Dartmouth Golf Club

Men’s section

Sunshine greeted the 26 ­players who gathered for the Wednesday circus.

Considering what the fairways and greens have taken recently, the course is in tremendous ­condition.

All was well until the last 20 ­minutes, when the heavens opened and spoiled the day.

Not for Mike Griffiths, though. His first 20-foot putt went straight in without touching the sides; he could do no wrong, and when he faced a 40-foot putt with a two-foot break on the 12th and sank it, you could guess the rest.

Mike managed to keep himself together – and this despite his ­playing partners doing their best to put him off.

He completed his round without a blemish and scored a staggering 42 points.

George Reeve was the closest to him with 35 – most of the other ­players were only in the 20s.

George shared the front nine with Mike, but other than that Mike had a clean sweep – hopefully he treated his wife to something nice.

A different problem greeted the players for the Saturday ­circus, and that was the course being frozen.

Eventually play commenced at 10.45am. Ian Metchette and vice-­captain Sean Guy were in charge. Ian has resurrected the circus to what it used to be – £5 entry, £1 of which goes to the circus final held in October, with a grand prize table.

Fines have been reintroduced along with a lot of banter and ­laughter – it’s what it’s all about.

The biggest field of the year ­gathered to play and enjoy the sun and – mercifully – it didn’t rain on their parade.

John Garner won the front nine with 21. Mike Griffiths commented that it was good to see him back to his best around the greens.

The day, though, belonged to Ed Mitchel: playing off a ­handicap of eight he blasted his way around to score 38, winning it by two from John – a very nice bonus, as in two weeks he is off on holiday, now with some beer money tucked away.