The Sidmouth seniors’ away match against Teign Valley Golf Club was held in sunny, dry and generally humid conditions with the expected rain not arriving, much to the delight of both teams, writes Chris Grubb.

Captain for the day, Chris Grubb, and partner Brian Cole took an early lead parring the first two holes, but only halving after giving a shot on handicap to Teign Valley.

The Sidmouth pair were playing well at this point, and moved into a ‘two up’ position after six holes, but eventually local knowledge helped the home team and Sidmouth were soon pegged back to all square after 10 holes. Thirteen, 14 and 15, proved to be the Sidmouth pair’s downfall as the home team’s best player started driving his tee shot 290 yards down the middle of the fairway leaving a short iron to the green and winning those three holes with birdies.

The Sidmouth pair fought back, winning the 16th with a tap in par. Unfortunately it was not enough, and the pair eventually lost two-and-one.

Next out were Graham Vincent and Peter Emery, who, playing steadily, found themselves two down at halfway, but fought back to get a half on the 18th for a creditable result for the team.

Colin Paddon and Keith James started well, but again came unstuck on the back nine having trouble with both water and sand, eventually losing by three-and-two.

Following them were Doug Goodall and Ken Rothwell, but they were up against an in-form pair from Teign Valley and, despite their best efforts, lost four-and-three.

The Bruce Harcourt and John Sanders combination managed to stay with the Teign Valley pair for 16 of the 18 holes, but lost the crucial 17th and 18th to lose by two. The last pairing out, Charles Brown and Brian LeMasurier, had a torrid time and never recovered from a poor start to lose their match nine-and-seven.

This left the Sidmouth team losing the overall match by five-and-a-half to a half and that meant an overall score across the two legs of seven-and-a-half to four-and-a-half in favour of Teign Valley.