The biggest day of the year for Sidmouth Golf Club is Captain’s Day and of course, it is a really big day for the club captain who, this year, is Ray Gunston, writes John Barnard.

Months of careful planning, prayers for good weather, meetings with the club manager and so much more go into the aim of getting it right on the big day.

Fortunately for Ray, the weather was excellent, the course immaculate and all his plans worked out perfectly.

The format was two man teams off full handicap with one score to count on par four and par five holes, but both scores to count on the seven par three’s, so the pressure is on to keep scoring.

The winning team were the popular combination of Bob (wobbly) Welsman and Colin (Fulton) Macklin. Both played very steadily and scored 60 points, two better than the opposition. Second, third and fourth places all scored the same number of points (58) so had to be separated on countback.

Club manager Jonathan Lee and chair of greens Mark Thomas (a long standing partnership on the course and at the nineteenth hole) came second. Former assistant club professional Lewis White and David Burgess were third and Steve Milton and Simon Knowles in fourth, just losing out based on the current system.

Noone won the bottle of malt whiskey which was on offer to anyone who managed to put the drive on the 12th in a circle marked on the green Perhaps the prize should have gone to the veteran golfer and ex pub landlord who managed to play seven holes before he realised he had no golf shoes on!

In the ladies competition, Yvonne Anning and Liz Chance won first prize with 53 points.

In terms of the ‘nearest the pin’ prizes; On the fourth it was won by C Ashley, the fifth and sixth holes were won by Luke Sheppard and the 12th by Jim Shearer.

Neil Holland took the honours on the 14th, Chris Timms on the 15th and there were two winners on the 18th with David Pepperell and Mark Thomas bagging success.

In the evening, the clubhouse was packed to see the prize winners get rewarded, but the real winner was the Admiral Nurse campaign, the chosen charity of the captain with many sponsors adding to the funds collected by Ray on the day.