NORTH WILTS Indoor Bowls Club will be staging their second Open Singles tournament next weekend (March 21-22), with the winner receiving a handsome top prize of £1,000.

The tournament is part of the planetbowls.com series of 29 open indoor singles events this season which culminate in the top 32 players in the ranking points from all of the national tournaments competing in a grand final later in the year for the overall planetbowls title and big prize money.

The event has attracted a full house field of 72 players with a reserves list in operation.

The two-day event starts next Saturday at 9am, with the final scheduled for 5.30pm on Sunday.

Total prize fund on offer is £2,350 with the winner of the second North Wilts Open receiving £1,000 with £500 going to the runner-up.

World ranked number two and double 2015 World Indoor Bowls champion Robert Paxton (Taunton Deane) is taking part, as is last year’s North Wilts champion Keith Bailey (Clarrie Dunbar).

2014 runner-up Barry Jenkins (Egham, Surrey) also returns, while North Wilts' Alex Jacobs, Sue Cooke and Janet Hardie are among those taking part.

The Gazette & Herald is among six sponsors of the event, which is free to spectators. See nwbowls.co.uk for details.

THE hopes of Cooke and Jacobs of reaching the latter stages and finals of four national championship and competitions for the first time have been dashed.

Late last week, together with Molly Manning (lead) and Janet Hardie (number two), they were beaten by seven shots at Taunton Deane in the regional final of the national fours championship by Area 31/32 inter-area winners Torquay United.

Cooke and Jacobs had already qualified for the last 16 in the pairs at Melton & District and in the last 16 of the triples with Hardie.

They had also qualified for the quarter-finals and last eight in the Over 50s ladies two wood triples with Jean Collier (lead) at Nottingham IBC on March 23.