A sturdy team of Axe Cliff seniors travelled to Wheathill Golf Club to play their penultimate match of the season, writes Dave Bruce.

The weather held and a close match ensued with the overall result not being decided until the final match, which Bill Polley and John Mant, despite a valiant effort, just lost, leaving the home side the overall 4-2 winners.

Our home game with them, played earlier in the year, was also a close match and ended 3-3.

The winning Axe Cliff pairs at Wheathill were Bob Graham and Adrian Bishop and Mick Tomes with Robbie Robinson, the latter of whom was in sparkling form.

Back home on Wednesday, with similar overcast, but very windy weather, a fancied team of past captains, led by a young 82-year-old Geoff Hughes, who was captain in 2004, took on a strong captain’s team led by young Dave Bruce, who is still in his seventies, in the annual trophy meeting.

Geoff fought hard but eventually succumbed when he ran out of steam because he forgot to bring his normal four rounds of sandwiches.

Dave tried to keep him going with his flask of strong coffee, but won by a few holes in the end.

The best match was between Adrian Bishop of the captain’s team and Rob Grove, playing for the past captains’ team with Adrian winning on the 18th.

The final outcome was that the captain’s team retained the trophy, but it was mighty close with the final score being 3-2.

The other successful team for the captain’s side were the duo of that musical Welshman, Dave Evans, who had to fight hard against competitive Paul Curtin.

Malcolm Glass and Gerry Turner were the only winners for the past captains’ team.

The Winter League round on Friday was sensibly cancelled due to the stormy weather, but the course will have enjoyed its much-needed soaking.