Thunder and lightning accompanied by torrential rain made it look like this popular event, the Dartmouth Golf Club Autumn Open, would have to be cancelled again.

However, the weather improved and the earlier starters only had to contend with light drizzle. Cloudy, cool conditions persisted for most of the day, but the majority of the field of 80, who came from as far north as Chesire down to Gloucester and Bristol, stretching across to east Devon and into the far west of Cornwall, played in relatively dry conditions.

An excellent standard of play was seen throughout the day with the main winners all having to be determined by countback.

The prizes presentation was conducted by club captains David and Mary Thompson, who ran the day.

There were seven twos, A and K Whitby third, P and V Isaacs 18th, P and J Brooking third, D Nixon and S Watts fifth, M and E Rees 18th, T Hall and C Mayer third, and A and B Jones 18th.

Nearest the pin ladies third K. Whitby and 18th S. Watts. Men 7th P. Selway and 18th B. Jones. Longest drive, ladies, H. Hunter on the 16th, men Chris Wagstaff on the 14th.

The front nine went to B and S Walsh with 21 points. Back nine went to C and N Wagstaff. Chris Wagstaff, captain elect of the Royal Gloucester, donated his prize to the junior section.

The main prizes went to: sixth B and C Mushens 38, on countback from fifth D and L Collier 38, fourth D Parnell and J Veale 39, third D Nixon and S Watts 41, second on countback J Vanstone and C Burgess 41 from first A Stevens and H Bowen 41.

The Shareholders Trophy was played on October 2, a medal off the white tees. A strong wind and wet fairways made scoring difficult.

There were the usual adventures along the way, Rob Knight was in the left bunker on the 14th after his third shot, and three shots later he was still in it. He managed to avoid a manikin moment, though, by keeping a 10 off his card.

The best adventure, however, went to club captain David Thompson.

His tee shot on the 15th went into the fairway ditch, he dropped out and put his third shot close to the pond.

As he addressed his ball for his fourth shot, he was so far down the bank that the ball was level with his shoulders; he took his swing and hit the ball straight into the pond, the bonus being that he managed to keep his balance and avoid falling in. Kevin Eighteen made a good observation for David's sixth shot, noting that there would be no problem with point of entry...

The final scores reflected how difficult the conditions were as no one managed to play to par. The best card was by John Garner, net 77, which wins him the trophy and gets his name on the board for the first time.

Second on countback was Mark Lord 77, third Andy Birss 79, fourth on countback Kevin Eighteen 79 and fifth Mike Whitelaw 80.

Summer returned for the monthly stable ford on Saturday, the course had dried out well but the bunkers were all designated ground under repair, which made it a non-qualifier.

This was a shame as John Wood had a really good round of 41 and could have been cut one shot, taking his handicap to 15.

Second came Simon Knight 40, third Tim Woodward 37 on countback from fourth John Garner 37 on countback from fifth Clive Westwood 37.