As the autumn weather starts to arrive, the senior team welcomed Dartmouth to Sidmouth, writes Hugh Dorliac.

Although there were showers throughout the day, thankfully the golfers remained mostly dry! The course played very well, even though the greens had yet to fully recover from the necessary maintenance work.

As Sidmouth had lost the away match 5-1, there was a steely resolve to reverse fortunes!

The first pair out, captain-for-the-day Mike Davis and Ken Rothwell lost the opening hole to a par, but, from then on, took control of the match. Being six up at the turn there was a certain inevitability about the result and the game was won on the 13th.

Chris Grubb and Colin Macklin were involved in a close encounter over the first 12 holes at which point Grubb birdied and the pair went on to score a 17th hole three-and-one success.

The experienced third pairing of Brian Rice and Colin Paddon fell two holes down early on but clawed their way back to eventually win two-and-one on the 17th.

Fourth out were past seniors captains Hugh Dorliac and Bruce Harcourt and their match had no more than a single hole in it through the first nine holes. However, success on the 11th and 13th saw the home pair edge ahead and they eventually sealed a three-and-one win on the 17th.

Richard Seaver and Ray Gunston held a two-hole lead at the turn and went on to seal a comfortable four-and-three win on the 15th.

It was all down to the last pair of Roger Bawden and John White to complete a clean sweep. However, Dartmouth had saved their best 'til last. Dartmouth's two low handicap players played exceptionally well, only dropping (collectively) three shots gross to the course to eventually seal a three-and-two victory on the 16th.

With the match score ending as 5-1, it meant for an overall 6-6 draw across the two legs of the meeting - a fair result.