BOWL: WILTSHIRE'S lingering hopes of qualifying for the quarter-finals of the Middleton Cup were extinguished as they lost to Dorset at Wimborne on Saturday, July 2.

After the home defeat by table-topping Devon a fortnight ago, they had to win their final match and rely on Cornwall beating the leaders if they were to reach the latter stages of the inter-county championship.

Wiltshire won on three out of the six rinks, but lost by 18 shots overall, Dorset triumphing by 16 points to six.

Dave Snell, Ian Jeffries and Andy Moore skipped their rinks to victory, but Mark Dyer, Michael Jackson and Graham Shadwell were less fortunate.

Even if Wiltshire had won, they would not have gone through, because Devon sauntered to an easy victory over Cornwall.

Wiltshire started the competition brightly, with a big win over Cornwall in their opening match and collecting a maximum 22 points to head the group table, but then floundered when they met Devon.

They failed to hit form as a team, going down by 15 shots for a 16 points to six reverse.

Purton's Chris Cheesley came in at number three for Westlecot's Dyer who moved up to skip while Steve Warren (Westlecot) was omitted.

Snell said: It was a disappointing end to the season. If we'd won 16-6, we might have pushed Devon, but we couldn't stop them. We wouldn't have gone through anyway.

For full details, and more bowls reports, see the Gazette and Herald, Thursday, July 6.