Although a quiet time for friendly matches, several county and national games have taken place for Madeira teams, writes Jean Healey.

Although a quiet time for friendly matches, several county and national games have taken place for Madeira teams, writes Jean Healey.

The Madeira men played an Over-60s County Trophy league fixture against Dawlish.

The match was played as two rinks at home and two rinks away and Madeira were winners on three of the four rinks with the final score being 79-57. This saw Madeira bank 19 points while Dawlish took just three.

In the first Foxlands League game of 2019, Sue Harriot, Chris Macaulay, Dr Norman, Penny Preece had a good 25-14 win and Catherine King’s team won 24-17 thanks to them securing a ‘five’ on the last end. Away at Torbay, the other two rinks did not fare so well, although Joy Pemberton’s team was unlucky to lose by just a single shot.

In their latest County Triples outing, Catherine King, Janine Orchard and Jan Roberts had tough game against Jill Bishop’s Sidmouth team, but managed to win by one shot with the contest decided on an extra end.

In the National Fours, Sue Harriot, Janine Orchard, Christine Macaulay and sub Jill Perrin had to travel to Kingsley, North Devon, where they did very well to win, thus progressing through another round.

Over the past week there was just the one friendly with a four triples fixture at Torquay United Bowling Club, which has its home under the football stadium seating.

Dave Moody, Jean Healey and Dave Mansell had a good 27-8 win, scoring a six and a five after the tea break.

The other three triples also won with Lin Halpin, Danny Doran, Colin Hughes, going into the final end all square at 14-all, but they prevailed to win, gaining the one shot that saw them win by the narrowest of margins. The final score was one of 78 shots to 42 in Madeira’s favour. However, judging by the crowd noise above, Torquay United clearly won their football match!