It s always one of the best Sundays of the Honiton golfing year, when the captains drive-in to office, and this year new club captain John Stabb created his own bit of history by gathering all four section captains together to share in one mass event.

It's always one of the best Sundays of the golfing year, when the captains 'drive-in' to office, and this year new club captain John Stabb created his own bit of history by gathering all four section captains together to share in one mass event, writes Andy Wagner..

Of course there was a celebratory game to be played before the fun of those nerve racking tee shots, which this year took the form of a Four Ball Better Ball, two shots to count shotgun start Stableford, teeing off at 8.30am.

And a lot of fun it turned out to be with a huge field populated by all sections of the club, seniors, juniors and hackers like myself. The keenly contested game produced three identical scores of 82pts for fourth, third and second with only the back nines separating the teams. But first place went to a noteworthy 85pts scored by Fred and Darren McCabe, Dave Carnell and Graham Charlton.

Secretary Brian Young had to be on top form checking those cards to decide the final order. But the game was always going to be secondary to the tradition of the "Drive In".

First up was Lady Captain Elizabeth Ward who struck bold and strong to achieve the fairway with her first drive.

Dan Noar, the outgoing Junior Captain, standing in for Tim Wade, took two, but enormous drives to get that fairway followed by Senior Captain Ben Laite's five but classy, attempts.

Each was superb but each was just off the fairway and as such "not in play", which just left new club captain John Stabb to drive the New Year in officially.

Thankfully two drives was all it took, nowhere near the 37 attempts of a previous incumbent, with Fred McCabe taking the nearest the ball whisky as well as his first prize token.

Good luck to all the section captains.

The Mixed Competition players enjoyed the Treble Six competition this week. Only the last few groups got slightly wet and most of the main greens were in play.

The winners, with an excellent score of 40pts, were Denise Nicholls and Andy Sharland. Second, with 38pts, were Jane and Mike Watts. Third, with 37pts, were Ro Poole and Max Pipe. Fourth, with 36pts on c/b, were Gerda Brown and John Ward.

l It was touch and go whether the Seniors' Three Ball Better Ball competition would be played this week.

A generous greenkeeper gave the OK however, albeit on temporary greens, and 66 entrants braved the inclement weather.

During the round all four seasons were experienced, frozen ground, heavy rain, snow showers and even sunshine. The scores returned suggested many players wished they had stayed in bed.

Congratulations go to the winning team of Ed Backhouse, Peter Morgan and Mike Stroud with 71 points who had the last card returned, dashing the hopes of Harold Cook, Peter Bates and Bill Nicholls on 70 points with the first card handed in!

Third place went to the three Johns, Discombe, Vessey and Ward, with 68 points and the final placing to Vic Wood, David Ive and Malcolm Keeley on countback with 67 points.

AXE CLIFF - The men played the Daily Mail Foursomes, normally a tough format, but, with a fine day on the course, the members produced good scores, writes Helen Gaudie. In first place were P Northcott and J Matthews with net 66, second on the count back ruling with 67.5 were S Orren and M Rymer, pushing the brother pairing and Craig Trivett into third place.

The ladies finally managed to play their Hangover Cup, postponed due to bad weather in January, over 15 holes on Wednesday. The winner was the in- form Sandra Walker with 26 points.

26 Seniors in 13 teams took part in the sixth round of the Winter League programme. Conditions were once again icy and the winners, with 37 points, were Alan Vincent and Roger Wright - an excellent score in the circumstances. Second place went to the ever consistent pairing of Rob Grove and Bryan Dale with 34 points and a point behind in third place with 33 points were Gilbert Cox and Derek Williamson.

LYME REGIS - Sunday was a relatively warm wind- free and dry day on which to stage a golf competition, writes Steve Percival.

As a result 66 club members turned out to contest the February Stableford competition. Whilst all of the scores did not totally reflect the benign conditions, the winning ones were more than respectable. In division one, Jim Allan from Beaminster, playing off 7, came in two shots better than his handicap with a total of 38 points, which only beat Malcolm Wilson from Axminster (12) on countback.

In third place with a level par score of 36 points was Colyford resident Peter Spiers (14) who featured in the prizes for the third week in succession. Whilst division one was a closely fought contest, division two was even more so, with three players each recording a score of 39 points. In the end the honours went to Shane Stone (21) on countback.

In second place was 13-year-old Colyton schoolboy George Yorke (17). One of the young rising stars of the club, George scored his 39 points despite having two non-scoring holes in his round.

In third place, also with 39 points, was school teacher and Raymonds Hill resident Tom McIntyre who also had the satisfaction of recording one of the two "twos" of the day. The other two was achieved by Adrian Morgan of Uplyme.