After the Christmas break, Sidmouth men kicked off the new year with their fifth and, indeed, penultimate match in the Over-60s League, writes Ken Wheeler.

Playing against a strong Torbay side [Torbay’s membership numbers almost treble those of Sidmouth], Sidmouth started really well, and, after 10 ends, led by 36 shots to 31.

After 15 ends the lead had stretched to 12 shots. However, it all then went pear-shaped and a poor finish resulted in Sidmouth finally losing by 19 shots (70-89).

The one bright spot was the home rink of Chas Coates, Norman Brimson, John Mason and skip Bob Seldon, who held on to win 18-16.

This meant that Sidmouth picked up just three points in their quest for a top four finish and a place in the quarter finals of this competition.

We currently lie in fourth place and probably need to win our final game against ISCA in a couple of weeks to be sure of a quarter-final spot.

A few days later, on Saturday morning, we played Kingsley in the Interclub League.

As at Torbay, we made a great start leading 41-27 after 10 ends and increasing this lead to 22 shots after 15 ends.

It was then almost a case of déjà vu as our lead slowly got whittled away, but this time we did manage to hold on and eventually achieved a fine victory, albeit by just four shots, 82-78.

Sidmouth managed to win two of the four rinks played.

A big highlight came from the rink of Andrew Lowe, Dutch Holland, Mark Stephens and skip Ken Wheeler, who achieved what was a splendid 31-11 victory at Kingsley to ensure Sidmouth banked 10 out of 14 available points.

This win moves Sidmouth up to a very respectable mid-table position with three games remaining to be played.