Following another match cancellation an internal, mixed triples was quickly arranged by captain Penny Preece and vice-captain Glynis Byrn, writes Jean Healey.

Their selections must have been very fair as unusually there were ties on all three rinks and overall they ended up 45-45.

Jenny Smith, Mike Holmes, Susie Roughton were well down after seven ends, but pulled back one shot on each of the next seven ends against Margaret Humphries, Penny Preece, and Geoff Furminger to ultimatley end up with honours even.

Dave Mansell, Bob Humphrey and Eileen Burston were up and down until the final three ends when they drew level 14-14 against Brenda Marks, Dennis Huntley and Hilary Bird.

Myra Furminger Janet Grundy and Glynis Byrn left it even later, gaining a five on the 17th end to pull level with a final one on the last end. It certainly was, altogether a competitive afternoon and plenty of fun for all.

On Thursday there were two away matches to play, a men's triples at Honiton and a ladies' triples at Exonia.

In the game at Honiton, Leighton Burston, Mike Norman and Alan Porter won convincingly 31-9, but both the other rinks lost by 15 and eight respectively and, when the scores were totted up, Madeira had lost by a single score with Honiton taking the honours 55-54.

The ladies had a similar result at Exonia where they did have a triples success from Jenny Charles, Ann Maloney and Lyn Hambly, who won 15-11 while there was also a 13-13 draw for the trio of Joan Mansell, Janet Grundya and Penny Preece.

The third rink of Jean Rainton, Jude Latta, Myra Furminger were ahead for most of the match but then lost nine shots over the final three ends. The close overall result was a loss by one shot at 47 to 46.

Mid Devon then brought three rinks of four men to Madeira to a similar result of one win, one draw and one loss.

Ray Parker, Tony Wiseman, Brian Poulter and Chris Reed had a close game and went on to win by four shots while Mike Norman, Alan Porter, Gordon Medlock and Vic Doidge had an even closer game, gaining one shot on the final end to secure a 16-16 draw!

The third rink were somewhat overwhelmed, it meant an overall final score of 61-48 in favour of r Mid Devon. Finally, the last friendly was against Isca which again was a struggle to keep up and all three mixed triples lost, although only by shots on two of the rinks.