Although the weather has not been too kind over the past week four of the six opening Ottery St Mary Bowls Club fixtures were played, writes Michael Smith.

Unfortunately the annual match between the president’s team and the chairman’s team fell foul of the weather as did a scheduled friendly at Bovey Tracey.

The home match against Heavitree saw a big win for the visitors as they were victorious on five rinks with just one drawn rink resulting in a 146-70 win for the Exeter side.

The first touring side of the season arrived on Saturday in the form of the Island Bohemian BC who hail from an island in the River Thames near Reading Berks.

The only way to get to the club is by boat, apparently they’ve only lost one or two over the side!

It was a very hard fought close game with the visitors just winning 81-75.

Ottery won on two rinks and another was drawn.

Sadly the weather curtailed the match to 15/16 ends, but a great atmosphere in the club house and a fond farewell, saw our guests leave in great spirits.

Two away fixtures again saw Ottery on the wrong end of the score line!

However there was some success with three rinks winning in the match at Feniton who claimed the other two and also took the match honours 97-82.

A similar fate awaited us at Honiton where we succumbed to a 116-103 defeat.

There were big wins for us on two of the rinks with Freda Hunt, Margaret Shiel, Ray Luscombe and Skip Brian Baker winning 28-10.

Tony Bushell got the County campaign under way with a 21-16 win in a 4-woods singles against an opponent from Axminster.

Competitions start in earnest now, and with a full fixture list, the summer promises to be a hectic, albeit enjoyable affair.