THIRTY-seven Dainton seniors braved Arctic-like conditions to play a stableford competition, after which new captain John Strainge marked the start of his year of office with his drive-in.

The seniors were each given a marker to place at the spot where they thought the drive might end up (cruelly, there were quite a few on the ladies' tee!).

As his fellow players looked on encouragingly, Strainge took to the first tee for his drive. All watched with bated breath as the ball went straight and true for a while but, as luck would have it, a gust of wind must have caught it because it ended up in the rough on the left side of the fairway, and to save embarrassment a measurement was not taken.

The lucky winner who guessed where the drive would end was Brian Ainsworth, who had seen him hit the exact shot when they were playing together earlier in the day, although, oddly enough, he could not recall any gust of wind interfering with play at the time!

Stableford result – division one: 1 Brian Ainsworth 42 points, 2 Richard Clare 41, 3 PeterTaverner 41; division two: 1 John Green 44 points, 2 Barry Metcalf 42, 3 John Robinson 41.