A break in the stormy weather on Saturday allowed Sidmouth Golf Club B Team to host their match against Honiton Golf Club, writes John Rockey.

Team captain, Colin Macklin, decided to pick himself a new and younger partner for this match hoping that Michael Anderton could carry the pair to victory and, for a short while, it looked as if the move would work as they won the first holes. However, a drastic loss of six holes on the trot soon put paid to the good start and whilst the Sidmouth pair managed to reduce the score to two down at the turn, the Honiton pair picked up their game and came in winners by a large five and four margin.

The combination of Martyn French and Chris Grubb were next up, and scored an emphatic victory by six and five, which was even more impressive as Chris had only recently returned to golf following an ankle injury.

The third pair for Sidmouth were Steve Milton and Lee Wenham who came out on top by three and two. This victory was particularly sweet for Steve as he was a member at Honiton until recently and Lee relished being back on the golf course as his recent work commitments have drastically limited his previous daily rounds! The next pairing for Sidmouth was carefully picked by the team captain, as the Honiton opposition included Colin Macklin’s son, Spencer, previously a member at Sidmouth. In an effort to give Spencer a warm welcome back, Colin chose the strong performing Bob Welsman, who regularly partnered Spencer when he was at Sidmouth, and Don Cooper as his opposition and as expected the Sidmouth pair proved very strong on their home course and triumphed four and three.

Mike Dommett and Peter Northcott, whose last B Team appearance was curtailed because of weather, relished the chance to actually finish all 18 holes, but could have finished earlier if they had wished as they won their match four and two. The result of the last match seemed to be all over after 15 holes, when Craig Melluish and Chris Roberts were three up with three holes to play. However, their Honiton opposition rallied to win the next two holes and it was left to Chris to halve the final hole following a superb chip and run to almost hole his third shot.

So the overall result was a 5-1 win for Sidmouth, with team captain Colin Macklin and his partner being perfect hosts to ensure that Honiton avoided a whitewash.

The County Golfer Challenge is an event for golfers in the south west sponsored by Brittany Ferries, with each club winner progressing to the county final where the winner within each county going forward to the grand final, which is played in Spain later in the year.

Not only is the trip to the grand final the very attractive prize for the winner within Devon, but also each club winner gets a voucher for �150 for a Brittany Ferries trip of their choice, so there was a large turnout with everyone anxious to win the local event.

On a day of very difficult scoring, which saw the standard scratch at Sidmouth Golf Club rise to 67, 42 players contested the event, which was won by Will Hastie, pictured, with a score of 36pts. Will, whose game was honed in the wilder weather of Scotland, coped well with the windy and wet conditions and came in with a score better than par on the day to win his �150 voucher as well as getting a reduced handicap to five. Second, just one point behind was Phil Spencer, who won a �100 voucher, just edging out Neil Faulkner on a countback, but at least his voucher for �75 brought a smile to Neil’s face.

Sidmouth Golf Club Captain, Paul Hitchcock received a �100 cheque for his captain’s charity, Devon Air Ambulance Trust, from David Roberts of the Otter Valley Rotary Club.

The members of Sidmouth Golf Club received the prize by having the largest team of 56 at the recent Charity Quiz organised by the Rotary Club.

In spite of the stormy weather, 30 members of Sidmouth Golf Club returned cards for the Friday Stableford.

At the head of the field was Andrew Thomson who amassed a very good 40 points, which included a level par back nine, which was sufficient to reduce to his handicap back to single figures.

Second was regular winner George Barber whose 38 points earned him another handicap cut this year and he now plays off 13. Third, just one point behind on 37 points was Greg Wilmington who was once again in the prizes.

Lee Wenham, who for once missed the competition.

He still heads the Friday League title chase with Chris Roberts in hot pursuit and George Barber in third place, now edging out Mark Thomas who once again had a disappointing round.