Sidmouth Bowls Club entertained a day tour from Swanage and it was another marvellous advert for the local game, writes Carol Smith.

Their coach arrived at 10 .30am for the 2pm game. They arrived early, so they could have a good look around our town and get some lunch. It was an absolutely stunning afternoon’s weather, looks like summer has arrived and let's hope it stays. 

Halfway through the game, the visitors were served a Devon cream tea by Anita, Paddy and Liz. At that time, Sidmouth were in front by 12 shots. However, the game often changes In the second half.

Luckily for us, it didn't change too much, as the final score was a tight Sidmouth 93 Swanage 91. We won on two rinks, lost on two and drew on one. Everyone enjoyed the day and at the finish, the bar, manned by Karen, Ron and myself, was pretty busy. Our top team was Brian Deam, Edward Colman, Brenda Somerfield and skip Jill Bishop with a great score of 25 - 6.

Also in the previous week, several knockout National and County Competitions took place. 

It started with the Ladies Devon County Two wood Competition. Our own Jane Painter played at Seaton BC and won three rounds to put her the winner of our Section 3B, now moving through to the last 16 in the County. She will be off to Paignton BC in early July to play another three rounds to get through to the final. This will be played against other winners of different sections and everyone at Sidmouth BC really wishes her all the very best.

Next came the Ladies National TopClub, which is slightly different from our Devon TopClub, as it has just 4 disciplines. This means that you need to win three disciplines to proceed, or win two with a better shot difference than your opposition.

In this first round, the Sidmouth Ladies were drawn away to Madeira (Exmouth). We put on a good show with Jane Painter winning the singles, and Mary Turner, Anita Mason and Jill Bishop winning the triples. Unfortunately, both our pairs and 4's lost and the shot difference was in favour of Madeira, so better luck next year ladies!

Our second team in the National Mixed Tony Allcock Over 60's x 2 rinks were also drawn against Madeira. The Sidmouth rink of John Richards, Sue Turner, Brenda Somerfield and skip Brian Smith had a good win of 16 - 13. 

Our second rink didn't fare so well against a very strong side, so another one bites the dust, but it is still very important to enter these Competitions to help improve our game.  I might add, in the past, we have done well in such competitions, so we have high hopes for the future. The overall score was Sidmouth 23 Madeira 34.

Last year’s Club Ladies Singles Champion, Jill Bishop, has played the first round of the Champion of Champions. This was at home against Jean Chudley from Topsham and it was a very close game most of the way before Jean went in front by six shots to 14 -20 . Jill was holding four shots to be in with a chance, then with her last wood Jean drew shot to win.

The busy spell of bowls continued, as next came a mixed friendly away to, yet again, Madeira BC.

On a beautiful sunny afternoon, the greens were running well and the company was great, what more can you ask for? Well, although friendly, the aim is still to win and we certainly did that, as the overall score was Sidmouth 99 Madeira 58. Our top rink with an amazing score of 35 -3 were Chris Radburn, Keith Pollit, Anita Mason and skip Mike Borst.