Sidmouth seniors were 5-1 winners when they defeated visiting Minehead, writes Chris Grubb.

The fixture was played out in glorious sunny afternoon and home vice-captain Bruce Harcourt, partnered by Barry Jones, took an early lead on the first green in a very competitive first nine holes, and managed to be one up at the turn.

The run home saw the home pairing partly struggling, with some of their putts missing and found themselves one down by the fifteenth.

However, they fought back to be level on the seventeenth, and both players managed a par on the eighteenth to win the match by one.

The second pairing of Chris Grubb and Bob Cook went one down at the third hole, halved the fourth then won the next five holes to be four up at the turn with Bob Cook, being in good form, and using his additional shots to good effect.

With wins on the eleventh and twelfth holes they got to six up, but the Minehead pair fought back, winning the next two holes, but a half at the fifteenth saw the Sidmouth pair home with a win of four-and-three.

The third pair of David Ash/Paul Blay had a difficult game with Minehead’s Andy Atkins birdying the first and parring the third to go two up. A win on the ninth cut the deficit to one at the turn, and on the back nine the honours were even until the seventeenth, which they unfortunately lost, and therefore losing their match two-and-one.

Despite falling behind on the first, the fourth home pair of John Hicks/John White were one up by the third and then went two up at the sixth, but were then pegged back on the seventh and ninth to be all square at the turn, winning the eleventh and twelfth to go two up but then eventually losing the seventeenth, but managed to hold on for a win by one.

Colin Paddon/Roy Smith overcame their opponents in a dogged battle to bring the Sidmouth score to four wins.

The final pair of Vernon Ruffle/Terry Blackler, the highest handicappers, found they didn’t need all their shots and were five up at the turn.

The first three holes on the back nine being won by the Sidmouth pair which gave the match to them by eight-and-six, the biggest win of the overall match result.