A well-contested mixed match over three rinks away at Dawlish last week saw a narrow four shot win for the Budleigh bowlers, writes David Roberts.

With the match rinks shared with one win for each club and the other ending all square, the best of the Budleigh rinks was the one of Eileen Burston, Simon Weclavek, Mo Bond and Leighton Burston, who won through 19-6, scoring eight over the last six ends with no reply from their opponents.

Andrew Scudder, Bunty Hudson, Don Huish and skip Dawn Graham fought well to draw their rink 14-all, whilst Margaret Avery, Mile Killoran, Peter Burch and Gerry Roberts found it difficult to make their mark and lost out 11-20.

The final match score was one of 44 shots to Budleigh and 40 to Dawlish. A mixed friendly at Honiton served up another close contest with Budleigh just losing out to the tune of a six shot defeat, with Honiton winning 63-57.

Melissa Camp, Gerard McCarthy, Di Dixon and skip Leighton Burston recovered from a slow start to win 25-19 whilst, in a close encounter on rink two, Margaret Avery, Don Huish, Brian Evans and Dawn Graham were edged out by a margin of two shots at 19-17.

A ladies’ friendly earlier in the week, again away at Honiton, saw the Budleigh team just missing out once more as they lost 34-30 with the rink of Mellisa Camp, Ann Membery, Marilyn Jackson and Mo Bond hanging on to a draw 18-all after a spirited comeback from the Honiton ladies.

Ann Vincent, Marion Lacey, Margaret Avery and Dawn Graham looked strong favourites to win their rink at the halfway stage, but couldn’t fight off a strong finish from their opponents, ultimately losing 16-12.

In the Ladies’ Devon Lane League there was an overall loss to a strong Plymouth team, but full credit to the rink of Dawn Graham, Ann Vincent and Celia Mangeng as they won their away rink 19-15. Mo Bond, Margaret Avery and Lilian Grainger also put up a strong performance before losing by a single shot at 15-14.