In glorious spring weather the Sidmouth Golf Club Seniors entertained Honiton in their opening match of the 2015 season, writes Chris Grubb.

Captain David Bromage and John Bainbridge got the team off to a good start, five-up after 10 holes at which point their opponents fought back to be just two down. Bainbridge sealed victory on the 16th for a 3 and 2 win.

Phil Spencer and Glyn Hewitt returned the best win of the day, 6 up and 5 to play win.

Nigel Sharp, playing with the reliable John Townsend, secured an impressive 4 and 2 win.

Another sterling performance by Ken Rothwell and Charles Brown with the second-best result of the day winning 5 and 4 despite one of the Honiton members shooting an eagle three on the par five 13th hole.

Hopes were high for a possible whitewash as the next pair of Brian Cole and Coulston Herbert put together an excellent team effort to win 4 and 3.

The final pairing of Ray Gunston and Vernon Ruffle succumbed to some excellent play by their opponents on their way to defeating the Sidmouth pairing 2 and 1.

An excellent overall win for Sidmouth 5-1 to take back to the away match at Honiton in May.

Sidmouth seniors started their first away match early at Teign Valley.

First pair out were captain of the day Hugh Dorliac and Colin Macklin who, despite winning the first three holes, finally prevailed on the 18th to win their match by 1.

David Hoare and Doug Goodall were next out and despite giving 14 shots to one of the Teign Valley players managed to get a draw, despite an early scare, when Teign scored a birdie on the first hole.

Chris Grubb and Don Cooper were next out and earned a half on the 18th thanks to a par by Grubb.

Trevor Kerridge and Colin Mitchell won by just one hole.

Next out Chris Timms and Brian Le Masurier gave a good account of themselves before losing by a hole.

Last out were the two Bobs – Webber and Cook – who felt they nearly threw it away having been three up with three to play but again finally securing their win on the last hole.

Overall, it was a very close match, but Sidmouth came away with a very good 4-2 win.