In the first “Friendly” of the week, Tavistock “Sir Francis Drake” sailed confidently into Exmouth.

Channelling their famous namesake, they lost no time in taking the wind out of Madeira’s sails as they swept to a convincing victory. Madeira tried to stem the tide with a dogged 14-14 draw on a rink skipped by Mary Ann Dowrick with Chris Reed, Ann Doidge and Jude Latta, but it was to little effect as Tavistock won overall by 52 - 37.

There was better fortune however in the Men’s Major Triples, played at Sidmouth. In Group A, Ken Roberts, Cliff Skinner and Bill Davis defeated Feniton 16-13 to reach the last sixteen of this competition.

Finally, in Madeira’s internal Grove Trophy Drive, Martin Clook, Sue Humphries and skip Vic Doidge defied the sultry conditions to win a hard fought contest on Sunday.