THE weather is beginning to cast a shadow over the bowling fixtures. With friendlies, these are forgotten until next season, but for the many competitions that are held this means rearrangements of dates and in an already over crowded calendar this can cause quite a headache for many.

One competition that survived the weather was the Section 4 Ladies two woods held at Crediton on a sun drenched Saturday afternoon.

Nikki Payne beat Liz Smerdon in the first round before defeating Amy Stone from Topsham to take her place in the quarter finals that will take place at Paignton Bowling Club on Saturday, July 28.

In the friendlies there have been victories over Bradninch and South Molton with the only defeat coming by the closest of margins at the hands of Bitton Park who won by one shot despite going down 3-2 on rinks. 

The Men’s Over 60s A team triumphed 8-0 over Marina A and the C team defeated Tiverton West End B 6-2.

Unfortunately the B team couldn’t make it a clean sweep as they went down 7-1 at Feniton. 

The Thursday evening league saw the A team defeat Topsham B 10-0 and the B team had a very encouraging victory against Exonia A 8-2.

This week’s friendlies include the annual Pat Moon trophy fixture.

Pat was a member of both Crediton and Topsham and in his honour a fixture is played both home and away between the two clubs with a magnificent tea laid on at both venues.

A total of 24 bowlers from each club play and the combined scores are added to see who wins the trophy and more importantly the bottle of scotch provided by Pat’s family who travel down for the second fixture.

Fixtures this week:

Thursday, May 16 - EDL C v Belmont, 6.30pm; Saturday, May 18 - Section 4 Ladies four woods, All day; Tuesday, May  21 - Pat Moon Trophy v Topsham, 2pm; Wednesday, May 22 - Over 60s A v Madeira A, 2.30pm; Thursday, May 23 - EDL A v Exonia A, 6.30pm.

Mike Canning