The first leg of the hotly contested Picture Match which has been played between Sidmouth and East Devon since 1932 played out at Sidmouth on Saturday afternoon writes Hugh Dorliac.

Currently played as four pairs and eight singles, the home team took an early advantage with pairings Lewis White/Matt Bavington winning 2 up, Stuart Coles and Mike Knight taking their game 4 and 3, Jonathan Lee and captain Mark Thomas also won, by three and two whilst David Pepperell and partner Terry Jones halved their match.

The singles started encouragingly too with Neil Holland beating his opponent three & two and Duncan Taylor winning his match four & three.

Lewis Perry couldn't emulate that subsequently losing on the 17th hole.

James Spiller, Will Hastie, Paddy Tallon and Steve Crabb all halved their ties with Moray Bosence taking a solid win of five & four over his opponent.

Thus the score being taken into the away leg is a very defendable 10.25 to 3.75 lead and Sidmouth look forward to heading over to East Budleigh in August.