The week that was in Sidmouth - fuel station changes and national TV exposure

Mike Dibble Picture: contributed (Image: Picture: contributed)

After the excitement of the recent events in the town I have to admit that this week has been a lot harder to think about what to write about.

The rail strikes have forced the Literary Festival to be cancelled which is very sad. At one stage the highlight of the week was the local petrol station changing from Gulf fuel to Jet! This has thankfully been overtaken in the excitement stakes by various other bits of news.

Firstly a couple of local businesses are on the move with their new premises being currently updated. Good luck to both businesses and all will be become clear very soon.

One business is moving to the top of the High Street and another one is relocating further down the High Street. Watch this space for further announcements.

I went to watch glam rock tribute band T Rextasy at the Exmouth Pavilion last week and I was delighted to see I wasn’t the only old rocker from Sidmouth in attendance.

The band won the title of best tribute band in a BBC programme a few years ago and it is easy to see why.

Sidmouth featured on the Lorraine programme last Friday on ITV.

The programme had two correspondent weathermen in the town, including Met Office weatherman Alex Deakin, and they held a discussion on global warming and the warm weather of last week. They were based on the beach near the rock groynes. Several sea front scenes were shown. All good publicity for our wonderful town.

On the arts scene The Manor Pavilion Theatre Summer Play Festival started on June 20 with a thriller (Perfect Murder), followed by a comedy (Lucky Numbers) a week later on June 27.

The plays are running from Mondays this year for a change. The festival runs through to mid September with a good mix of old and new.

There was a thrilling game at Sidmouth Cricket Club last Saturday when the 1st XI beat Bovey Tracey by one run. It was a nail biting finish with the match going down to the last ball.

The match was played in interesting weather conditions and the forecast rain certainly had an effect upon the game. I will not go into too much detail about the Duckworth Lewis system but basically you know where you need to be during the second innings in relation to the target required.

The match continued with light rain on occasions but as the rain was never heavy it continued for the full duration.

It was a little bit of a distraction for the batting team but they got themselves ahead of the Duckworth Lewis score with Bovey Tracey’s overseas player scoring a magnificent 121.

However it was not enough to get them over the line. They only needed four runs to win off the last over but three wickets were to fall as Sidmouth gained an amazing victory.

There were mixed fortunes for the other two sides with the 2nd XI losing against Alphington and Countess Wear and the 3rd XI winning at Woodbury and Newton St Cyres.

Unfortunately in the second eleven game five Sidmouth players were dismissed for ducks!

Last Friday I visited Branscombe Cricket Club for the first time to watch the local side play a Sidmouth rugby club eleven.

You will find a report hopefully in the sports section of this paper but it was a very entertaining evening and what a delightful location the ground is in. A new pavilion is being constructed which will be a fantastic facility.

Finally the Rugby Football Union have announced the league structure for next season. Sidmouth will play in the Regional 2 Tribute South West League.

Other teams in the league are Bridgwater, Chard, Crediton, Newton Abbot, North Petherton, Sherborne, St Austell, Teignmouth, Truro, Wadebridge and Wellington. The season is due to start on September 3rd and end on March 11th.