Sidmouth Seniors beaten at Lyme Regis in final match of the season

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The fixture was number 30 for the 2019 campaign and was played on a grey cloudy day, with strong winds coming off the sea.

Chris Grubb and John White led the team away with John having to hire a buggy, as he had damaged his ankle the night before and was struggling to walk, let alone play golf!

The pair managed a half at the first, but unfortunately that's the best they could do in the first eight holes, and lost the next five holes with Chris getting a birdie on the ninth to bring it back to four down at the halfway point.

Although the pair played better in the second half the damage had already been done, and eventually they succumbed to a five-and-four reversal.

Mike Davis and Charles Brown were second out and went two up after two holes playing well, but the Lyme Regis pair came back at them and reduced the deficit leaving the Sidmouth pairing only one up at halfway.

However, Davis and Brown then showed their opponents a clean par of heels as they reeled off four winning holes across the back nine to the one gained by the Lyme duo and it left the Sidmouth pair securing a four-and-two success. Phil Spencer and Bruce Harcourt were third out, again starting well and found themselves three up at halfway and continued the good form into the back nine, eventually winning four-and-three.

The next group of Len Wright and Roger Bawden played well against the home pairing and despite a string of halves eventually lost two-and-one.

Hugh Dorliac, playing with Malcolm Couldwell, normally very reliable scorers, had an off day against strong opposition, eventually losing five-and-three. The final pairing of Steve Nunn and Martyn Cutmore, with Martyn playing in his first match for the seniors, had a fairly close game all the way, but unfortunately succumbed over the second half of their meeting to a two-and-one defeat.

It all meant that Lyme Regis predictably won their home leg to the tune of a 4-2 score line, but Sidmouth had done slightly better when they had hosted and so, over the two meetings, it was Sidmouth who took the overall honours with the final score being six-and-a-half to Lyme's five-and-a-half.

A possibly long winter of golf stretches out now, a time to improve the short game perhaps, before the new season starts up again in 2020.