Sidmouth seniors entertained Woodbury Park (Acorn) for the first time and the inexperience of the visiting side on the course considerable grief to the Woodbury team.

They arrived when the Sidmouth course was playing with a certain amount of difficulty, due to the very dry weather of the past six weeks.

The Woodbury team were led off by their captain for the day, Rod Elston, accompanied by Gary Wilson, who were both looking forward to the ‘Sidmouth experience’.

Competing against the pairing of Chris Grubb and Barry Jones, they immediately dropped behind after the first hole.

The match continued with the Woodbury pairing trying to make a spirited comeback after losing the first three, but eventually succumbing to a four-and-three win for the Sidmouth pair.

Second out for Sidmouth were last year’s captain, Hugh Dorliac, playing with Charles Warren, who had the advantage of only playing against one team member of Woodbury as apparently his colleague forgot the match was on!

The Sidmouth pair, unsurprisingly, won in a degree of comfort at nine-and-seven.

Next out for the hosts were Colin Mitchell and Bob Winstone who were three up at the halfway stage, but were pegged back to one after 13 holes, eventually winning by two.

Fourth pairing, Brian Cole, playing with John Bainbridge, had a straightforward match winning four-and-two.

Fifth out were John Townend and Terry Blackler who had a little more difficulty, but eventually secured two-and-one success and the final home pair of Alan Malcolm and John White showed their local knowledge to get a fairly easy six-and-five success.

The combination of the Sidmouth ‘slopes’, fast greens and cold wind affecting the conditions, led to Woodbury’s downfall, with Sidmouth winning by a comfortable six games to nil.

The return match in September is eagerly anticipated as Sidmouth’s seniors have not played a match there before. Their prevailing conditions may yet provide a similar tough task for the visitors.