Eleven ladies went off to Madeira BC to play the Grace Matthews TopClub knockout competition. The weather, although threatening, was very kind, the sun shone through and the rain held off for once.
There are five disciplines in this competition, with the need to win three to proceed , and what an exciting game it turned out to be. It was a pleasure to watch, as all of our ladies played so well against Madeira ladies.
Jane Painter won the 4 wood singles with ease and a great score of 21- 9. The triples of Carol Timms, Jan Thomson, and skip Anita Mason had a great game and won with a brilliant score of 29 –8.
The pairs, played by Karen Hollingdale and Susie Bonnell, was a tight game with the score being no more than a couple of shots difference all the way through. On the 18th end, it was 16 all and just three ends to go.
Madeira scored on the next two ends, which meant going into the final end three shots down at 16-19 . It was asking an awful lot of our duo to get 3/4 shots from Jan Roberts and Janine Orchard in just one end.
We needed three to draw, as it would then have been the overall shot difference that counted. This would mean a win for Sidmouth as, although the 4's and 2 wood singles lost, it was not by too many. Or we needed 4 shots to win on three of the five disciplines to go through. No pressure then!
Karen was holding shot but, by the time Susie came to bowl, she was down. This didn't faze Susie and with her third wood took the jack through to two of Karen's woods, therefore holding a possible three shots. Janine with her last wood missed the line, so down to Susie now with her last wood.
A very tense moment then, as Susie put a weighted shot up into the pile, which held several of our woods and hit one of our woods clean, so up towards the jack it went. It was definitely 3 to us but a measure for 4, and we won in dramatic fashion. It was a great team game and the next round, which is the section 3 final, is away to Seaton.
Sidmouth men also had a good result in the third game of the County Trophy League against Seaton, winning on two home rinks and on aggregate 88 -72.
The home rink winners were John Richards, Wilf Radburn, Allan Davis and skip John Mason 27-12, and Ray Tallent, Mark Leavers, Roger Stewart and skip Ken Wheeler 26-13.
Both of these rinks also won last week, playing away at Feniton. By 8pm, It was getting a little cold and windy at Seaton, and both Sidmouth rinks lost, but not by too many.
The ladies Yellow over 50s played away to Honiton and had two very close encounters. The trio of Liz Boyle, Karen Hollingdale and skip Sue Turner won 18-15, and Maggie Masson, Anita Mason and skip Brenda Somerfield lost 18-19, leaving the final score 36 Sidmouth 34 Honiton and 4 of the 6 points to Sidmouth. Good result.