Sidmouth seniors played their first match of the season at home against Honiton last Thursday, writes Charles Oram.

Honiton’s ranks have been swollen over the years by golfers who have tasted the delights of the seaside course, but were daunted by its many sloping lies. So the home side were perhaps always favourites to win this clash.

The odds against Honiton increased when they arrived one pair short due to an unfortunate medical emergency. This gave Sidmouth’s Chris Grubb and John Bainbridge a reluctant walkover.

In the first match Sidmouth captain Doug Goodall, playing with Barry Jones, was giving shots to Honiton captain Bob Underwood and ex-Sidmouth member Trevor Bradley.

However, Bradley’s local knowledge was not enough to rescue the away pair from a 4 and 3 defeat.

Honiton’s hopes were raised when their second string of Bill Eaton and Norrie Fleet battled to one up after 14 holes against Les Pratt and Brian Cole.

Pratt reads the cryptic borrows of the Sidmouth greens with the skill of a Kalahari bushman reading the spoors of his prey; and he put this craft to good use on the fifteenth hole to card a two to square the match. The local twosome then won the sixteenth and held on for a win.

David Bromage and Ian Brown used their handicap advantage over Honiton’s Ed Backhouse (playing with Peter Bates) to good effect to record a win after only 13 holes.

Norman Runciman and Chris Street briefly resisted for the away side with a heroic 5 and 4 victory over home pairing Glyn Hewitt and Vernon Ruffle.

Ray Gunston and Peter Emery (wielding his state of the art new driver) wrapped up 5-1 victory for the hosts with a 4 and 3 win over John Chew and Ray Cross.

Nearest the pin prizes went to Honiton’s Trevor Bradley and Sidmouth man of the match Les Pratt.