Following a couple of weeks of inclement weather, we finally got back to entertaining some touring teams, writes John Mason.

The police came in force and on Friday it was Rugby with a mainly men’s team who brought six rinks.

They were staying in Sidmouth for the duration of their tour and were provided with lunch on their arrival by our ladies. With the support of a few ladies of our own it was a closely fought game with only five shots separating the teams at the finish. Rugby Police just edged victory, but it was noteworthy that both our ladies’ captain Jill Bishop with John Greenaway, David Butler and Chris Rourke, and our men’s captain Mike Borst with Ann Capon (joint ladies’ captain), Ray Tallent and Bill Sheerman both recorded top rinks (plus 9).

Saturday saw police reinforcements with a team of eight rinks representing the Avon and Somerset constabulary. Their attempt to confuse the local bird life with a cockerel of their own drew derision from the seagulls!

Another closely fought game ensued and again with only a five-shot difference. This time it was the hosts who prevailed with a magnificent top rink win by Ken Bridgman, Trevor Smith, David Fairclough and Norman Brimson (skip) by 39 shots to 9 shots!

On Monday, the fine weather continued for the visit of Cornwall Masonic for a triples match over five rinks, but despite a significant win by Ann Capon and Jill Bishop, the joint ladies captains, together with Derek Mountford they alone could not prevent our visitors from recording an overall seven shot win. And another touring team, this time from Surbiton, came on Tuesday with a team of four triples. Sidmouth won three of the four rinks and overall by 11 shots in no small thanks to Jim Brown, Jenny Fricker and Ken Wheeler (skip) who managed a convincing win of 26-12.

Cream teas have been the order of the day for all the matches this week and waistlines have been suffering!

The competition finals are now upon us and they will conclude on Saturday (September 12) with 43 different individuals having participated over the three days. We hope the weather holds and wish good luck to all the competitors.