WITH a slight improvement in the weather, it is good to report on some competitions played over the last week or so.

On Saturday, February 14, Valentines Day, a good sized field took on a limited course for a Medalford competition.

Conditions were still challenging, but there were some very reasonable scores recorded over the shortened course. The wining score of 29 points was returned by Stephen Yates.

On the following Monday the Seniors competed in a Canadian Greensomes. This time the weather permitted a full course, and a combined score of 39 points by Colin Hatherly and Don Mallett won the day.

Readers not used to golf may well ponder on the terminology used in the sport. In this particular case, the names given to the various competition formats.

The two competitions mentioned above are good examples.

What is a Medalford, or a Canadian Greensomes? Other formats include Match Play and Stroke play.

There are Medals and Stablefords. There’s also Better Ball, Fourball and Foursomes, which you can probably have a good guess at what is involved.

But some competitions have very strange names, for example a Texas Scramble, a Gruesomes, a Bingo Bango Bongo, or even a Skins. There’s never a dull moment playing golf!

Last week our article described the training work of the Royal Marine Engineers on our course.

Quite a large team spent several days working on the course. We are very grateful to them for their hard work.

CTC Lympstone remains the primary training hub for Royal Marines, preparing them for rapid deployment, including disaster relief operations worldwide.

In the past they have been deployed as far as British Virgin Islands, Anguilla, and Turks and Caicos Islands.

Recently have been involved in direct, localised disaster relief and community support, in addition to large-scale international hurricane relief.