Forty-four pairs of seniors (what’s the collective noun for seniors? A ‘pPension’ of seniors, perhaps?) played in a Four ball Better Ball competition at East Devon on Monday, writes Paul Willoughby.

Weather good, light southerly breeze and sunshine. Can’t beat that but I think we need a little rain – My Goodness, did I really say that? After such a terribly wet winter how could we possibly now need rain? Well actually, we do – not a lot, but just enough to soften up the fairways and prevent the balls from running further than we intended. Yes, OK, you’ve got me – that’s just an excuse for taking the wrong club for the conditions. Forget the rain bit, OK?

Spring is here; saw a kestrel, a buzzard, long tailed tits and heard great tits, robins, bullfinch and a peregrine. Plenty of gulls but we can’t complain if they remain as SEAgulls; it’s the noise and mess they make around the town which brasses me off. Not a lot of greenery peeping through yet and some of the gorse looks a bit brown but things are getting better. The green staff have a lot of clearing up to do after an awful winter but they’re getting there and, thanks to them, we still have a wonderful course.

The winners today who didn’t give a fig about the tits and seagulls were Mike Trapnell and Francis Williams with an excellent score of 52 points. Sadly Mike Trapnell later phoned the club when he discovered he had had 15 clubs in his bag rather than the maximum 14. That honest admission resulted in he (or should that be ‘him’?) and his partner having a 4 shot penalty which moved them from first to fifth position. Mike, your honesty is in the true spirit of golf so although you didn’t win, you deserved to.

The readjusted leading scores were; 1, Paul Willoughby (Yes, that’s me!) and John Crosse – 50 points; 2, Fred Hughes and Tom Kenny – 49 points; 3, Alan Dent and Bob Lankester – 49 points on countback; 4, John Brian and John Jago, also with 49 points on countback; 5, Mike Trapnell and Francis Williams with 48 points – originally 52!

There was a twos pot of £88 to be shared between seven pairs.