WILTSHIRE men made a superb start last weekend to their 2015 Middleton Cup campaign with a 21-shot win over Warwickshire.

Losing semi-finalists last year, the Moonrakers made a first successful step towards qualification for the last four again this season at Leamington when beating Warwickshire 131-110 on their own green at Rugby in their opening west group match.

Wiltshire took the honours in this inter-counties championship match on four of the six rinks to collect 18 of the 22 points on offer.

They trailed by one shot to the hosts Warwickshire after five ends across the board 28-27 but by ten ends had moved 61-53 ahead and then just gradually pulled away to victory.

Wiltshire led 91-73 at 15 ends had extended the advantage to 113-91 at 18 and finally won the Cup tie 131-110.

The reasonably comfortable victory was in sharp contrast to last year against Warwickshire when Wiltshire grabbed a last-gasp win on the very last end overall at Rugby, as skip Russell Francis drew a single with his last wood on his 21st end with the scores tied 112-112 overall.

Last Saturday Mel Biggs’ rink led the way for the Moonrakers notching a 17 shots success, while Graham Shadwell’s rink won by 12 shots, Neil Smith’s by ten and Ben Gadd’s by nine.

These plus 48 shots easily covered the big 23-shot loss suffered by Gary Morphet’s quartet and the four shot loss by Russell Francis’ rink. Francis had come back from 18-5 down at ten ends after dropping a maximum count of eight (hotshot) on the ninth end to only lose 23-19.

Delighted Middleton Cup team manager Dave Snell said, “We couldn't have asked for a better start to this year’s campaign.

“We said before the game that any type of win would be good, but to win on four rinks and secure a 18-4 result was a real bonus.

“Although it is early days, last week’s results and Worcestershire's win against Dorset yesterday it has put us in a good position.

“We have another tough game next week away to Dorset on the Greenhill Green in Weymouth and if we can come away with any positive result that will only improve our position with two home games remaining.

“The result was even more pleasing as the green (at Rugby) was very tricky and patchy and although quick the pace was not even due to the brown and green patches and it was very difficult to find a consistent length, but we managed to overcome it better than the home players.

The team named for the second Middleton Cup game this Saturday at Greenhill (Weymouth) against Dorset shows two changes.

Craig Doughty (Holt), who was unavailable for the Warwickshire game, replaces player/manager Snell at number two in Graham Shadwell’s rink with Snell reverting to lead in Mel Biggs’s rink with Kyle Anderson unavailable.

RESULTS

Rink 1: Wayne Simmonds, Kevin Rowden (both Holt), Andy Colebrooke & Russell Francis (both Spencer Moulton) lost to Andy Smith 19-23. Rink 2: Barry Sictorness, Chris Cheesley, Dave Godwin & Gary Morphet (all Wootton Bassett) lost to Dan Box 9-32. Rink 3: Tom Warner, Nick Revell (both Amesbury), Wayne Snook & Ben Gadd (both Holt) beat Alan Apsey 22-13. Rink 4: Gary Jackson (Westlecot), Dave Snell, Stephen Snell (both WB) & Graham Shadwell (S Moulton) beat Colin Jacox 27-15. Rink 5: Kevin Embling (West), Keith Bailey (Holt), Tom Walkley & Neil Smith (both WB) beat Calvin Wells 27-17. Rink 6: Kyle Anderson (WB), Graham Hatherall, Mike Jackson & Mel Biggs (all West) beat Tom Millership 27-10.

Score: Wiltshire beat Warwickshire 131-110 and 18pts to 4pts.

West B Group Scores - May 30: Somerset 128 (18pts) Worcestershire 106 (4pts) Dorset 115 (16pts) Warwickshire 113 (6pts) June 06: Warwickshire 110 (4pts) Wiltshire 131 (18pts) Worcestershire 139 (16pts) Dorset 92 (6pts) Fixtures - June 13: Dorset v Wiltshire; Warks v Somerset.

June 20: Somerset v Dorset; Wilts v Worcs (at Wootton Bassett) July 04: Worcs v Warks; Wilts v Somerset (at W Bassett).

THE FIVE youngest members of the successful Middleton Cup side are named by Wiltshire selectors to compete in the regional final of the White Rose Trophy this Sunday.

The quintet of Gary Jackson, Kyle Anderson, Tom Warner, Nick Revell plus reserve Mike Titcombe are chosen along with James Richman, Craig Morphet and Matt Daniell to contest the inter-county U25s national two fours (double rink) competition regional final at Bristol Bowls Club, Ashton Gate, on June 14 (10am).

Wiltshire who beat Dorset in round one have drawn Devon in the semi-final at Bristol while in the other semi Cornwall face Somerset.

The two winners meet in the grand final in the afternoon with the regional winner progressing to the White Rose semi-finals at Bowls England Headquarters at Royal Leamington Spa at the end of August.

TEAM

Rink 1: James Richman (Highworth), Mike Titcombe, Gary Jackson (both Westlecot) & Kyle Anderson (Wootton Bassett). Rink 2: Craig Morphet (West), Matt Daniell (W Bassett), Tom Warner & Nick Revell (both Amesbury). Reserves (alphabetical order): Ben Choules (High), Craig Hatherall (West) & Ashley Plumb (Ames).

THE county men’s side, under the stewardship of 2015 president Richard Gardiner (Supermarine), continue to go from strength to strength and remain unbeaten.

They stretched their run to three matches with a narrow 108-103 home win over Worcestershire on the superb Supermarine green on Thursday.

Wiltshire took the honours on three of the six rinks and drew on another, which contained Wiltshire county president Richard Gardiner and was skipped by Martin Salter.

They led 14-8 after 11 ends but a run of seven losing ends saw them trail 19-14 after 18 but hit back on the last three to salvage a 19-19 draw.

Wiltshire’s next friendly game is against Isle of Wight at Salisbury on Tuesday, June 16 (1.30pm).

RESULTS (skips only) Rink 1: Geoff Toomer beat Les Case 22-15. Rink 2: Keith Evill beat Keith Manning 16-14. Rink 3: Martin Salter drew with Mike Bond 19-19. Rink 4: Graham Annetts beat Richard Woodward 17-13. Rink 5: Bob Fredericks lost to Vernon Evans 15-19. Rink 6: Brian Merritt lost to Bill Hadley 19-23.

Score: Wiltshire beat Worcestershire 108-103.