LAST week’s edition of the Courier kindly featured the 50th anniversary of Downes Crediton Golf Club.

The weekend celebrations were a time for looking back over those 50 years, reflecting on the past, the present, and look at the future.

The weekend featured a number of competitions and these were reported in last week’s article.

The article celebrated the opening of the course on June 13, 1976. In fact the golf course origins began a few years earlier with the ideas, the vision, and the gathering of enthusiastic people keen to see a new golf course in Crediton.

To paraphrase from the recorded history of Downes Golf Club, “during the 1960s it became clear to a number of Crediton residents that there was scope for a golf course in the area. Early in 1972, they met with the agent of the Downes Estate and saw the possibility of releasing land to create the new course.”

Indeed online there is quite a bit of information about how the club began. For a simple potted history just go to the Club website and read the ‘About us’ page.

In fact, our website has a great deal of information about the Club. For interested golfers there’s information about how to become a member, and for non-golfers information about our restaurant and bar, which is open to everyone.

Among the many competitions this week on Friday, June 19 the Ladies from Downes played Great Torrington Ladies in the Devon Ladies’ League and recorded a handsome win of 5 to 1.

On the same day two lady members, Fran Shrubsole and Lyn Parry, won the second round of the Doris Willes Little Cup, a Devon Golf competition against Dartmouth, which was played at Stover. This takes them through to the quarter finals.