Another busy week at Sidmouth Bowls Club began with four rinks of ladies making the short trip across to Exmouth to face Madeira in the first of the outdoor season’s friendly fixtures, writes Carol Smith.

As is always the case, the company was great and the half time tea very welcome!

However, the weather was again pretty cool, so most of those playing needed several layers of clothing!

As for the result, that was not good from a Sidmouth perspective as the home side won on three rinks to secure an overall 78-52 win.

The lone Sidmouth success was a superb 19-6 win for the rink of Maggie Masson, Paddy Wrench (welcome back to bowling Paddy), Anita Mason and skip Jill Bishop.

It was also very good to see two of the latest 'new members' at the club, Carol Podmore and Sue Clint, joining in - I just hope the inclement weather did not put them off - it is not always this chilly for outdoor bowls ladies - honest!

Friday saw the visit of the first touring side of the new season with the Swindon Tourists in town!

The team is drawn from two Swindon clubs, Westlecott and Wroughton. For many years, Westlecott were always our first touring team of each outdoor season, but somehow we lost that fixture after 2010.

However, they are now back and I believe they have already booked for next year The tourists were staying at one of our seafront hotels for the long weekend, and, from what was being said, they were delighted with everything about their stay.

We were also blessed with some much improved temperatures and it really did feel a little more like summer with six rinks playing in the sunshine.

There were 24 in the visiting team and, at the halfway mark, all converged on the clubhouse for the most scrumptious Devon cream tea - hope they did it the Devon way with cream first!

When the final wood had been delivered the score was 122-89 in favour of Sidmouth.

However, the tourists got their own back by winning all the raffle prizes! Then, after a drink or two, the visitors all went happily back to their hotel. The best of the home rinks was the one of Peter Broomfield , Sandra Wheeler , Norman Brimson and skip Jill Bishop, who recording an outstanding score of 37-10.