Honiton Golf Club Seniors had their annual Christmas lunch this week, which was preceded by a 10-hole medal.   

Freezing conditions resulted in all temporary greens and 360 very cold fingers, as well as making the gauging of distance, even at close range, a bit of a lottery.  

However, some players managed the conditions quite well, Tom Tunnicliffe topping the pile with a nett 32, but only on a very close countback, with David Evans on the same score.  George Smith, ever present on the leaderboard this year, was third, with David Silver and Dave Morgan taking the final two prizes.   

At the lunch, Seniors Captain Rob Sexton presented various gifts of wine to successful and loyal golfers throughout the year. Dave Lee had played most matches against other clubs and Brian Thompson and Ian Collier were the most successful, having over 70% winning records.  George Smith was also presented with a bottle of wine for having been the player attending most Friday competitions.   

Rob thanked his faithful Vice Captain, Bob Graham, who also received wine for Christmas. Those attending the lunch were ‘royally’ treated to flute solos from Andy Manley, a former member of the Royal Marines Band, who has played for the Queen on the Royal Yacht Britannia 

It was a cold, dry day for the Tuesday Mixed competition, but some welcome sunshine helped to mitigate the cold and clearly helped some of the golf.  The format was a better-ball team event with the best man and best lady scores to count.   

As usual during the winter, the competition was played over 14 holes, followed by drinks and food in the clubhouse. The winning team of Cathy Uttley, Barbara Cummings, Mick Swann and Rob Grove achieved an impressive score of 66 points. Taking second place, with only one point behind, were Linda Curtis, Linda Blundell, Steve Blundell and John Higgins.