It’s been another busy week of bowling at Madeira with a mix of leagues, external and internal, friendlies, county and representative competitions, writes Jenny Smith.

There were four friendlies in a row and they served up a mixed bag of results.

A visit to Cullompton with four mixed triples teams saw the home side win by a margin of plus 13 shots, this, despite Geoff Furminger and his team of Angela Bolt and Ian Munro enjoying a convincing 25-10 success.

Next up, a Sunday home meeting with Honiton which saw the visitor's win three rinks, one other was drawn and Honiton took the match honours 116-105.

Graham Cottey and his team of D Bromage, Dennis Fears and Maureen Willis had the best result for Madeira, 25-14.

The City and Port of Bristol BC brought seven mixed rinks to Exmouth on Bank Holiday Monday for a most enjoyable afternoon's bowling.

Madeira captain, Danny Doran, particularly appreciated the visitors' generous donation to his charity, SCOPE. The home team did well to win four rinks and draw on another to secure an overall 129-98 win. Captain Danny and his team of Bob Burch, Glynis Byrn and Joan Mansell also achieved the most decisive win of the day, 26-9.

Vice-captain, Brian Poulter took three mixed triples to our nearest neighbours Phear Park, where they had been unfortunate to have one rink which had been dug up by a fox!

The games were close on all rinks with Madeira emerging with wins on all four. Mike Ball, Barbara Walker and Ian Munro were team of the day with their 23-14 success.

In ladies' Bowls Devon competitions, Christine Macaulay, Nicky Fiddimore, Janine Orchard and Sue Harriott reached the section final of the Major Fours when they were disappointed to lose the closest of games, going down to the final shot to finish on the wrong end of a 20-19 score line.

In the four-wood singles, Lyn Hambly did very well to reach the section semi-final only to lose to Marian Kelsey of Ottery St Mary, going down 21-16. Jan Roberts also won through two rounds before going out in the semi-final to Jane Painter of Sidmouth.

The Madeira men's representative teams had mixed results. They had a good win in the County Trophy, defeating Sidmouth on three rinks - the fourth was drawn - in what was an excellent, and close, encounter from first wood to last.

They then had a challenging meeting with Topsham in the Exeter and District League, ultimately being left disappointed as they lost on three of the rinks and overall, 86-66.

Ian Thomson playing with Nick Cole, David Mansell and Bob Finch skipped Madeira's only winning rink.