The Victoria Vikings Over 55s squad of Weston-super-Mare’s Victoria Bowls Club began their season with a very tough fixture away to Clarence Park on the afternoon of Tuesday 23rd.

With the Vikings introducing a couple of debutants their home side opposition adapted to conditions best, leading from pillar to post to defeat the Vikings convincingly 149-71.

Victoria’s other Over 55s squad, reigning champions the Saxons, also had a tough start to their 2024 summer season when they visited Winscombe on Thursday 25th.

Once again Victoria’s team had some start-of-the-season rust, giving the home team the opportunity to emerge 109-81 point victors.

Despite the setback in terms of results there were some good showings from The Vic and positives to take with them into the rest of the season.

The team of Don Wheatley, Captain Dave Carpenter and Paul Coumis had the biggest win of the meet for Victoria, winning 20-13.

Alan Bradley’s team of Roy Bromet and Malcolm Campbell came painstakingly close to helping their squad with a win, but cruelly missed out, losing on the last end by one shot 12-11.

Captain Carpenter remained upbeat and said: “It’s a long and tough season and I’m certain we will be challenging by the end of the season”.

There was better news for The Vic on Saturday when they visited neighbouring Burnham-on-Sea for their final pre-season friendly.

With conditions unseasonal and many jackets in view Victoria began the match determined to finish the week on a positive note and this was certainly achieved.

All six visiting rinks recorded dominant victories to give the Westonians a convincing win with a 116-72 score line.

The two leading performances came from the Alan Bradley, Graham Robbins and Roy Bromet trio and Pete Sloman’s team of Andy Kimitri and Mike Milliner, who both recorded identical 25-10 wins.

Mike Cooper, Ray Stallard and Trevor Puddy triumphed 18-12, and Kim Burgess aided by Carmine and Hugh Gibbs, who had an excellent game at two, won 15-11.

The final two winners were the Fairhurst father and son combination David and Kaegan who had the experienced Malcolm Campbell alongside and the John Newman, Paul Coumis and Nigel Robbins team completed the whitewash.