Seniors sign off for season

Bigbury v Sidmouth

Faced with the task of compensating for a mere two point margin win at Sidmouth, the team took an early lead at the South Hams course when Ray Gunston and John Bainbridge won their game for the first point.

They had gone one down to an eagle on the par 4 sixth, but dominated the remaining holes for a superb 5 and 4 win.

Colin Paddon and Derek Geear were next off, and carried on where they left off in the home game, fighting hard throughout to share the point. With the game still level our pair did have a chance to ease in front when Paddon earned the prize bottle of wine with his nearest the pin on 17, but he must have lost concentration as he agonised over whether he should share the wine over dinner or present it to management when he got home late again.

Whatever the reason, he missed the putt to let the Bigbury pair halve the hole, and a half on the last ensured a drawn game.

Roger Bawden and David Bromage, who were receiving three and four shots respectively from Bigbury’s Keith Hollingworth in another very close game, earned another half point to leave Sidmouth with a narrow lead at the halfway stage.

It was at this point that Gunston’s strategy of picking several golfers from the Seniors’ Youth Wing looked like it may have been a mistake as momentous as Wayne Rooney listening to his agent.

In the next game, Pop Banfield once more found himself receiving shots from a Bigbury golfer, but unlike in the home match a fortnight earlier he and Mike Anderson couldn’t turn the given shots to their advantage and they were left having to justify a 5 and 4 defeat at the usual clubhouse inquest.

Following his and David Bromage’s defeat in the home match, John Billingsley was next off playing in only his second seniors’ match, and will now have to wait until 2011 before securing his first point.

This time the Youth Wing player was partnering Terry Blackler, with John off 12 and Terry off a generous if not quite sufficient 28, but in an off day they lost 6 and 5.

The final game featured Hugh Blagden and Brian Cole, and persistent readers may remember that they had won comfortably in their home game against Bigbury. They carried on in the same vein this time with a fine 3 and 2 victory over the Bigbury pair to give the seniors an away draw in their last match of the season.

Bigbury 3, Sidmouth 3.