On a warm sunny day and on a rink that bowled beautifully, a closely contended match saw the St Andrews men run out winners by six shots, despite the Ladies being ahead for much of the game.

On rink one, Judy Forse, captain of the day Barbara Mangan and Rebecca McMillan, more than held their own against a strong triple of Tim Wyatt, Ken Uglow and Barrie Forse as they eased into a lead of 5-3 after five ends.

Four of the next five ends went to the Ladies with McMillan, in particular, playing well to put them 12-4 up and some good front end play and devastating skip play by McMillan made it 19-7 after 15 ends.

The last three ends saw the men pick up two singles and the Ladies one, giving the Ladies a well-deserved win by 11 shots.

On rink two, Larry Fisher, Adrian Cooper and Andy McMillan faced the trio of new bowler Gloria Holborow with Monica Pattenden and Ann Campbell, who had a slow start and found themselves 7-2 down after six ends.

The men played consistently well, winning nine of the last 12 ends to finish as victors 22-7.

Rink three turned out to be the closest game as for the first 12 ends, the lead changed hands between Marie McMillan, Sue Sinclair and Jane Smith and the men’s trio of Derek Reynolds, Alan Dawes and Don Bailey, who led 9-8.

On the 13th end, the Ladies looked to have taken the game when they scored six, but the men won the last five ends to clinch a 16-14 victory.

The over-60 men edged to a 10-shot win at Clevedon Promenade in their first league match of the season.

Danny Favis’ rink had a close match and were leading 16-15 after 16 ends but dropped five shots on the 17th end when the Prom skip trailed the jack and despite picking up a shot on the last end they lost 20-17.

Brian Reeves’ trio found themselves 5-0 down after two ends on a challenging rink but recovered those shots over the next two ends and were never down for the remainder of the match, winning 19-13.

Derek Hurst’s triple found the going tough on a difficult green and, after nine ends, were down 15-3 and despite a late rally lost 22-13.

But Barrie Forse’s threesome were never in trouble as they raced to a 22-3 lead after 10 ends and, even though the Promenade team staged a mini recovery, they won five of the last eight ends for a 27-11 success.

The Ladies entertained Portishead in a friendly but lost on two of the three rinks to go down by four shots overall, despite Jackie Pitman's trio winning by nine.

Results, St Andrews men 47 St Andrews Ladies 41: T Wyatt, K Uglow, B Forse 9 J Forse, B Mangan, R McMillan 20; L Fisher, A Cooper, A McMillan 22 G Holborow, M Pattenden, A Campbell; D Reynolds, A Dawes, D Bailey 16 M McMillan, S Sinclair, J Smith 14.

Over-60 men, Clevedon Prom 66 St Andrews 76: M Goddard, R Potter, D Favis 17-20; C Reeves, A Dawes, B Reeves 19-13; K Uglow, R Venn, D Hurst 13-22; D Holborow, A McMillan, B Forse 27-11.

Ladies friendly, St Andrews 41 Portishead 45 : C Venn, M Pattenden, M Favis 12-15; J Webb, F Allen, J Smith 11-21; J Forse, B Mangan, J. Pitman 18-9.