Last week, the Tenby Golf Club team entertained friends from Ashburnham in the latest edition of the oldest inter-club fixture in Welsh golf.

In terms of the clubs, membership and the links courses, Tenby and Ashburnham have many similarities. Apparently, the first match was played about 100 years ago.

First out for Tenby were newly-appointed captain, Neil Thomas and Roger Schooling and they proved to be too strong for Ashburnham’s skipper, Glyn John and Huw Davies, who is the club’s steward. The home pair won six and four.

John Morris and Chris Beecher are usually a formidable combination. However, they went down by three and two to Huw Dixon, a fine competitor himself, and Rob Saunders.

Tenby’s third pair also failed. Rob Willcox and Loz Phillips lost on the last to Ian Thomas, a member of Tenby some years ago, and Rob Stevens by the narrowest of margins, one down.

John Gilman and Phil Goodridge comfortably beat Richard Thomas and Daniel Worrall by four and three.

Steve Court and Austin Davies were victorious by an identical score over Ian Binnie, a former Welsh international cricketer, and Simon Gravelle.

Jeremy Peters and Richard Ormond were fortunate that John Jenkins, Ashburnham’s vice-captain, and Tony Washer both had an off day. The Tenby duo won by eight and six.

The seventh game was halved. John Gillespie and Dai Skyrme were one up with one to play against Martin Hale and Peter Evans, but Martin holed a huge putt on the last green for a fantastic birdie.

In the final tie, Barrie Frayne and Piers Bradbury were never behind against Mike Key and Roger Rees, running out four and three winners.

Thus, the Tenby team won the match by five-and-a-half games to two-and-a-half and have now held The Putter for several years.

No doubt, Ashburnham will be intent on reversing the result next year.