The past week was certainly another busy one for Sidmouth bowlers with action in both county and national competitions, all with varying results, writes Carol Smith.

It all began with a Wednesday fixture in the County Lane League, with neighbours Madeira providing the opposition.

The format in this competition is one of two rinks playing away and two at home and both our home teams had very good results, winning on both rinks.

One of our away teams lost, but only by a few shots. However, the other away team, the one of Carol Timms, Marie Timms (no relation) and skip Elaine Reed, had an enormous win, bagging a 33-11 success!

So, winning on three rinks led to an overall success of 85 shots to the 56 for Madeira. That meant eight out of the 10 available points were banked and that represents a brilliant result. Well done, ladies.

The following day saw action in the county-wide Foxlands League with a similar format to the day before. Once again the opposition was a neighbouring club, with Honiton the team before us. Sadly, the news was not so good in this encounter as we were only able to secure four points with wins on one home rink and one away, but not by enough overall shots to force a victory.

The successful away team was the one of Jean Brimson, Carol Timms, Valerie Newnham and skip Eileen Hewett, who won 27-15 while the winning home team was the one of Karen Hollingdale, Ann Capon, Susie Bonnell and skip Jill Bishop, who won 22-10. The final score was one of 74 shots to Sidmouth and 79 to Honiton – so near, and yet so far!

Saturday saw the club engaged in a national competition, the Yetton Plate, and this meant a long trip to Westward Ho! to meet Kingsley. It was certainly a misty trip north for the 10am start. Both away teams performed admirably with one drawing and the other losing by just seven shots – a jolly good effort given the early hour the players had to get up at to make the start time!

The home games were dramatic with one rink out in front and the other lagging behind. Things swung backwards and forwards and, at the final count, the home leg finished 40 shots all, which meant an overall seven shots – that slender away reversal – was the difference as Kingsley took the honours with an 85-78 score.

Once again, a case of ‘so near and yet so far’ and, as this is a knockout competition, that’s it for another year!

Sadly, Sunday’s friendly became the latest match to be cancelled – and not by us – as South Dorset were unable to fulfil the fixture; maybe this season there are simply too many games?

We end this latest report with some very good news. It’s about our club colleague Ann Capon, a long-standing member who has done a variety of jobs for the over many years. Well, at the recent club annual general meeting, Ann was awarded a life membership. Furthermore, she also recently achieved enough points to be awarded her outdoor County Badge. Great news, and well done, Ann, from all of us.