Conditions at Sidmouth were perfect last Thursday for the visit of Dartmouth Seniors, writes Charles Oram.

The sun shone gently on the green hills and woods inland, and on the azure waters of Lyme Bay to the south; a scene that might have been lifted from the pages of a Thomas Hardy novel!

In such a setting, one could imagine wizened rustics on the clubhouse balcony, garbed in peasant smocks and with jars of cider in hand, giving a lusty rendition of ‘Sumer is icumen in’.

Unfortunately, Dartmouth were only able to muster 10 players - no doubt most of their members were busy scraping barnacles from their yachts!

Averting their gaze from the idyllic surroundings, the first pairing of Doug Goodall and Brian Skittrall soon imposed their authority, as Skittrall birdied the first hole. After a satisfying three and one win and Skittrall then birdied the 18th for good measure.

Les Pratt and Ian Brown were the only Sidmouth casualties of the day, losing three and two.

The next two matches (featuring Colin Mitchell and Bob Cook in the first and Mike Anderson and your correspondent in the second), were both halved. Anderson and I were facing the best golfer in the field in Dartmouth’s Geoff Jewell, but my partner was in sparkling form to keep him in check!

David Bromage (playing with Paul Blay in the final match) has recently been crowned senior doubles badminton champion for the South of England.

He is doubtless a master at lofting the shuttlecock over his opponent and landing it deftly on the baseline of the court; and he executed a similar stroke on the par three twelfth. From the tee, his ball soared high over the lane, then settled obediently by the flag, to earn him the prize for nearest the pin.

On the next hole, the Sidmouth duo applied the ‘coup de grace’, to secure victory by six and five.

That left Sidmouth with the honours by three matches to two to round off a perfect day in the May sunshine. Anyone for a chorus of ‘Sumer is icumen in?’