After a slow start to the season, given the restrictions to play, it was a special day at Cricket Field Lane on Sunday, as the Budleigh bowlers played host to a team from Feniton, writes David Roberts.
In a thrilling match played over 21 ends, four rinks did battle and in a very even encounter, it was the home team who celebrated an overall win 71-64 with the rinks shared two apiece.
The pick of the Budleigh rinks was that of Derek Stanley, Marilyn Foreman, Andy Skudder and skip Bryan Membery, who played well together, staying in charge throughout to win comfortably 20-12.
They were closely followed by a strong performance from Gwen Hurst, Peter Foreman, Graham Anderson and Tony Mackness, who rallied well after falling behind on the fifteenth end to register ten shots in the closing stages to win through 19-12.
Norman Upchurch, Ann Vincent, Penny Weeks and David Roberts came up against an impressive Feniton contingent and, whilst they were always in the game, the Budleigh team lost out 15-19.
Melissa Camp, Brian Ward, Gordon Marshall and Mo Bond again controlled a lot of the match but missed out, losing by four shots 17-21, but continuing the theme of extremely close and entertaining matches.
Thank you to all the helpers on the afternoon, particularly Mo Bond and Penny Weeks, and to all the players for making this a very enjoyable afternoon.
In other matches involving Budleigh bowlers, Paul Griffin and David Roberts progressed to the next round of the Devon Section 3 Unbadged Pairs competition with a hard fought 21-17 win, and a a terrific achievement.
Later in the week they were joined by Andrew Cardy in the Unbadged triples but came up against an in-form Ottery team and were outplayed on the day, eventually losing 12-23.
The sun has been shining on Budleigh bowlers over the past couple of weeks and long may that continue, with everyone enjoying the return to competitive action.