BOWLS: Westlecot thump rivals Fairford

9:50am Friday 21st November 2008

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THE MIXED team at Westlecot followed up their fine start to this season’s Egham Trophy, national mixed inter-club championship, with another big victory.

After thumping Oxfordshire side Carterton by 49 shots in the first round they improved on that win as they crushed local rivals Fairford by 84 shots when running out 133-49 victors.

It was plain sailing both in Swindon and away at Fairford with all four Westlecot rinks winning.

Dave Snell’s away rink led 11-0 at five ends and 26-1 at 10 and eventually won by 35 shots.

On the other green at Fairford, Hedley Bowen’s quartet was 6-1 up at five ends but 10-11 down at 10. They hit back strongly to claim a 26-17 win at 18 ends.

John Thomas’ rink at home at Westlecot conceded a six on the first end, but were tied 8-8 after five ends. From then on they pulled away to a 27-15 success.

Neil Smith’s rink followed up their 25-shot victory in the previous round with a 28-shot 37-9 success despite trailing 2-7 at five ends.

Westlecot now move forward to the third round and Zone Nine semi-final where they will face Costwold.

• WILTSHIRE senior and junior county men’s teams both crashed out of national competitions last weekend.

The senior men went down 131-92 to Devon in the second round of the Liberty Trophy, the national inter-county championship.

And the Under 25 side lost 46-41 to Gloucestershire in the second round of the U25 inter-county double rinks.

The Liberty Trophy has not been the best of competitions for Wiltshire in recent years despite winning the title in 1984 and 1996.

This time around they made a fine start to their 2008/09 campaign with a big 162-77 home win over Worcestershire on the green at North Wilts (Chippenham) but they failed to repeat the feat against a very strong Devon outfit at the same venue.

A Wiltshire side containing just eight players from Westlecot only took the honours on one of the six rinks and drew on another.

The lone victor was Neil Smith’s quartet who came from 12-7 down at 14 ends to win the next seven and secure a four-shot success.

Andy Moore’s rink was involved in a tight game throughout and grabbed a three on the last end to snatch a last gasp 17-17 draw.

The matches skipped by Steve Remington and Westlecot’s Dave Snell saw fortunes ebb and flow with their Devon opponents just coming out on top.

But the damage was done on the two outside rinks with North Wilts duo of Keith Hutchens and Bill McCay losing respectively by 18 and 16 shots – the latter skip dropping two counts of six.

• THE Under 25 Double Rinks match against Gloucestershire was a bag of mixed tricks for Wiltshire.

Rink honours were shared with the Wiltshire rink skipped by Five River’s Nick Revell, who only led 11-8 at 10 ends, clocking up a very healthy 18-shot victory at North Wilts.

However, the big winning margin was not sufficient to compensate for the away rink skipped by Wayne Snook.

They struggled badly at Mid Glos against a quartet drawn entirely from the host club.

Snook’s rink never recovered from conceding 15 shots in the first five ends and trailing 23-2 at 10 ends.

They finally lost 35-12 and the deficit of 23 shots wiped out completely the 18-shot win at North Wilts.