Sidmouth SW Golf Croquet team travelled to Cornwall (Porthpean) to play in their fifth match of the season.

Having so far won all four matches played, their luck was about to run out! Three of the Sidmouth players have handicaps of four, three have handicaps of seven and one has a handicap of 10.

They were up against a team with two medium handicap players (five and six) plus an eight, two on 9, a 10 and an 11.

Play followed the usual pattern of starting with doubles games. After these had been played the score was two-and-a-half to one-and-a-half in Porthpean’s favour.

In the following eight singles games, Sidmouth players struggled against the high handicap players to such a degree that just one produced a Sidmouth success whilst two were drawn.

This left the overall score eight-and-a-half to three-and-a-half in favour of the Cornish side.

Sidmouth did managed to win three of the final eight games, but all that left Porthpean winning 13.5 to 6.5.

The only Sidmouth player worthy of mention from an otherwise disappointing show is David Butler who secured wins in two of the three matches he played, and he drew the other!

In spite of a dampish conditions and the disappointing match result, Sidmouth enjoyed their visit to Porthpean, and the usual good tea provided by the hosts, who always make visiting teams very welcome.