May 28th, 2024

In England we do have the reputation of always talking about the weather, and this report is no exception! In common with many other summer sports, the bowling season has been plagued by the dreaded four letter word- Rain! Several matches have had to be postponed, re-arranged or cancelled all together.

However Sidmouth Bowling Club made the short trip to Ottery on Saturday 25th May and a full game was played, much to the annoyance of the weather gods! The final result was a close match between two well matched sides with Ottery just the winners by six shots, with one rink drawn.  Gail Hawke was the skip of the top team, assisted by Fenella Griggs, Jane Bishop and Tony Luff.

​Over the last weekend the clubhouse and the green were opened to anyone who wanted to come along and try the game.  On Friday the Ottery St Mary Venture Scouts were welcomed, and the young people seemed to enjoy trying out the game.  Then on Sunday 26th, the club held is annual open day, and although the rain tried to disrupt the proceedings, quite a few people enjoyed their first experience of this great game.  Eventually the persistent, heavy deluge caused the green to flood, so further action was stopped. Bowling is not a good sport when one has to use the Barnes Wallace method of delivering the ball, namely the bouncing bomb!

We received quite a lot of interest from the open day and our chair, Carl Gilleard, will follow up with each of the attendees to try and tempt them back!