Sidmouth bowlers played three friendly matches in the closing week of February, writes Ron Cook.

First up was a visit to Taunton where the Sidmouth bowlers found the going tough with just one rink taking honours. That was the one skipped by Jean Green and also comprising of Dave Lever, Liz Boyle and Derek Mountford, who enjoyed a 16-11 success as Taunton secured an overall 78-30 victory.

It was a similar story on the visit to Dawlish where again, only one skip managed to bag a win. That was the ne Kevin Walsh, Joan Monaghan, Katherine Hunt and skip Ken Robertson who helped secure a single shot overall success thanks to their 36-6 win. The final score was 61-60 in favour of Sidmouth who recorded a 70-46 victory. Two of the three Sidmouth rinks were winners with the one of Pat Hague, Mick Cox, Wilf Radburn and skip Bert Hague taking no prisoners in their 35-10 success.

In the run up to the indoor season’s conclusion all the Sidmouth club leagues are finely balanced.

In the Potburys League Madeira Beachcombers top the table with 22 points closely followed by Sidmouth Matadors on 18.

In the League Cup there were two cracking games played last week.

Matadors and Honiton Falcons met with Matadors prevailing to book a place in the final and Lyme Smugglers had a very good win against league leaders Beachcombers to book their place in the final which will take place on presentation night, April 7.

In our Internal leagues it is still all to play for with no one team at this stage looking like a clear winner. Jays top the Nominated Triples League with 24 points ahead of Whisperers, who have a game in hand, on 20.

Ferrari and Mercedes are neck and neck with 12 points each in the Tuesday Triples League.

Robins are ahead in the Twitchers on 40 with the Blackbirds and Finches each on 37; with five games to go it is still an open race.