Four Madeira ladies have been selected to play for Devon in the inter-county Atherley Trophy, Devon versus Somerset, on the middle Saturday of December, writes Jean Healey.

So, it’s a case of hearty congratulations to Deirdre Norman, Christine Macaulay, Janine Orchard and Jan Roberts.

In club action, an internal match in the National Triples brought victory to Sue Harriott, playing alongside sisters Nicky Fiddimore and Christine Macaulay, over Sandie Cox, Jenny Charles and Freda Relph. Sue and the siblings will now move onto the next tough encounter in another round!

In the Foxlands Trophy league, both home teams won at home while Sue Harriott’s team that included De Norman, Penny Preece and Christine Macaulay, won convincingly at Sidmouth, with the other rink unlucky to lose by a single shot on the very last end, this after getting to 17-all.

It all meant eight points banked for the Madeira team.

In the friendly matches, a Madeira mixed team lost on all three rinks against Honiton, a fixture that is always a tough one.

In an excellent enjoyable game against Budleigh men, vice captain Chris Price had an unfortunate loss of 23-4, but that was compensated by Vic Doidge’s team of Chris Reed, Mike Holmes and Danny Doran winning by 20-7 and, over three rinks, the final score was just in favour of Madeira at 45-42.

Such is the way of bowls, the next day Chris Price’s team of Andy Lock, Sue Lampey and Joan Mansell, against a team from Topsham, led all the way to a final score of 24-6.

Chris Macaulay had a much closer game leading throughout, but almost losing on the last three ends, before closing out a 19-18 success and the overall match score was Madeira 62, Topsham 34.

On Saturday, the men’s Interclub team lost out to a strong Exonia team, whilst other members came to the club for a coffee morning with toasted teacakes and jams, marmalades, and chutneys to buy.

The next coffee morning is being held on Saturday, December 15, and will have a Christmas flavour.

The event is set to run from 10am through to noon and all are very welcome.

That’s also the day our ladies are in Atherley Trophy action for Devon, and so promises to be a special Saturday for the club.