Sidmouth Bowls Club Ladies and Men have played their first National Indoor Competitions, the Ladies in the Yetton Trophy and the Men's Denny Cup, writes Carol Smith. 

Both are knock-out competitions played in the same format, 16 players in four rinks of four players, two rinks home and two away playing simultaneously. This is the first time for a few years that we ladies have entered this tough competition. However, we felt it was good and can also lift your game by playing against strong opposition. 

We were drawn against our Honiton neighbours, who have been in the semi-finals twice in recent years and played through 10 rounds to win the Plate! Sadly, our home rinks didn't fare very well, losing by quite a lot of shots. Although not winning on any rinks, both away rinks did extremely well.

The rink of Jean Brimson, Sue Clint, Anita Mason and skip Jill Bishop lost by just one shot 25- 26 and the rink of Mary Turner, Carol Timms, Karen Hollingdale and skip Carol Smith lost by just two shots 19 -21.  The aggregate score was Sidmouth 67 Honiton 107. We are now in the Yetton Plate against Madeira Ladies.

Now for the Denny Cup, also against Madeira. Unfortunately, the Men’s results were not much better than the ladies, being Sidmouth 62 Madeira 95.  At home, both rinks lost, one by 6 shots the other by 8. Away, over the two rinks, they lost 31 - 50. This means they are now in the Denny Plate against either Torquay United or Torbay.

Sidmouth men also played a friendly game at home against Madeira. This was a rather different story, with Sidmouth winning on all three rinks. The top rink was Paul Irvine, John Mason and skip Ken Wheeler, 28 - 6. Brian Deam, Ron Clint, and skip Don Smith won 17 - 8 and the third rink of Les Crump, Phil Meadows and skip Brian Smith, after 17 ends, were level at 17 all,  but on the final 18th end, scored a magnificent 6 shots to win 23 -17.