East Devon retain 'The Picture'
5th October
On Sunday, 16 of East Devon’s finest golfers made the trip over the hill to Sidmouth for the second leg of the annual “Picture Match”. After a resounding 10.5 – 3.5 victory in the first leg, the team knew that they had to get off to a fast start to avoid a repeat of the scare in the Ryder Cup a week earlier.
Bacon rolls and a coffee were the perfect nutritional start to the day and the team captains announced their sides amidst a flurry of speculation and side bets as to who might win each match. The Captains prepared their teams for battle with the same fervour as Luke Donald and Keegan Bradley, and the East Devon team had a confident look about them as they stepped out onto the course.
A good start was indeed achieved, with two of the four foursomes pairs victorious to give us 3 early points. The County Foursomes champions (Guy Peters & Rory Adams) proving too strong for their opponents and the evergreen pairing of Paul Heys & Jason Wride winning in 3rd group out.
This meant we needed just a win and a half from the singles, and with the strength of the team in the singles, the match was won by Duncan Taylor in the third match after Lewis White in the top singles had secured a point. It was quite apt that these two won the points as they were the pair who secured the winning point to win the Parker trophy just over a year ago.
Two comfortable wins from the excellent Paul Mullerworth and Bob Dawson meant that we couldn’t lose on the day and further points from Tom Sowman’s comeback win and Ian Bevin’s battling half meant that we had secured an 8.5 – 5.5 victory on the day.
Overall, the result was a comfortable 19 – 9 victory, not quite as good as 2024, but still a great performance by the 22 players who played over the two matches. The ‘Picture’ was duly brought back to the club and returned to its rightful place in the clubhouse (see picture of picture). May it remain there for many years to come.
Sidmouth served up a veritable feast for the after-match celebrations and Sidmouth’s President, Club Captain and the indomitable Neil Holland all spoke with great pride about the history of the match as we approach the centenary of the event first played in 1932.
It is hoped that we can restore the fixture to a 36 hole match in the future with the foursomes played in the morning and the singles in the afternoon. With the centenary approaching, it would be a fantastic to have the match played over a full day as it had been for decades in the past.
Neil Sear
Men’s Captain
Bacon rolls and a coffee were the perfect nutritional start to the day and the team captains announced their sides amidst a flurry of speculation and side bets as to who might win each match. The Captains prepared their teams for battle with the same fervour as Luke Donald and Keegan Bradley, and the East Devon team had a confident look about them as they stepped out onto the course.
A good start was indeed achieved, with two of the four foursomes pairs victorious to give us 3 early points. The County Foursomes champions (Guy Peters & Rory Adams) proving too strong for their opponents and the evergreen pairing of Paul Heys & Jason Wride winning in 3rd group out.
This meant we needed just a win and a half from the singles, and with the strength of the team in the singles, the match was won by Duncan Taylor in the third match after Lewis White in the top singles had secured a point. It was quite apt that these two won the points as they were the pair who secured the winning point to win the Parker trophy just over a year ago.
Two comfortable wins from the excellent Paul Mullerworth and Bob Dawson meant that we couldn’t lose on the day and further points from Tom Sowman’s comeback win and Ian Bevin’s battling half meant that we had secured an 8.5 – 5.5 victory on the day.
Overall, the result was a comfortable 19 – 9 victory, not quite as good as 2024, but still a great performance by the 22 players who played over the two matches. The ‘Picture’ was duly brought back to the club and returned to its rightful place in the clubhouse (see picture of picture). May it remain there for many years to come.
Sidmouth served up a veritable feast for the after-match celebrations and Sidmouth’s President, Club Captain and the indomitable Neil Holland all spoke with great pride about the history of the match as we approach the centenary of the event first played in 1932.
It is hoped that we can restore the fixture to a 36 hole match in the future with the foursomes played in the morning and the singles in the afternoon. With the centenary approaching, it would be a fantastic to have the match played over a full day as it had been for decades in the past.
Neil Sear
Men’s Captain