The Sidmouth seniors’ home match against Taunton and Pickeridge was held in sunny, dry and generally warm conditions with the visiting team bringing a strong team giving the home team an unexpected number of shots in all the individual matches, writes Hugh Dorliac.

Captain for the day, Chris Grubb, partnered with Colston Herbert and the pair halved the first three holes with Colston Herbert playing better than his handicap to keep the scores level.

They then lost the fourth and the fifth, to fall two down, but managed to win holes eight and nine with Colston Herbert chipping in for a birdie on nine to leave the scores level at the halfway point.

The pair then went on to win two out the next three holes to take a one shot lead after the 12th. However, they then relaxed and turned the pressure onto their opponents by winning 13th, 14th and 15th with Chris Grubb sinking long putts on all three holes for birdies to win their match by a score of four-and-three.

Unfortunately, the next pairing of Glyn Hewitt and Colin Mitchell had a bad day and they were beaten five-and-four by the impressive opposition pair of Tim Paris and Paul Davies. Glyn reported he was feeling cold so borrowed a visiting sweatshirt from his opponents and promptly went on to win the remaining holes left to play, as friendlies. The thought went through his mind that maybe he would be a better player if he joined Taunton and Pickeridge!

Colin Paddon and Ken Price won their match convincingly, five-and-four, but Colin Paddon was feeling disappointed his effort didn’t win the nearest the pin prize on the 12th.

It was visiting player Martin Moore who showed him how to do it, by winning the visitors’ nearest the pin prize on the fourth.

Next out for Sidmouth was the pairing of Hugh Dorliac with veteran Brian LeMasurier, and they came through with a straightforward win of four-and-three which left an overall score of 3-1 in favour of Sidmouth.

Phil Spencer and David Bromage were due out next, but Phil, having a ‘senior moment’, forgot his shoes and trolley battery, which his wife had to rush out to him from Ottery, just in time to tee off!

Despite that they played well and had a comfortable four-and-three win with Phil also winning nearest the pin on the 12th.

Sidmouth’s final pairing of Ray Gunston and John Sanders had a very close match all the way around with Ray Gunston getting a birdie two on the fourth, but unfortunately it was not enough and they ultimately lost on the 18th green by one hole.

The final score was a 4-2 win to Sidmouth with the away match scheduled for July 12.