The second round of the Emerton Court for Sidmouth Golf Club was played this week by Sidmouth Golf Club, writes John Barnard.

This is the competition for the Over-60s men and is played by clubs across Devon on a home and away basis.

The venue for the latest match was Portmore Golf Club, a relatively new course which is situated just outside Barnstaple.

In the Emerton Court competition the format is five games played on a better-ball matchplay basis and the aim is to ‘pinch’ a point or ideally two in the away leg and then hold on to the advantage in the home leg!

Sidmouth captain Bob Webber selected a strong looking team, perhaps too strong in hindsight!

Once all the matches were sorted, it became apparent that Portmore had selected a number of high handicappers and so, in every match, Sidmouth were giving a number of shots to their opponents. This factor, coupled with the home side’s knowledge of their course which had much slower greens that the Sidmouth players were used to, saw the match end with a 5-0 score line in favour of the home side.

While this was a disappointing day for the team, the Portmore players will have to cope with the Sidmouth slopes and much quicker greens so the aim will be to get a 5 – 0 at home and then, it is sudden death knockout. Sidmouth have been this far behind before and come through.

Let’s hope they can do it again!