Dawn broke over south-west Pembrokeshire last Thursday, and like many a day we have had this month, the skies were grey and leaden. It was not too long after that the heavens opened, causing many a groan from the Tenby Seniors heading towards the ecclesiastical capital, Dewi Sant. However, the gods in St. Davids were in a very benevolent mood and the skies cleared and a warm sunny afternoon developed to welcome our intrepid band of golfers. My how those dismal faces opened up into beaming grins, at the sight of the delightful change in the weather. Unfortunately, St. Davids could only muster 16 players to host Tenby, and this was made worse when just as vice-captain Brian Waters, in charge of the team this week, was preparing to leave, the St. Davids captain phoned him to say that number had dropped down to 14! The unlucky Tenby pairing to suffer were Brian Morgan and Rod Clarke; both were prepared to play, but as it turned out, Rod never turned up, leaving poor Brian to play by himself. With the several different tees being used to get most of the golfers off within a short space of time, play was well under way within half-an-hour. Now, I hope you will bear with me as I compose this report from my bed in the wee small hours of Friday morning on my laptop, that the words used are somewhat lurid at times, borne on the briefest of phone conversations with Brian plus an e-mail from Clifton John - the latter being caused because Brian's ability to send e-mails from his computer had suddenly become an eternal mystery! Acting as captain of the day, Brian Waters was partnered by Malcolm Arlott. According to Brian, their game was a very keenly fought match, with never more than one hole in it. Unfortunately for Brian and Malcolm, that one hole was lost on the 17th and not being able to do more than half the 18th lost their game. The second game involving John Hall and Alan Yates turned out in a similar vein. However, both John and Alan have been in useful form of late and it was no surprise that they held on for an honourable half. Although the afternoon was warm, the wind started to bluster over the headlands causing problems in club selection. When you looked down at the team pairings and saw Martin Neilan with J. D. R. Williams, this looked a useful pairing, so it came as quite a shock that that they slumped to the biggest defeat of the day by the margin of 6 and 5! Made all the more surprising, as with the rest of the team, there were no more than one or two holes in the margin of the results. That is apart from one special result that I will go into more later. Peter Williams, partnered by Nigel Rimell, was looking forward to seeing his partner benefit by a considerable number of shots and was hopeful of gaining a useful win. Unfortunately, for him and Nigel, things did not quite turn out that way and they went down by one hole. In the next two matches involving John Cook and Derek Bath, two very steady golfers, plus Ken Gouldsbrough and Chris Sierwald, Tenby gained two useful wins by the same margin of one hole, to restore some balance in the overall match, bringing the state of affairs back from 0.5 to 3.5 to 2.5 to 3.5. Now, you may be wondering by now who Tenby were actually playing against due to the lack of names of the opposition; this is because I was not there and I was not given them! There is a small crumb of comfort, however, for any of the team members of St. Davids reading this report in that the final pairing out were Clifton John and Tony Morgan. Clifton was able to advise me that he knew who they were playing against, namely Ken and Geoff Davies, but not the names of the other team members. Clifton and Tony saved the day for Tenby by snatching the last point of the match by winning 2 and 1 to make honours even in the overall result. So we come to the final team member of Tenby, Brian 'Moggy' Morgan; what a shame he had to plough a lonely path across the headland links of St. Davids. Made all the more regretful as he was in inspired form and had a massive 10 and 8 win! One of the problems of playing at St. Davids is where you are going to eat after the match; some of the places used in recent years have left a lot to be desired. However, this year they seem to have come up trumps as the venue selected, The Grove Hotel, provided an excellent meal. To add to this, there is the promise that next year buggies will be available. Results: Brian Waters and Malcolm Arlott lost by 1 hole; John Hall and Alan Yates halved; Martin Neilan and J.D.R. Williams lost 6 and 5; Peter Williams and Nigel Rimell lost by 1 hole; John Cook and Derek Bath won by 1 hole; Ken Gouldsbrough and Chris Sierwald won by 1 hole; Clifton John and Tony Morgan won 2 and 1. Match results: Tenby 3.5 halved with St. Davids 3.5.

J.D.M.