Sidmouth Bowling Club held their annual Charity Coffee morning on bank holiday Monday, writes Susie Bonnell.

Mind you, the extraordinary weather (yes, wall-to-wall sunshine) meant that, with the doors opening at 10am, there was great concern at 9.45am with so few folk seemingly around - it seemed everyone had take to the beach!

Indeed, the bulk of the movement on and around the club green was a seagull sitting down having a rest!

Fortunately, the people began to wander in, then to pour in, as there were many great bargains to be had, cakes to be bought, a welcome cup of tea provided, lovely raffle prizes to be won and a chance to try their hand at target bowls outside.

All this frantic action over a two hour period was in aid of a fantastic local charity - Sidmouth Hospiscare - whose chief executive officer, Gill Ryall, along with a great team of volunteers, came and supported the event. Although, at the time of writing, the total is not confirmed, it looks as though roughly £1,200 was raised that morning. Well done, everyone.

Some of the tired Sidmouth bowlers who had been running stalls that morning even stayed on, after cleaning up, to play in the Fun Drive, organised by Ron Cook.

With new extra ‘rules’ of the game introduced that day, each team was really competitive in their quest to be the overall winner.

That honour fell to winning team, Wilf Radburn, Karen Hollingdale, Phil Meadows and Mike Bolland.

It was a beautiful day, a pleasure to bowl in glorious sunshine, with good friends and many thanks to Ron for organising it.