MARINA Bowling Club in Dawlish held their annual finals competitions on the weekend of August 24 and 25.

The gods were not kind on the Saturday morning with the green flooding as a result of the rain. However, the greenkeeping team did a sterling job of clearing the water with brushes, mowing it and spiking it to drain, enabling play to start in the afternoon.

The Ladies' pairs, Men’s Championship and Ladies' 2-wood plus the Novice Cup match all took place in the afternoon. Rob Barr won the Novice match, Wendy Way and Sue Owen won the ladies' pairs and Mark Baker won the Men’s Championship.

Sunday dawned bright and sunny for the Men’s Handicap with Dave Nown needing to score 31 (handicap of 10) and Andrew Moore requiring 27 (handicap 6), Andrew managed to come through and win. The mixed pairs winners were Georgie Nown and Mark Baker and the mixed triples was won by Tom Neville, Debbie Coyles and Fred Baker.

In the afternoon, the men’s 2-wood took place with Dave Blanford coming out on top. Rick Purnell and Rob Barr prevailed in the men’s pairs and the ladies’ handicap was won by Georgie Nown in a very tight match.

The two matches cancelled due to rain were held on Sunday September 1, these being the ladies’ 3-wood and Ladies Championship, which were won by Sue Own and in a very tight match (36 ends), Tina Rowe, respectively.

Elsewhere, the Ladies’ SDLB team played their final league match of the season on August 30, visiting Marldon and gaining enough points to secure top spot in Division 5. They are now promoted to Division 4 so congratulations to them on a brilliant result.

There was also a title win for the men in the over 55s Y Division, qualifying for the playoffs on September 11, where they’ll face Babbacombe, as a result.

Lastly, Saturday August 31 was Captain’s Day/Seagar Cup (men vs ladies), though as there were more men than ladies, some of the men were drafted in to play for the ladies and it was the men who came out on top once again.

The end of the season is rapidly approaching, it seems to have flown by. Good luck if you are bowling indoors over the winter and everyone at Marina looks forward to being back on the turf again in the Spring with three of their teams having gained promotion in their divisions -so new clubs and new challenges beckon for 2025!