SIX teams from Taunton Bowling Club came to play the last mixed friendly game of the outdoor season at Wellington. It was a very close and exciting match. No-one could tell what the result would be as the games progressed but there had to be a winner - and it was the home team who pinched it in the end by just four shots.

On rink 1 Wellington's Jacqui Finney, Ron Elston and skip Graham Brown were doing well early on and by the tenth end they led 10 – 5. However, the Taunton trio got down to some serious bowling. They caught up in the second half, overtook and won it with a few shots to spare 20 – 12.

On the next rink, Liz May, Alan Mark and skip Ian Hollingsworth were chasing the game early on but by the 13th they were only one shot down. It was all to play for but sadly for the Wellington trio they could not keep up ando Taunton were the winners 22 – 12.

David Dagg, Janet Lovell and skip Alan Moore were in good form early on in their game and were leading 10 – 3 after nine ends. The Taunton trio fought back hard but the Wellington team held on to pinch it by one shot 16 - 15.

On rink 4 the Taunton side led in the early stages of the match but Wellington's Stuart Pike, June Anderson and skip Bill Warnett were not going to give anything away without a fight. They picked up the pace in the last ends to win by four shots 19 – 15.

Janet Moore, Simon Spalding and skip Paul Kelly had one of the most closely contested games of them all. There was nothing between the two teams all the way through and with just one end to play they were level on 15 shots apiece. However, the Taunton trio collected the all important winning shots to take the game 17 – 15.

With one rink to play the overall scores were 89 – 74 in Taunton's favour. It looked to be all over for the home teams.

The Wellington trio on the last rink had to win by at least 16 shots if their club teams were to be the victors. Surely there was not much hope of that happening!

Wellington's Diana Dagg, Phil Hutchings and skip Alan May were behind in the early stages. But they caught up and moved ahead with some excellent bowling to leave the opposition in their wake and win an exciting game very comfortably by 30 shots to 11. Their success was enough for an overall victory to Wellington by 104 shots to 100.

It was a tight battle between teams from two very good bowling clubs and enjoyed by everyone who took part.

The Wellington club was particularly pleased because previously four of their teams had returned home with a four rink victory at the Crediton club in Devon.

The match was a bit of a damp and miserable affair because of very heavy rain and showers during the game.

Unfortunately this happened several times but the teams battled it out anyway and Wellington came away a bit damp, but winners overall by 71 shots to 64.

. . .and so the curtain came down on another outdoor season.