Sidmouth Bowls Club travelled to Torbay for their first mixed away friendly of the winter season, writes Carol Smith.

Torbay's Indoor Season started 10 days earlier than ours, so they had time for a little more practice, and the indoor greens are a different pace. Our players struggled to start and at tea-time, we were down 12 - 26. 

Tea must have done some good, as at 14 ends, we took the lead 32 -29. However, with four ends to play, the lead disappeared and the overall score was Sidmouth 41 Torbay 53. Our top rink was skip David Timms, Simon Gregory and Marie Timms, 18 - 13.

The ladies played a friendly at home to our neighbours from Madeira and good to see old friends. An excellent match ended Sidmouth 44 Madeira 51. One of our rinks were streets ahead, only to lose by just one shot after the opposition shortened the jack length. We really need to practice more on short jacks!

My rink was nip and tuck most of the way, but went into the final end 3 shots down. Luckily, I managed to take the jack to our back woods for 4 shots, so a good result for us, winning 16 -15. My team were Lynn Pike, Karen Hollingdale and yours truly.

Newton Abbot were the next visitors in fixtures of three mixed rinks. Being mixed, you try to select a similar amount of both sexes. However, they only managed to bring one lady and eleven men! A very friendly afternoon was had by all and, although losing, they are returning later in the year.

The overall score was Sidmouth 52 Newton Abbot 39. From our three rinks, one lost by two shots, one won by seven shots and our top rink of Sue Clint, Chris Ward, David Timms and skip Jill Bishop won by eight shots, 21-13. 

Many of our internal league have started and our top coach Allan Davis is very busy helping the new members. The internal competitions are looming and the Men’s Captain Paul Irvine is pretty busy, as are the joint Lady Captains of Sue Turner and Marie Timms, their second year in the role, so it’s all systems go.