Bishop continues fine form

For the second year running the Sidmouth ladies have lifted the Spears Trophy, writes Ron Cook.

The competition drew teams from Exonia, Ottery St Mary, Seaton, Madeira, Budleigh Salterton and Honiton.

Jill Bishop and her team Brenda Somerfield, Doreen Pound and Jill Lewis were in great form with a 34-12 success. The runners-up were Honiton on count back.

In the Over-50s double rink the yellow squad took full points thanks to a 42-24 defeat of Shaldon.

Elaine Reed, Jill Lewis and Janet Hughes won 24-9 whilst Betty Farmer, Sylvia Cook and Val Newnham 18-15.

The blue squad also had a good result taking six points from the match against Ottery St Mary.

On the County Scene Jill Bishop continued her fine form by progressing to the fourth round of the Champion of Champions competition with a 21-16 victory over Diana Gardner from Tiverton West End.

Bishop then teamed up with Pat Pritchard, Elaine Reed and Jane Painter to book a place in the semi-quarter finals of the County 4’s.

Further success followed in the County Pairs for Jean Brimson and Eileen Hewett when they led all the way in the Over-70s to beat Madeira pairing Liz Healy and Jan Roberts 15-10. Well done, to all our ladies!

By contrast the Sidmouth men’s teams endured a difficult week in which they played Madeira in Foxlands and County Trophy matches losing both times.

In the County Trophy David Fairclough, Bert Hague, Frank Adlam and Mike Borst made a fine start, but then found themselves 20-15 down after 18-ends. However, they bounced back to win the last three ends to claim a 21-120 victory.

Sidmouth played two friendly matches during the week, taking on first Seaton and then touring side Melksham Town from Wiltshire.

The match against Seaton was very closely fought with Seaton winning all four rinks, but only by six shots overall.

Similarly the Melksham match was very close, each side winning five rinks each.

However, Sidmouth pipped the visitors by a margin of two shots at 192-190.

The successful rinks were; Bill Dunbar Marie Irvine, Chas Coates and Eileen Hewett (22-14); Alex Bent, Dorothy Jones, Derek Mountford and Jenny Fricker (25-16); Ken Day, Annie England, Wilf Radburn and Jane Painter (26-18); Chris Radburn, Dorothy Saville, Jason Quinn and Jill Bishop (25-19) and Janet Thomson, Mike Bolland, Janice Quinn and Pat Pritchard (24-17).

It was very good to see new members playing in each of these winning rinks.