WILTSHIRE men bounced back from their 113-103 home defeat seven days earlier against Warwickshire to register a win over Dorset in their second Middleton Cup group game last Saturday.

But despite winning the inter-county championship tie at Royal Wootton Bassett, they had to battle hard for a 112-105 victory over Dorset although they were comfortably ahead by 20 shots at the halfway point.

Wiltshire took the honours on only three of the six rinks to take six points but also collected a further ten points for the overall shots win.

However, it still leaves their hopes of winning the group and qualifying for the quarter-finals for the sixth year in a row hanging in the balance.

Team manager and player Dave Snell said: “ We went into this match knowing we had to win to give us a chance of qualifying to the quarter finals next month, this we did with a 16-6 win.

"However a bigger win would have given us more of a chance to overhaul Warwickshire as they had an 18-4 points win against Somerset.

“So at this stage Warwickshire have played three games with a total of 55 points, we have played two games with a total of 22 points, so even a big win against Worcestershire this week will still leave us behind albeit with one game each to play.

“The (Dorset) game was a close affair over the first five ends with Wiltshire leading by one shot (26-25), after 10 ends this had increased to 19 shots (61-42) and things were looking very positive as we only had one losing rink.”

Snell added: “But Dorset started a fight back and closed the gap to 15 shots by the 15th end (88-73) and to 13 shots (100-87) by the 18th end and got even closer by the 20th end to eight shots, but we held on to get a narrow victory by 112 to 105 and gain a 16 point to 6 points win.

“We had three winning rinks with Graham Shadwell winning by 18 shots, Ben Gadd winning by 12 shots and Neil Smith winning by eight shots.”

“Obviously we are still on the back foot but we will go to Broadway this week (against Worcestershire) and aim to get a big win and see where that leaves us.”

For the Worcestershire game the selectors have made numerous positional changes but only replaced one player. Bassett’s Gary Morphet returns in place of Salisbury’s James Reynolds who reverts to the reserves bench.

RESULTS

Rink 1: Wayne Simmonds (Holt), Craig Hatherall (Westlecot), Wayne Snook & Ben Gadd (both Holt) beat Wayne Garnett 25-13. Rink 2: Kevin Embling (Royal Wootton Bassett), Michael Titcombe, Ian Jefferies (both West) & Neil Smith (RWB) beat Jamie Lockwood 19-11. Rink 3: David Snell (player/manager, RWB), James Reynolds (Salisbury), Mike Jackson (West) & Mel Biggs (RWB) lost to Dan Steadman 10-25. Rink 4: Tom Warner, Nick Revell (both Amesbury), Craig Doughty (Holt) & Russell Francis (Spencer Moulton) lost to Martin Puckett 17-25. Rink 5: Adam Bolwell (Winsley), Kyle Anderson, David Godwin & Stephen Snell (all RWB) lost to Chris Weekes 13-22. Rink 6: Gary Jackson, Michael Richards, Graham Hatherall (all West) & Graham Shadwell (S Moulton) beat Graham Parker 28-9.

Score: Wiltshire beat Dorset 112-105 and by 16pts to 6pts.

THE county men’s junior side missed out in their bid for a place in the last four at the national championships at Royal Leamington Spa in August last Sunday.

They competed in Bristol in the last four in the west regional finals of the White Rose Trophy, inter-counties U25 double rinks competition.

Unfortunately they were drawn against their nemesis Devon in the semi-finals and were well beaten going down 46-21.

Devon went on to beat Somerset in the final.

RESULTS

Rink 3: Adam Bolwell (Winsley), Tom Warner (Amesbury), Gary Jackson (Westlecot) & Nick Revell (Ames) lost to Ryan Whitlock 8-31. Rink 4: James Richman (Highworth), Mike Titcombe, Craig Hatherall (both West) & Kyle Anderson (Royal Wootton Bassett) lost to Michael Coombes 13-15.

Score: Wiltshire lost to Devon 21-46.

THE SENIOR men’s side will be hoping for better fortunes this coming Sunday than the junior U 25 side experienced when they contest the west regional final in the Balcombe Trophy.

Wiltshire men have been drawn against Devon in the west semi-finals of inter-county double rinks championship at Clevedon.

In the other semi-final Gloucestershire play Worcestershire. The winners of this match will face Wiltshire or Devon in the final bidding for a place in the last four at the national championships at Royal Leamington Spa in August.

The team is expected to be unchanged from the one that beat Somerset in the first round 43-40 to qualify for the regional final.

HOLT, the 2014 champions and Devizes were both beaten in the semi-final of the men’s county fours and triples events respectively that were staged last Sunday at Devizes.

The Holt foursome of Wayne Simmonds, Justin Davis, Wayne Snook and Ben Gadd (skip) were behind for most of their match against Purton.

They led 3-0 after two ends but trailed 4-2 after four, were 11-6 down at halfway (11 ends) and found themselves 15-9 adrift at 15.

Gadd’s quartet had cut the gap to only 14-16 at 18 ends and with a count of three drew level 17-17 at 20 ends.

But their fightback was in vain as they dropped a single on the last end to lose 18-17 to the Purton quartet of Dave Hall, Eric Collier, Colin Baker and Dave Jones.

Home advantage did not help Devizes trio of John Schofield (sub for Dave Reeves), Trefor Jones and Gerald Webb in their national triples semi-final against Westlecot.

They dropped a six on the fifth end to trail Westlecot 9-2 and were 13-2 down at halfway (nine ends).

Another six was dropped on end number 12 as Webb’s trio went further behind 20-3 and they finally conceded the match after end 16 when trailing 25-7 to Westlecot triple Keith Williamson, Kevin Carter and Jamie Titcombe (sub for skip Ray Sowden).

The other fours semi-final between Westlecot and Spencer Moulton and the triples semi between Royal Wootton Bassett and Amesbury that were postponed because of players competing in the U25 regional final of the White Rose Trophy will now be provisionally scheduled for July 17 at Devizes.