The past week has been a busy one for all concerned at Sidmouth Bowls Club, writes Carol Smith.

There's been action in terms of individual, national, county and club competitions. What's more, in addition to the aforementioned there has also been the usual run of action in both internal and external leagues, keeping everyone busy!

There were also a number of friendly matches, which are always a pleasure to be able to report on.

There was a ladies' friendly against our good friends and neighbours at Budleigh Salterton.

The match was played as a two rink away game (Budleigh only have two rinks) and the rink of Pat Harvie, Jean Green and skip Zena Johnson enjoyed an excellent 22-17 win.

As for the 'other team' - well, no names and no pack drill, as the saying goes.

However, suffice to report that the 'other team' suffered what is best described as 'a disastrous game, darling', losing by rather more shots than I care to mention!

On the positive side, not all is lost as we do play them twice in the season both home and away and, as we drew against them in our first home game, we still have a chance to exact sweet revenge when we meet again in our second home meeting.

Sidmouth men played their second fixture of the Devon Interclub League and this involved a meeting with near neighbours Honiton.

Unfortunately, they lost on three of the four rinks and the aggregate score was Sidmouth 54, Honiton 80.

The successful Sidmouth rink was the one of Dutch Holland, Tim Crow, Mick Cox and skip Ken Wheeler, who chalked up a very good score of 20-11.

A special mention for Tim Crow, who, although he only started bowling a few months ago, certainly has got an eye for the ball.

He has obviously been practising hard as he made a very impressive debut in this competitive league.

Keep up the good work Tim!

There were a couple of home friendlies; one against Mid Devon (Tiverton) and one against our Ottery neighbours.

The Mid Devon meeting resulted in a seriously close contest with one rink losing by just three shots, one drawing and one winning by four shots, which all added up to a 52-51 Sidmouth success.

Well done, to our top rink of David Andrew, Ann England, Chris Radburn and skip Chas Coates.

Ottery St Mary do not have an indoor green, but they do use the rink at Honiton for matches.

The Otters won on one of the three rinks played while the home side were winners on the other two.

The top Sidmouth rink was the one of Mary Bristow, Sue Clint, Tim Crow and that Wilf Radburn, again, who registered the most impressive score of 30-14. It all helped towards an overall Sidmouth success of 73-49.

I would like to mention that it's great to see several of our new members participating in these friendly games and getting to know people from other clubs as well as our own players in this great game of ours.