Sunday saw the Sidmouth Golf Club Palairet team visiting Yelverton for the plate competition (for those teams knocked out in the first full round), writes John Barnard.

Twenty-one teams were playing representing many of the top clubs in Devon who were unfortunate to not win in the first round. This year, the Sidmouth team have been generously sponsored by the Deer Park Hotel Honiton.

The format was foursomes stableford and, ultimately, it became another frustrating day for the club.

Missing the worst of the weather (torrential rain storms in the morning), the team set off with high hopes, led off by Captain Neil Holland playing with David Bater.

Nothing seemed to go right over the first few holes, but from the 12th onwards, they recovered to play the last seven holes in one under gross, but it was too late to repair the early damage to their score.

Second off were John Jones and Duncan Taylor who played really well for 16 holes but two poor holes cost them and it was much the same for the last pair, Mark (Banksy) Thomas and Jonathan Lee. Good consistent scoring was undermined by poor shots on the ninth and the 17th.

Looking back, it was case of what might have been. Only six points off the winning score with a few bad bounces, a poor shot that cost two points and no lucky breaks meant the team could have done better but never the less, this was a very creditable performance against many of the top teams in Devon.