President's Day, 13th April
It was cold and a bit rainy, but nothing could stop the first match of the season. We posed for the obligatory club photo, then Captain Chris Wilson won the spider and the match began.
In short, the Captain's team won, although President Barry won on his rink.
All-in-all, a good afternoon was had by all
Mixed Friendly away at Eastover, 15th April
Hoping for better weather, we took a trip to Eastover. Although the sky was blue, the wind was bitter cold and blew several rainstorms our way, as well as blowing Mike Turnbull's hat up and over a 20 foot hedge into oblivion! Debbie Baker made her return debut for the club, after a few years away at St Andrews.
The score
Despite our best endeavours, we came second, with a score of 68-48.
Our only win was on rink 3, skipped by Harold Clarke, although if you look closely at the card, you can see the slight issue discovered after the speeches.
When John A casually inquired about the 'remuneration' for the winning rink, it became obvious that something was afoot. A quick look at the card showed that, although the Banwell team won the rink, the scores were a bit mixed up.....
Sadly for us, the outcome of the match remained the same.
Mixed friendly at home against Victoria, 17th April
Wednesday saw the season's first mixed friendly home fixture against Victoria. A win 124-101. New players Angela Merchant and Dave Allen were both on winning rinks. We won 4 of the 6 rinks led by skips Mal Laycock, Phil Villis, Alan Vickery and Hillary Guckian. There were narrow defeats for Wendy Coleman and John Wright.
My home debut as captain for the day with a 24-14 win to boot.
Mike Nickson
Men's friendly at home against Winscombe, 20th April
Saturday's match was a men's friendly at home to rivals Winscombe.
A win 93-75. Wins on 4 of the 5 rinks led by skips Hillary Guckian, Mal Laycock, Phil Villis and Alan Vickery. There was a narrow 2 shot loss to Alan Shattock despite being 11-2 down at one point.
For some unknown reason they wouldn't allow this score to stand as the first leg of the Parrot shield.
Mike Nickson