Dartmouth Golf Club senior section

Monday morning, with the air damp with a heavy mist, made it difficult for some of the early starters as some 33 of Dartmouth Golf Club's seniors took part in the first round of their Seniors Cup competition.

This is one of the most seriously contested competitions in the seniors' calendar and takes the form of a medal competition which is played over five rounds, with the best three scores to count.

Although a bad round can eventually be discarded, it is always good to get off to a flying start and this week it was Martin Howlett who showed a clean pair of heels to the rest of the players, coming in with a two under par score of 70.

Next up was Barrie O'Shea with a 71, closely followed by Mike Whitelaw with an even par round of 72 and Dave Parnell with a 74; Martin and Barrie have now had their handicaps reduced by one shot.

For the remainder of the field, they will have to wait until June 8 before they get the chance to post a better score.

There was only one two scored on the day and that was by Bob Wotton on the par-three third hole.

The seniors have also been busy playing in the first round of the prestigious Emerton Court competition. This is a knockout team competition for all the clubs in Devon, played on a home and away basis.

Dartmouth's first match was at home to Holsworthy Golf Club and the team got away to a fine start with wins for four of the five pairs.

Geoff Jewell and Geoff Penhale got the team off to a flying start, winning their match four and three, and when Mike White­law and Tony Hall won the next match by the same score, four and three, things looked very promising.

Unfortunately Colin Cooper and George Reeve just failed to make it three in a row, going down at the very last moment to lose two and one.

Things were soon back on track, however, when Tony Andrew and Bernard Young recorded the next win two and one and when Mike Shalders and Bob Wotton came in winners four and three, it ensured that Dartmouth take a healthy lead for the return away match at Hols­worthy on May 29.

In these matches it is traditional that two travelling reserves also play and it was good to see that Dartmouth's Bob Benns and Steve Mayer also proved too strong for their opponents.