Sidmouth ladies launched their bid for Yetton Trophy success last weekend, writes Carol Smith.

The Yetton is a national trophy contested by ladies and the competition allows you two bites at the cherry in as much as first round losers go into the Yetton Plate.

The main competition and plate matches are all played simultaneously under the format of two rinks at home and two away.

Hence, some of us arose very early to go to Kingsley Bowls Club, which is to be found at Westward Ho! Last year we lost our opening Yetton Trophy match, beaten by Plymouth, and so went into the Plate where we met Kingsley.

However, it did not go well as we suffered defeat, which made the outcome of this year's meeting all the sweeter! The overall result this time round was Sidmouth 102, Kingsley 71.

In the away element of the fixture we had one rink that recorded an enormous 37-10 success.

The team comprised of Jan J Bates, Mary Turner, Ann Capon and skip Jill Bishop (could it be the new woods?).

The other three teams also did well with Jane's team winning by 12, Susie's team being edged out by the smallest of margins - a single shot - and Carol's team went down by seven on a rink that was totally one-handed - even the home team didn't use the ditch side.

We now proceed to play Torbay in the next round - mind you, that's something of a relief, for had Torbay not won their first round game then we'd be planning a trip to Newquay.