THE highlight of the week for Tavistock Sir Francis Drake Bowling Club members was the news that ladies' secretary Marion Allen has become the new Devon County ladies' singles champion, when she defeated last year's champion, Wendy Barnard (21-8) at the county finals.
Popular ladies' section member Marion is the first Tavistock member, in living memory, to win a county singles championship title.
The club programme of matches got off to a good start when on Monday they played the Boars touring team from Worcestershire. While Tavistock lost three of the six rinks played by a total margin of 26 shots, their three winning rinks won by 50 shots to give Tavistock a 24 shot winning advantage (131-107).
Winning rinks were skipped by Der Saunders (27-12), Rob Bowhay (25-14) and Mike Allen, who won (34-10) despite having his lead, Geoff Cork, put the wrong bias on one bowl that came closer to scoring on the next rink, rather than on his own.
Wednesday's away match against a Yealmpton mixed team, resulted in an 89-59 win for Tavistock, thanks to winning rinks skipped by Colin Tremaine (23-17), John Smith (22-9) and Mike Allen (28-13).
The ladies' section played two matches during the week, losing one and having the second abandoned due to heavy rain.
The Tuesday away match to the Elizabethans team resulted in a 34-51 defeat for Tavistock, with only the rink of Betty Browse, Hazel Lovell, Jean Flay and skip Marion Allen winning (21-19).
The ladies' Thursday home fixture against Ivybridge was abandoned at a point where Tavistock were losing (25-28) with only the rink skipped by Jean Flay in a winning (10-8) position.
Friday was also a bit of a let down for the Tavistock players, who had assembled to play a team from Paignton which did not arrive. It transpired that the Paignton match secretary had inadvertently omitted the annual fixture from his club fixture list.
There should be some interesting conversations next week, when the Tavistock club take a coachload of players and supporters to Paignton for what should have been the return match.
Saturday saw some of the club championships being resolved, with Der Saunders beating Bernie Downs, to win the Kerswill Cup and Richard Curtis winning the Two Wood trophy after a hard fought match against opponent Eric Stephens.