienced team selected to date.

The Jurassic Cup is an annual match between Sidmouth and Axe Cliff and the first leg resulted in Sidmouth taking a four-and-a-half to one-and-a-half lead into the deciding second leg.

First out were Steve Milton and Don Cooper. With opening drives 45 degrees to the right and the same angle to the left the pair played their second shots some 100 yards apart and, after losing the first hole to a six, it wasn’t looking good!

By the ninth the duo were three down and clearly struggling to get used to playing shots to greens as hard and fast as concrete. However, after a change of tactics (or some would say good fortune), and four consecutive winning holes, the Sidmouth pair were back in contention. With accurate second shots of around 200 yards to the 17th green, the match was eventually won two-and-one.

After winning the previous day’s Friday Stableford with 41 points, and making his B team debut, Bob Andrews seemed the ideal partner for club president Trevor Kerridge.

Witnessing their 18 handicap opponent driving the 250-yards uphill at the first the pair soon realised they were in for a difficult day and they battled well before going down to a three-and-two defeat.

Colin Macklin and Bob Welsman were next and, giving nine shots to old adversary Basil Dean, pair played well to achieve a half in a tight game.

With losses for the Dommett/Northcott and Hoare/Newton pairings the aggregate score slipped to Sidmouth six, Axe Cliff five.

This left the destination of the Jurrasic Trophy resting on the outcome of the final game.

Malcolm Willoughby and Steve Punter managed to share the spoils and so, despite losing 4-2 on the day, Sidmouth secured the trophy for the first time since 2011 thanks to a six-and-a-half to five-and-a-half overall win.

With the top three players taking a rest this week, and Milton and Cooper moving into fourth and fifth place as a result of their victory, the B Team League now moves into a critical phase.

With only three more qualifying events and the top five players all playing in at least two, the title is there to be won or lost.