A ‘Hotshot’ rink for Sidmouth bowlers ensured plenty of points in the Men's Over 60's County Trophy League, writes Carol Smith. 

Playing against Plymouth ‘B’ team, Sidmouth lost both home rinks and one away, but a mammoth win in the final rink saved the day. At home, one team was winning 17-14 but dropped five shots on the final end to lose by two points.

Thankfully, the huge 33-12 win, which included a rare ‘hotshot’ end where they scored with all eight woods, proved pivotal, so well done to Andrew Lowe, David Cockburn, Paul Irvine and skip Ken Wheeler. Their win was enough to give Sidmouth the overall victory of 83 - 78. 

Sidmouth, although only winning on one rink, banked 11 points and Plymouth, winning on three rinks, scored just 9 points .

In the National Ladies Knockout Mason's Competition, we took on Mid Devon and our home rink of Mary Turner, Karen Hollingdale, Sue Turner and skip Jane Painter did very well to win 24 - 15. Away, we didn't fare very well with the first 10 ends a disaster, with the score a painful 16-1 to the Tiverton-based team.

Sidmouth fought back and going into the final 18th end, we needed to score five shots to force an extra end or six shots to win! Not impossible but certainly not easy. We tried very hard and managed to score four shots, sadly not enough but a great effort. The final score was Sidmouth 35 Mid Devon 36. 

Four Sidmouth ladies went to play Honiton ladies in the County 4's competition. For the first 15 ends, we were in the lead, then the Honiton players went up a notch or two and we went into the final end five shots down.

Trying to make five shots again to force an extra end, we went down even more, so lost the game 16 - 24. Our players were Karen Hollingdale, Carol Smith, Sue Turner and skip Jane Painter. We then endured a horrendous journey home with the roads badly flooded, so a day to forget!