On Wednesday afternoon, Sidmouth men played in the quarter-finals of the Devon County Over-60s League, writes Carol Smith.

Their opponents were Torquay, and the Sidmouth men secured a superb win with an overall score of 88 shots to 65.

The two away rinks did really well with one winning by three shots and the other only losing by three shots, leaving the away element of the match all square.

At Sidmouth, the home rink of Dutch Holland, Mick Cox, Norman Brimson and skip Chris Nappin had a terrific win of 29 shots to nine. Indeed, after just 10 ends Sidmouth had opened up a 30-shot lead from which point they never looked back to confidently book a berth in the semi-final where they will meet either Isca or Exonia with that match being played next Wednesday (March 21).

That date was originally set aside for the club to stage the Men’s Captain’s Day, which will now take place the following week on March 29.

The Men’s National Over-60s Rink area final, which includes Devon and Cornwall clubs, took place yesterday at the Plymouth Life Centre.

Sidmouth were involved in the match with Bill Sheerman, John Mason, Ken Wheeler and skip Chris Nappin taking on a four from Cornish club Carnmoggas. For the winners there’s a place in the national finals at Nottingham and news of the match will be here in our report next week.

? Sidmouth men were in action in what was the penultimate match of their Devon Interclub League campaign.

Sidmouth went into the game knowing it would be a tough task for them to get the better of their opponents – unbeaten table-topping Plymouth.

However, despite the odds being stacked against them, the Sidmouth team put up a great show before eventually going down by a margin of 13 shots over the four rinks played.

There was one winning Sidmouth rink and that was the one of Andrew Lowe, Brian Barber, David Fairclough and skip Norman Brimson, who recorded a splendid 26-18 success. Well done, to them.

There was one friendly played at the club over the past week and it was a meeting with Dunkeswell that was reduced from a three rink match to a two rink contest.

Sidmouth won on both rinks with the top rink being the one of Chris Radburn, Jenny Fricker, Ken Tolley and skip Val Newnham, who won 23-9.

Last week’s reporting from the club was all about the ladies, and this week’s news is dominated by the men – so, I wonder what we shall have for you next week?

The end of the indoor season is now less than six weeks away and so most of the club competitions are down to the semi-final stages with the club finals, set for April, rapidly approaching.