Saturday saw the Claret Jug competition at Sidmouth Golf Club, writes John Barnard.

For many, this is the favourite event of the year.

The four competitive men’s teams (Palairet, League Team, Emerton Court and B Team) all put out eight players and the club captain chooses an elite eight to represent him (or he gets the odds and sods, it depends how you look at it).

The competition is fourball better ball, all four scores to count. The golf is enjoyable, but the return to the packed clubhouse is always lively and an excellent meal is follow by the team captains’ speeches with the winning captain filling the Claret Jug with port (hopefully!) and a late night is enjoyed by all.

The Palairet team usually win and this year was no exception.

They scored 163 points but two teams were one point behind, the captain’s team (which claimed second place on countback somehow) and the Emerton Court team (last year’s unexpected winners).

The league team were a few points back followed by the B team.

Still, as the B team captain pointed out, some of his players had been pinched by other teams and if he had their scores included, his team would have won.

Club captain Ray Gunston was very pleased to announce that the best score of the day (45 points) was achieved by himself and Richard Powell, his vice captain. The scores didn’t really matter though; this was a really enjoyable day for Sidmouth Golf Club, the real winner.