CLIVE and Trevor Elmer, Jamie Bliss, Eric March and Brian Russell represented Harwich and District Indoor Bowls Club in the annual Essex Coastal Bowls Cup.

This is a tournament for players with less than two years' bowling experience and was held at Clacton Indoor Bowls Club.

Aside from Harwich, the cup was competed for by teams from the Clacton, Colchester, Jacks, Essex County and West Mersea clubs.

The format of the competition was that each team played five games on a round-robin basis.

The games were played over seven ends, contested by four of the five registered players from each club, and each player bowled two woods.

Harwich’s first opponents were West Mersea and the day couldn’t have got off to a better start as they ran out comfortable 12-4 winners.

Next up were hosts Clacton, who, in a closely-contested encounter, eventually ran out as 7-4 winners.

The third and final game before lunch was another evenly-matched contest, in which Harwich lost out to Essex County by a score of 8-5.

Harwich came out for the first of the afternoon's two games in a buoyant and rejuvenated mood which was reflected in their performance, as they went on to beat Colchester 10-1.

The final game of the afternoon was, like the two previous games Harwich had lost, a close encounter, with Jacks winning 7-5.

Although Harwich lost three of their five games, all the players fully committed themselves to each end of each game and were rewarded with an overall aggregate of having scored 36 points and conceded 27.

This earned them a final and respectable position of fourth.

Colchester won, Clacton were second, West Mersea third, Jacks fifth and Essex County sixth.

Anyone interested in giving bowls a go and perhaps representing Harwich in next year’s competition can contact George or Linda Berry on 01255 552621.

They will be able to arrange three two-and-a-half hour lessons, free of charge.