Cup wins for the Budleigh men are few and far between so there was great celebration amongst the Budleigh bowlers as they beat Sidmouth by two bowls in the Foxlands Cup and secured a quarter-final place against Feniton, writes David Roberts.

This competition consists of one rink home and one away being played simultaneously and full credit must go to the away four as it was their nine shot win that secured the tie by two shots 37-35.

Peter Hillman, Brian Ward, Paul Griffin and skip Andy Cardy shot out of the blocks with an early nine shot lead but then unexpectedly dropped an eight on the seventh end!

This was a shock to the system and they regrouped to play some great bowls finishing strongly.

On the home rink Tony Lim, Bill Barber, Gerry Roberts and David Roberts had a slow start, but by the end of the match crucially kept the shot difference to seven against a good Sidmouth side. A great win overall.

There was some success too in the opening league match of the men’s County Trophy against Honiton with wins on both home rinks. Brian Ward, Andrew Scudder, Peter Hillman and Andy Cardy miraculously recovered from being 19-4 down at the half way stage to win 27-20 whilst Derek Stanley, Peter Foreman, Bryan Membery and skip Brian Goddard played well together to take their rink 17-12.

On the away rinks the Budleigh men had difficulty adapting to the Honiton green and couldn’t replicate their home counterparts success which resulted in Honiton taking the tie overall 91-70. Nevertheless four points for Budleigh is an encouraging start.

An Over-60s away fixture for the men at Hemyock brought the Budleigh men back to earth as they returned pointless losing 24-48.

Both rinks played some great bowls, but the superior opposition seemed to always have the last say! Best of the rinks was that of Brian Ward, Paul Griffin and David Roberts who only lost out by five shots.

The ladies were in action in the Top Club competition against a strong Maderia side, fought out over five disciplines, and went down 4-1 whilst in the Exeter and District Over-50s Triples League, away to Sidmouth, there was again no joy as they lost overall 43-20. Best of the rinks was that of Ann Vincent, Hilary Medley and Di Dixon restricting their opponents to an 18-10 win.

In the only Mixed Match of the week Budleigh entertained Starcross over four triples and found the visitors too strong losing out 74-48.

Hilary Medley, Mike Shaw and Bill Barber were the only home winning rink just pinching it over the last couple of ends 15-14.

Peter Hillman and David Roberts played well together and fought a very close match in the Devon Section three Unbadged Pairs with a 22-19 win over Graham Phillips and David Sanders of Feniton and now progress into the second round.