In the penultimate home game, Tenby Seniors hosted Cardigan last Thursday. What a glorious day it was; it seems that summer has arrived at last. It was a case of donning the shorts and spreading on the sun block. Like the previous week's match, it was a very closely fought one, with most games going to either the 16th or 17th holes.

First on the tee against Tenby captain Des Stone and vice-captain Roy Morgan was Cardigan captain Ken Evans partnered by Chris Burgess. Ken said it was a tight game up to the ninth, but with Des's new lower handicap of 14, "not low enough," said Ken, not affecting his ability to win holes, the Cardie pair succumbed to his prowess. Not that Ken and Chris were out of it. Des said had some of the putts dropped in instead of just sliding close by, it may have been very different. According to Roy, though, Des won 3 and 2, but Roy did have the honour of sinking the winning putt on the 16th. After playing with Bob the Bunker the previous week, Des again had a sand-loving partner and said that Roy spent so much time in the bunkers, he sung Mr. Sandman to cheer him up. Roy was also suffering from some senior moments. First of all he thought he'd lost his very expensive Lidl's wood, but three holes later had an Eureka event when he discovered that he'd put on its wrong head cover and it was in his bag all the time; coupled with this, his lapses continued back in the clubhouse when he thought he'd lost his credit card. Turned up in a pocket he did not look in. Mmmmmm, next year's captain!

Next on the tee were Brian Waters and Jim Martin. Now Jim's home record is not so good this year, in fact he has not won any of them! They were up against an excellent pair, Ted Wells and Brian Preston, who had played together on four previous occasions and not won either, so it seemed Jim had a chance.

On the first hole Jim had a 4 nett 3 to put them one up. The second was halved, but then Brian Preston squared the match with a 4 nett 3 on the third. The game swayed to and fro on the front nine, with pars the norm.

The Cardie pair went into the back nine one up, but two 5 nett 4s at the 10th and 11th from Jim put Tenby one up, which they held on to, with Jim halving the 12th with a three. Over the next four holes mistakes from the Tenby pair, combined with some fine play from Cardigan, saw Jim and Brian go dormie on 16. When Brian Waters could only equal Brian Preston's three on the 17th, the match ended in Cardigan's favour.

Back in the clubhouse, an exuberant Ted and Brian celebrated their first win together; to make matters worse, it came to light that Brian Preston, who was limping in the latter stages, was off to Abbeyville in France next week for a private hip replacement. So you could say Jim and Brian were beaten by a cripple!

Coming into this match, Newman Vincent was coming off two successive defeats. When he, with partner John Hall, found themselves four down after five to the Cardigan pairing of Ken Hadley and Brian Huggett, things were looking a bit ominous. The fifth was a bitter blow for Newman, who would have driven the green, but unfortunately the right-hand greenside bunker got in the way, making Newman feel as sick as the proverbial parrot!

Although the Cardie pair continued to play some splendid golf going out, parring most holes, Newman and John never lost another hole after the fifth. On the back nine, though, the pressure of not winning holes told on Ken and Brian and when the Tenby pair won four holes in a row from the 12th, they had clawed their way back into the lead. They went on to record an excellent win on the 17th.

In the fourth match between Geoff Aston partnered by Derek Bath and Peter Talbot and Mike King not a lot was said, not from Geoff that is. Mike King, a former Glamorgan county golfer, a sprightly young 83-year-old, playing off nine, was most put off by the lack of conversation coming from Geoff. Mike went on to say, and I quote here, "Geoff is a miserable sod out on the course". Yet he said after they, Geoff and Derek, had won their match on the 17th, Geoff could not stop talking! Well that is the cocoon-like way that our Geoff plays Mike. Mike also made that eternal comment we hear about our loveable 'Bubbles' being a bandit. Apart from losing two holes to the group in front and Geoff putting his playing partners in their place on the tees, the game was played in a normal sort of manner.

Malcolm Arlott and Owen Monaghan were fighting a rearguard battle against Peter Sutton and Fred Curtis. The Cardigan pairing looked to be cruising to a comfortable win, when they went four up coming off the 12th. They then had a spate of losing golf balls and Owen Monaghan hitting some good form.

Owen won the 13th and 14th, they then halved the 15th, before Owen took the 16th to reduce the arrears to one.

With nerves jangling, Fred restored the calm and won the match for Cardigan with a fine birdie putt on the 17th. In the sixth match, the Cardigan pair of Dave Edwards and Hywel Richards ran into a whirlwind called Brian 'Moggy' Morgan and Bob 'Bunker' Howse. Both Moggy and Bunker had poor games in their previous matches at Milford and were straining at the leash to restore things to norm. In the sort form they hit this week, they were unstoppable and ran up the day's biggest win 8 and 7.

The Cardigan pair said they were totally perplexed by the way Moggy and Bunker kept interchanging, playing first right-handed, then left-handed. It seemed to matter not a jot, as in either hand they played majestic golf. Hywel complained of a ripped finger nail; Moggy said it was caused by nail-biting.

On the 11th, Moggy gave Dave a line on a ship's mast on the horizon; trouble was by the time Dave played the shot, the ship had moved somewhat.

As a showpiece finale on the 18th, Moggy, from two feet off the green, sank a 50-foot putt; just to show that he could do the same, Bunker repeated the feat from almost the same spot.

In a similar vein, but not quite so drastic was the following game. Martin Neilan partnered by Chris Sierwald started off very comfortably by winning the first two holes against Mike Allen and Keith Lewis, of Cardigan. However, every time that Martin and Chris thought they had things tied up, the Cardie pair kept fighting back.

On the 10th hole Martin hit a massive drive of 315 yards, only to spoil it by three-putting for a bogey five. Chris was proving very helpful for Martin, backing him when needed. The match eventually went to the 17th and, despite both Cardie players having putts to take the match down 18, both lipped out to lose it. It was Mike Allen's first visit to the Tenby course and he said, although they lost, he looked forward to returning soon. Martin puts this down to post traumatic stress disorder.

The Tenby pairing of Ken Gouldsbrough and Tony Ranoe combined well in the final game against Ken Robinson and Mike Amphlett. The Tenby pair went three up at the turn, but despite Ken Robinson pulling one back on the back nine, they never really got in touch with the Tenby pairing. Tenby's Ken did say that 25-handicapper Mike made it difficult for them, as he played well.

Ken Robinson was finding the hard infrastructure of the Tenby course not very forgiving and was suffering from an old knee injury and the hard ground played it up. Also, on the 15th, Ken Robinson totally misread the yardage markers; what he thought was the 150-yard marker was in fact the 100-yard marker and struck his approach shot, over the green, over the hedge and cannoned off the caravan in Lifters Cottage garden! The Tenby pair then went on to win the match on the next hole.

At the after proceedings, Des warmly welcomed Ken Evans and the Cardigan team on what turned out to be a glorious afternoon. He went on to elaborate some on his partner's ability to find bunkers. Des asked Roy if he would like him to point out where the bunkers were, but Roy responded by telling him not to bother, as he would show them to him!

In his response, Ken thanked Lynne and her staff for an excellent meal, but said he was not so happy about the long rough, saying "Us pensioners can't afford to keep buying golf balls". Just as well Ken you did not play Tenby back in June- July, your round would have ended by about the third or fourth hole as we were playing off 20 -yard wide fairways then. Chris, the greenkeeper, has been rather kind to us lately by stretching the rough to rough width up to 40 yards now, plus the dry spell has reduced the growth somewhat.

Results: Des Stone/Roy Morgan bt Ken Evans/Chris Burgess 3 and 2; Brian Waters/Jim Martin lost to Ted Wells/Brian Preston 2 and 1; Newman Vincent and John Hall bt Ken Hadley/Brian Huggett 2 and 1; Geoff Aston/Derek Bath bt Peter Talbot/Mike King 2 and 1; Malcolm Arlott/Owen Monaghan lost to Peter Sutton/Fred Curtis 2 and 1; Bob Howse/Brian Morgan bt Dave Edwards/Hywel Edwards 8 and 7; Martin Neilan/Chris Sierwald bt Mike Allen/Keith Lewis 2 and 1; Tony Ranoe/Ken Gouldsbrough bt Ken Robinson/Mike Amphett 3 and 2. Tenby 6 Cardigan 2 J.D.M