The past week was certainly one that brought mixed fortunes for the Ottery St Mary bowlers, writes Michael Smith.

The men’s Over-60s League A team suffered their first defeat of the season, losing on both rinks at home to Tiverton West End A and the B team continued their poor start to the season, losing again, this time on both rinks away at Cullompton.

On the flip side of that was the ‘result-of-the-week’ with the C team claiming their first ever match win away to top-of-the-table Topsham D.

Richard Chapple, Ken Dennis and skip Ray Luscombe were 16-10 winners whilst Graham White, Brian Braund and skip Mick Cissell had an excellent 27-10 win and so the C team banked their first ever haul of eight points. Well done, to captain Ray Luscombe and his squad for persevering over a tough couple of years.

The ladies’ faired somewhat better than the men as they won Ladies Over-50 Triples League matches. First up an overall home win against Exonia with Jill White, Moyra Griffin and skip Shirley Fewtrell on the winning rink (19-14).

Next the ladies had another overall win at home to Chagford, with Pam Baker playing against her previous club, despite Ottery taking the points, I did see the Chagford ladies giving Pam a hug after the match!

Finally, on the competitive front, in The Foxlands, Ottery men came away with an overall win against Axminster by four shots. There was an 18-11 away defeat, but a home win of 24-13 saw the team through. That successful home team was John Ward, Steve Hall, Peter Jones and skip John Pethick.

In the friendly fixtures Ottery were at home to Chudleigh and, in a very close match, Chudleigh won on three rinks and Ottery on two, but Ottery came away with the win by just one shot!

The ladies sent three triples to close neighbours Honiton, winning one rink each and drawing the other, but thanks to Val Kille, Molly Parker and skip Shirley Fewtrell with a fine 28-4 win, they won the match 56-34.

Over the past weekend Ottery welcomed firstly Dunkeswell, a match that saw the home side win on three rinks and by an overall score of 90-54.

The best performing winning rink was the one of Jo Sarton, Brian Braund, Michael Potter and skip Kevin Vernon who won 34-12.

The following day Wootton Bassett BC pitched up with six rinks for what proved to be a keenly contested match that saw the rinks shared three each, with Ottery just edging the overall victory at 133-121.

The best winning rink being that of Pam Baker, Maggie Beighton, John Ward and skip Margaret Bright (30-14).