Sidmouth Bowls Club’s Spears Trophy is a ladies invitation match, where six Sidmouth teams play a drive against six local teams, one of many events back on the calendar after the Covid years.
The invited teams came from Honiton, Budleigh, Madeira, Seaton, Ottery and Exonia. The event is kindly sponsored by Churchill Retirement Living, with their Regional Marketing Executive Jo Ridehalgh in attendance. SBC sincerely thank CRL for their ongoing support.
Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves and it was good to see lots of ‘old’ friends. A lovely tea of sandwiches and homemade cakes was organised and by the ladies outdoor committee. Janice Quinn and Sue Clint served the tea, and luckily did the washing up. Ron Clint, Rob Doughty and yours truly kept them hydrated.
Sidmouth were the winners this year, thanks to the team of Jean Brimson, Brenda Somerfield and skip Jill Bishop, with a massive score of plus 25 shots. The best visitors were the Exonia ladies, with a very credible plus 14 shots.
Zena Johnson and John Mason went off to Madeira BC to play our section quarter final of the County Mixed Pairs and the duo started off very well with a six-shot lead. However, as the game progressed, the Madeira pair gained a three-shot lead.
The turning point came when Zena was holding three shots and the opposition lead trailed the jack, giving them two shots. John then trailed the jack into the ditch for one shot. With just two ends to play, there was just a single shot difference, albeit in favour of the opponents. No pressure then!
In the penultimate end, Sidmouth gained five brilliant shots, which took them into the final end four shots ahead, so just the need to get a couple of seconds, if possible.
The Sidmouth pair held their nerve and now move on to play the semi-final on our green on Saturday, July 2 at 10.30am against a team from Ottery. I am sure some support would be really welcome.
Last Sunday, saw the first round of our ladies novice singles, The Nina Cup. This, like most singles, is played with the first to reach 21 shots. Once you win the cup, or any other singles competition, then you are no longer allowed to play in the event, which obviously gives others a chance. It was a lovely sunny, if a bit blustery, morning, and was really good to see so many of our new members entering.
There was one game that was really exciting to watch, that was Joan Crook against Debbie Caine. Debbie was well in the lead for a good part of the game. However, as so often happens in the rollercoaster of a bowls match, Joan gradually caught up, winning several ends by just one shot at a time.
The score was 19 - 18 in Joan’s favour as a classic match unfolded. In the following end, Joan was holding two shots for the match, but with her last wood, Debbie took it away. The score now stood at 19 each and it was Debbie who was holding two shots for the match. Unfortunately, with her last wood, she moved the jack, albeit just slightly but enough to end up with just one shot.
The match went to the 31st end and Joan managed to get the two shots needed to win. I cannot ever remember a singles going on this long. Even Mick their marker reckoned he had done his 10,000 steps in this marathon game.
It was played in such good sprit, sadly someone has to come second. Very well done to both of them for entertaining us and demonstrating the unpredictable nature of bowls.
It was not such good news in the second round of the mixed Tony Allcock National Competition. The Sidmouth team were sadly out-bowled away against Topsham.
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