Dartmouth Bowling Club

Already assured of promotion from the Mid-Devon League Division Three, Dartmouth’s men travelled to their last match of the season at Chudleigh confident of achieving the point they needed to become champions.

In what proved to be the worst ­conditions for any of the matches played, Dartmouth were up to the task, winning on two rinks, to secure the necessary points, but losing out overall.

The winning rinks were skipped by Peter Hannaford teamed with Peter Caddy, Paul Irvine and Tim Deighton and Bill Varnam teamed with Mike Durston, Barry Brehout and Martin Greenland.

Hannaford’s rink were always in charge of their game, taking an eight-shot lead into the interval, and despite a little comeback from the home side, Dartmouth maintained their advantage to win 22-15.

Varnam’s rink performed similarly, achieving an 11-shot advantage by tea. Between the frequent heavy showers, Chudleigh managed to cut the Darts’ lead to just two shots by the end. A good win for Darts, 18-16.

Sadly, Dartmouth’s other two ­quartets had off days.

J Bowden, S Ivey, R Swinden and skip M Hawkins were never in the hunt after a bad start, going 10 shots behind after five ends, and then 16 shots adrift after a further five ends. A slight improvement after tea cut the deficit, but a 27-13 loss resulted.

J Hawkins, T Taylor, S Shaw and skip D Sherlock got off to a good start, but it rapidly went downhill following a seven-shot loss on end four. A 20-shot gain for Chudleigh over five ends in the middle of the match ensured that Darts slipped to a 43-15 defeat.

Despite losing overall on the day 101-67, Dartmouth, with four points gained, ended what has been a very successful season as champions.