Poor old Geoff Hughes (now 88  years young) has not been able to play lately at Axe Cliff Golf Club, as buggies have not been allowed due the wet conditions, writes Dave Bruce.

To cheer up Geoff on these quiet days with golf, I thought I would print a picture of his son Malcolm's pet Alpacas kept at home in Exeter. They make a nice festive picture as well for our readers and Geoff loves feeding them when he's not playing golf.

The Axe Cliff Seniors played their Monthly Stableford last Friday and most found scoring difficult, apart from Anthony Critchfield who won Division 2 with a fine 40 points, making him the only player to beat his par. Chris Alexander was 2nd with 34 and Richard Edghill came third on only 32 points.

In good form, Nigel Pritchard did play to par to win Division 1 with his 36 points, just beating our retired pro Andrew Thompson on 35 who beat, on countback, Paul Curtin.

This was the last of a possible 10 Rounds for the annual Brian Wilkes trophy, which was well won by John Purdy with an excellent score of 187 over his best five rounds, being an average of 37.4 pts. Tony Strong was second, well back on 178, with Dave Morgan and Nigel Pritchard sharing third place with 175 apiece.

The Men’s Section had their Christmas Fayre with just one week to go and enjoyed some great rounds. Our champion for the day was Dave Cottam with a fantastic 42 points. David Hales took second spot, but only on countback, from young Craig Trivett, both had 38 points. 

We welcome visiting golfers. It is a par 70 at just under 6000 yards with a good mix of par 3, 4 and 5 holes. Some are short and tricky and some are long and scenic.

The first six holes are the most challenging to walk but the course flattens out from the 8th, 9th 10th and even flatter next to the cliffs with some spectacular finishing holes. The final hole is a par 3 across the Jurassic walk and has been described as one of the best par 3 holes in the country.

Merry Christmas from the club to all our readers and supporters.