Early September was the start of Ferryhill Indoor Bowls Club’s winter session and in addition to the usual club leagues, the bowlers faced four inter league matches within the first ten days.

An away trip to Darlington IBC in the Senior Men’s County Inter League was first up and proved to be fruitless with the club on the wrong end of a 6-0 scoreline.

Five days later, two squads took part in the 1st leg of the Premier League at Gateshead and both hoped for a positive start. The A squad got off to a bad start dropping nine shots from the first two ends and they never recovered from it. The B squad were always in with a chance against a strong home side. However, the last three ends proved costly as they conceded too many shots as they lost touch and went down by nine shots. Scores: Ferryhill A 22-30 Houghtonians; Ferryhill B 13-22 Gateshead B.

The following day, the ladies played their first County Inter League game against Durham and here again the club suffered a heavy defeat. Only the rink of J Cadman, Y Cook, M Richardson and S Maughan were winners with a 20-13b victory to avoid a white-wash.

The same day, Darlington IBC was again the venue as the club travelled for their first Durham & District Triples game.

Ferryhill were represented by a very strong squad and had high hopes of bringing back the points. Unfortunately, as happens only too frequently away from home, the club failed to play to their potential and suffered a 2-6 defeat with only skip K Weallans taking two points.

Scores: K Weallans 12-7 D Wilson; R Jefferson 10-20 B McKay; J Maddison 13-14 G Temple.