For the last few years, since certain chemicals were banned, many bowls clubs have had terrible trouble with the crane fly larvae eating away at our grass roots.

Sidmouth Bowls Club have had awful problems, resulting in several of our rinks being unplayable, even after all the efforts of our greenkeepers Barry and Graham. They have tried all manner of strategies to combat the issue

However after a lot of investigating, we have, at great expense, purchased a roller with thick black plastic sheeting, which covers a third of our green all in one go. This winter has been pretty mild and already there are signs that these pesky grubs are at work destroying the grass roots, so fingers crossed this new method works.

Last week was our furthest winter trip to Westward Ho! for our Ladies Devon County Foxlands League, a long way to go and lose on both rinks! Our rink of Carol Timms, Marie Timms no relation), Sue Turner and myself lost by just 5 shots, which is considered not bad for a very fast , tricky, away rink.

At home one team lost but the quartet of Jean Brimson, Elaine Reed, Zena Johnson and skip Jane Painter had a good win of 27 - 17 , thus saving us from a total whitewash. The total aggregate score was Sidmouth 69 Kingsley 97.

However, this was just slightly better than Sidmouth men’s aggregate score in their County Trophy over 60s against a very strong Exonia team, which ended 59 - 97. They also had one home team save the day with a good win of 21 -15. They were Bill Sheerman, Ian Dudley, Andrew Lowe and skip Ken Wheeler.

Finally, Sidmouth enjoyed a mixed friendly triples game at home against Isca. As a very large club, Isca have many competitive bowlers to choose from. However, we did hold our own on the rink of Paul Irvine, Margaret King and skip Marie Timms, their winning score an impressive 16 - 11. The total score was Sidmouth 43 - Isca 52.

Sidmouth Herald: New protective sheeting for Sidmouth Bowls ClubNew protective sheeting for Sidmouth Bowls Club (Image: Sidmouth Bowls Club)