A second round, first leg Emerton Court match away at Boringdon Park near Plympton on Monday was seen as quite a task for the Sidmouth seniors team, despite a positive attitude shown by all, including team captain Nick Bater, writes Hugh Dorliac.

Boringdon is a long course, starting with an opening hole over water, which is quite different from their home course.

On Sidmouth’s practice round last week Boringdon Park’s greens were still undergoing maintenance work and putting was very difficult.

On match day, though, the course was presented in excellent condition with greens comparable to Sidmouth’s.

Sidmouth didn’t get off to the best of starts with David Fish and John Barnard unable to gain a foothold in the match and losing out to strong opponents by five-and-four.

The second pair of Graham Rogers and Lester Willmington fared much better and evened the tie with a three-and-two success.

Match three saw Sidmouth, with a strong pairing of Pat McCormack and captain Nick Bater, find that they had the better of the opposite numbers from the off, forging ahead to be five up after as many holes and this resulted in an excellent win by the 13th hole of seven-and-five! The fourth pairing of Trevor Kerridge and Brian Leach couldn’t maintain the Sidmouth winning momentum, losing three-and-two, but matches five and six, featuring Chris Timms with Ray Gunston and Bob Welsman with Allan Malcolm, both restored a winning mentality with both pairings winning their respective matches by three-and-two. It all meant a superb away result of three matches to two to see Sidmouth holding the advantage when they stage the second leg at home next Tuesday (June 19).