The Sidmouth Turkey Trot took centre stage on Saturday, writes George Carr.

This reporter, languishing in the clubhouse in mid-afternoon whilst keeping an eye on the incoming scores in the above competition, became convinced there were better cards to come and determined to walk to the 17th green to observe what action he might.

What happened next was so exceptional I am tempted to begin with ‘Once upon a time’.

The Maria Clapp and Angie Coles partnership, playing with Will Hastie and Moray Bosence arrived at the ( par-four) 17th green and Maria, on in regulation, had left her first putt rather short. It must have been about here that the Christmas Fairy settled gently upon my shoulder, for Will Hastie, his massive 280 yard tee shot having slipped off the side of the green, chipped his next almost stone dead for a certain birdie and Maria bravely holed out for her team’s three points, and though they could not know it then, this was just enough to give them victory on the day. There was more to follow. Next up, Lee Wenham amazed his partner Donald Cooper (and me) by sinking a 60-footer down and across the green, whilst Peter Spooner, partnering Club-President Trevor Kerridge, casually rolled in a twenty-footer from below the hole - the Christmas Fairy continued to smile.

Father and son combination, John and Paul Lewis were next, playing with Steve Milton and Craig Melluish. Father John’s approach had rattled through the green into the light rough behind and if Lee Wenham’s sixty-footer had been amazing, John Lewis’s chip in across the perilous slopes from 90-feet, to drop, dead weight, was outrageous and so made Steve Milton’s excellent birdie putt from 20-feet that followed it into the hole seem rather ordinary. It was about here that the Christmas Fairy intimated that she was feeling the cold and could she please go back to her Christmas tree (and a tot of something warming) in the clubhouse, I was glad to oblige.

With forty teams competing there were never enough of butcher Robbie Drew’s voucher’s to go round. Will Hastie and Moray Bosence took the £50(each) first prize, Dave Sheldrick and Eric McMath the £30 second spot. Lee Wenham and Donald Cooper, Malcolm Willoughby and Paul Renkin, Roger Freer and Bob Skelly along with Dave Hoare and Keith Newton, all collected something towards their Christmas dinner, whilst Maria Clapp and Angie Coles claimed the ladies £25 first prize with 37 points. Julie Lye and Marie Timms, a point behind for £15. Well played indeed folks - it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas, dah-de-dah-de-dah!