All Club Competitions are now at the semi-final stage and some ready for the finals at Sidmouth Bowls Club, writes Carol Smith.

It is great to see several of our newer members, both ladies and gents, getting to the final stages of the club competitions, demonstrating their amazing development in the sport. 

Unfortunately, none of our County entries managed to reach the finals.  For anyone that's interested, the Ladies County Finals are being played this weekend (Saturday, March 16 and Sunday, March 17) at Torbay Bowls Club.  

Not sure how many of the Sidmouth men entered County Competitions but I heard Andrew Lowe and Ken Wheeler  needed to travel to Westward Ho! to play their County Pairs against a duo from Kingsley BC.

It was certainly worth the journey, as they won 21 – 10, a tremendous performance on the road. Their next round was again away but this time against two of Exonia's finest. Although having a good game, sadly they lost out on the day, so that's it for another year.

Just a couple of friendlies played for Sidmouth bowlers, as we sent two mixed triples away to Budleigh Salterton. One rink won and the second rink drew, finishing with a very close plus result for Sidmouth at 32 – 29 – they all count, however close the final result.

The players involved were Sue Clint, Wilf Radburn and skip Sue Turner 15 – 12, and Lynn Pike, Chris Radburn and skip Ron Clint 17 -17.

Then came the annual men’s home friendly against Honiton. Knowing Honiton has some very good bowlers, we also put out three pretty strong rinks. Sidmouth were trailing at half-time, but hoping it would all change in the second half. 

Sadly, it wasn’t meant to be for Sidmouth, our tea must have given the Honiton men even more motivation as they just got better, winning on all three rinks with the overall score Sidmouth 37 Honiton 62. However, at the finish, all was very friendly, the bar was open, so time to chew the fat with our old friends from Honiton.