IT HAS BEEN A good week for Iain Roberts and John Dunn who led the way in the Monday Stableford.

IT HAS BEEN A good week for Iain Roberts and John Dunn who led the way in the Monday Stableford.

Iain has recently undergone shoulder surgery and we can look forward to seeing some top quality golf from the man with the smooth swing. He was on to something really special after three birdies and 10 pars to the 14th tee, but a lost ball slowed progress and he had to settle for just 45!

Chairman Dunn also played a near faultless round, but a hesitant five at the last cost him top prize. Sam Barnard took third with a storming finish to pip Nathan Brace and Will Hastie on countback.

The birdie race seems all over as James Pickard added three to move to 82. Marc Shoobridge failed to add to his 45 and Duncan Taylor was absent from duty and remains on 43. Neil Holland added five to close ominously on the chasing pack while the course record holder and early pacesetter, Nigel Winchester, couldn't add to his 35, despite driving the first two greens

l There are no big changes at the top in the Eclectic but a few moved closer in the race.

Pickard stays on 47 and Shoobridge and Winchester remain on 49. Holland's two at the 14th moves him to 51, level with Taylor.

Stuart Coles improved at the fourth and 13th to drop to 52, while Martyn White birdied the seventh and 17th to go to 53. Mark Thomas and Jonathan Lee halved the 15th in two and are locked together on 53 with the rarely-appearing Nicholas Gingell.

l Last Thursday, Ilfracombe Seniors visited Sidmouth for their return match and Sidmouth had high hopes of levelling the score, having gone down 4-2 at Ilfracombe earlier in the season.

Dieter Ritz and Brian LeMasurier won at Ilfracombe and halved their match to maintain an unbeaten record.

They were well supported by wins from John Edwards and Brian Lissaman and Terry Carter and Ken Rothwell but, unfortunately, the other three Sidmouth pairs were not able to match these results and Ilfracombe won by 31/2 - 21/2.

l On Monday, 54 Seniors took part in their Annual Medal and Putting Competition.

Although there were some mutterings about the difficulty of Medal play, as opposed to the normal Monday Stableford competition, all participants returned completed cards, something which does not always happen in a medal round.

The competition was won by Bryan Alabaster who returned a net 61 with John Hicks (net 62), Bob Winstone (net 65) and George Hudec (net 65) also winning prizes.

For the putting competition, each competitor counted the number of putts taken on the green during the medal round. Although he started as favourite, having won this competition previously, Roger Bawden exceeded all expectations, by taking only 23 putts for the whole round.

Second place went to Richard Whiddon, 27 putts, and Roy Smith, 29 putts, took third place on countback.