OAKLEY FIREWORKS

Day 2 of the Oakley BC Tour dawned bright and sunny and in the morning members were able to wander the Esplanade and explore the Town at their leisure, before just after lunch taking the short walk to the Sidmouth BC. With 2 greens maintained by the Council, a three rink indoor green, 4 croquet lawns, numerous hard and grass tennis courts and cricket and rugby pitches close by, the Town, with its relatively small population, is fortunate to have such wonderful facilities available. We had a warm welcome from the home players and over the ten rinks we suffered a 41 shot defeat with Sandra Lee, Marion Bringes, John Ryan and Peter Bown recording our highest winning rink. Back at the Bedford Hotel, we had another excellent dinner before everyone spilled out onto the Esplanade to watch the Fireworks Display which had been laid on to celebrate Oakley's visit - well actually it was part of the Regatta Weekend but a good journalist does not allow facts to get in the way of a story. The evening ended with the shock news that Martin Smith had a bird, not his wife Linda, in his room. Fake news again - the bird was a pigeon residing on the curtain rail.