The penultimate Sunday of March saw Madeira play their annual fixture against the cream of Devon bowling youth when the Under-25 Devon Colts brought a lively squad of 17 talented youngsters from all over the county to contest a thoroughly enjoyable and closely fought match, writes Jean Healey.

The visitors were in fine form too for the only home winners were the rink of Chris Price, Colin Hughes, Carol Hyett and Joan Mansell.

It was the Colt’s last game of the season and Madeira were able to share in their presentation awards after tea.

However, the home team drew the line at joining in their celebrations outdoors, which apparently included a bucket challenge of a cold water drench!

An old friend and former member, Tim Bevan, came with his new club from North Tawton (who have no indoor rinks) for an enjoyable afternoon of triples, which resulted in an overall win for Madeira of 63-36.

Bob Finch, Colin Hughes and Sue Burr were equal at end 11, but then took a six to leap ahead and win 20-6.

Dave Macaulay, Susie Roughton and Richard Prince were down by two at 11 ends, but then went well ahead to win 20-16.

Three mixed rinks went to Sidmouth for a close match.

One rink lost by a margin of just two shots (and on the final end), and one rink of Val Allam, Mike Norman, Alan Porter and Janet Grundy took six on the last three ends to win 24-21.

It all left the final score as Sidmouth 64, Madeira 56, but it was a most enjoyable afternoon played in good spirits.

Triples were then played at home against Isca when all three Madeira teams were happy to win, the best being Jean Rainton, Penny Preece and Roger Brown, who won 18-6.

Bob Finch, Mavis Prew and Andy Lock had an interesting game with a tied end (when two bowls are deemed equally close to the jack) followed by a dead end (when the jack is sent out of the rink), before following on to win 16-9. Madeira had an overall win at 50-26.

The past week also saw an internal match with mixed teams playing to ‘Australian’ rules, when players change positions every five ends and experienced skips find themselves as lead, and inexperienced leads are put into the unexpected position of skip.

Results were immaterial with not much difference on any rink after a fun afternoon of bowling.

Last, but certainly not least on another busy week, there were more ladies’ county final matches contested.

Across at Honiton, Madeira champion Sue Harriott met Lesley Coombes from North Devon in a real tussle of a high quality game worthy of a final, with Sue winning on the final end.

In the final, against Jean Chudley from Isca, Sue found the green better than her opponent and went on to win 21-5 to take the title for the third time. Well done, Sue!