A Madeira trio has reached the last four of the County Triples after another excellent success, writes Jean Healey.

Jan Roberts, Catherine King and Janine Orchard won the County Triples Section Final on the neutral green at Isca, sealing a 26-8 success to move into the county semi-final at Honiton, to be played on Friday, February 22.

In the men’s Interclub competition, playing against Torbay A, Madeira fought a close, exciting match, winning on one rink, but the final result went to Torbay, 93-69.

The first friendly match against Devon Masonic from various Devon clubs was for an enjoyable mixed triples, when all Madeira rinks won well, but Carole Worth, Chris Reed and Ian Munro scored an exceptional 28-5 rink win.

A ladies’ fours match against Dawlish resulted in Madeira winning two out of the three rinks to seal an overall 64-51 victory.

In this fixture, the rink of Penny Preece, Di Cantor, Fay Hughes and Joan Mansell were ahead all the way with a final win of 31-ll.

A mixed match the following day against Topsham saw Madeira in fine form as all three rinks won well.

Bob Finch, Sue Burr, Brian Poulter, Joan Mansell had the highest score and the overall score was 67-37.

Then the men played triples against Axminster and, in what was a much tighter game, claimed a single shot success at 47-46.

The two winning rinks covering the single loss. Ken Roberts, Keith Prew and Alan Porter were only one ahead at 11 ends, but won the rest of the ends to finish 19-10.

In another men’s triples against Ottery, all three rinks were winners with a final score of 59-34.

Ken Roberts with Rob Prescott and Mike Crelley were certainly helped by a six on the 14th end, eventually winning 24-15.

When a mixed match against South Hams was cancelled by the opposition the day before the match was due to be played, it was decided to formulate a match anyway, dividing Madeira players into two teams captained by Bob Finch and David Hitt.

On a wet and blustery afternoon outside, two sets of 10 ends were played by mixed pairs with three woods.

It proved to be a thoroughly enjoyable afternoon with David’s team narrowly winning by four sets to two.