WILTSHIRE men have won their west group in the Middleton Cup for the past five years but face an uphill task to qualify for this year's quarter-finals.

After losing their opening group match in the inter-county championship to Warwickshire, they bounced back to beat Dorset and thump Worcestershire to close the gap to only 12 points on Warwickshire to ensure the battle for top spot goes down to the wire in the last set of matches this Saturday.

To succeed Wiltshire must beat Somerset away in their last game and hope that Worcestershire, who are winless after three games, do them a favour and cause a surprise by toppling unbeaten Warwickshire.

Player-manager Dave Snell said: “If we can duplicate the Worcestershire result and performance against Somerset this weekend (which won’t be easy) it will mean that Warwickshire will have to win their last group match to qualify to the quarter finals - so all is still to play for.”

For the Somerset game on Saturday at Weston-Super-Mare, the selectors make two changes to the side that beat Worcestershire with both changes on the Steve Snell rink.

Highworth’s James Richman will make his Middleton Cup debut replacing Adam Bolwell (Winsley) while Chris Cheesley (Royal Wootton Bassett) returns at two to replace the unavailable Craig Doughty.

TEAM

Rink 1: Gary Jackson, Michael Richards, Graham Hatherall (all Westlecot) & Graham Shadwell (Spencer Moulton). Rink 2: Wayne Simmonds (Holt), Craig Hatherall (West), Wayne Snook & Ben Gadd (both Holt). Rink 3: Kyle Anderson, David Snell (player/manager, both Royal Wootton Bassett), Mike Jackson (West) & Mel Biggs (RWB). Rink 4: Kevin Embling (RWB), Michael Titcombe, Ian Jefferies (both West) & Neil Smith (RWB). Rink 5: Tom Warner, Nick Revell (both Amesbury), Dave Godwin (RWB) & Russell Francis (S Moulton). Rink 6: James Richman (Highworth), Chris Cheesley, Gary Morphet & Stephen Snell (all RWB). Reserves: Adam Bolwell, Keith Bailey, James Reynolds, Chris Poole, Rob Jeffreys and Paul Kistle.

NATIONAL singles and pairs in the men’s county championship events take centre stage for the next two weeks.

The last 16 in the men’s singles were staged on Monday at two venues - Royal Wootton Bassett and Chippenham Town.

They produced several close games and potential surprises but nothing to match the biggest shock so far the elimination of holder Mel Biggs in round three 21-10 by Highworth’s Rob Etherington, who then lost in round four to Bassett’s Dave Godwin.

Royal Wootton Bassett had four players in the last 16 with three winning and reaching the quarter-finals. The only loser was Gary Morphet.

However, Dave Snell had to come from 15-6 up at 11 ends but 15-18 down at 17 to beat Salisbury’s James Reynolds 21-18 after 20 ends while Dave Godwin had a comfortable win as did Neil Smith.

Morphet led Graham Shadwell 8-4 after eight ends and 10-8 after 11 but only scored another two singles to lose 21-12.

Chippenham Town’s Paul Macdonald was always chasing shots against Westlecot’ s Craig Hatherall and Malmesbury’s Tim Bailey suffered a similar fate to Holt’s Wayne Snook.

The singles quarter-finals will be played next Monday at Westlecot.

The last 16 in the national pairs championships are scheduled to be played this Friday evening, July 8 at Westlecot and Holt (6.30pm).

However, the combinations for the four matches at each venue were not known at the time of going to press.

The quarter-finals of the pairs are scheduled for next Friday, July 15 at Royal Wootton Bassett.

RESULTS

Last 16 singles at Royal Wootton Bassett: Kevin Carter (Westlecot) 11 Dave Godwin (Royal Wootton Bassett) 21; Dave Snell (RWB) 21 James Reynolds (Salisbury) 18; Ian Jefferies (W’lecot) 21 Tom Warner (Amesbury) 20; Gary Morphet (RWB) 12 Graham Shadwell (Spencer Moulton) 21.

Last 16 singles at Chippenham Town: Paul Macdonald (Chippenham Town) 11 Craig Hatherall (W’lecot) 21; Tim Bailey (Malmesbury) 8 Wayne Snook (Holt) 21; Neil Smith (RWB) 21 Craig Hadfield-Doughty (Holt) 8; Justin Davis (Holt) 15 Jamie Titcombe (W’lecot) 21.

Quarter-finals, Monday, July 11 at Westlecot (6.30pm): D Godwin (RWB) v D Snell (RWB); I Jefferies (West) v G Shadwell (S Moulton); C Hatherall (West) v W Snook (Holt); N Smith (RWB) v J Titcombe (West).

LAST 16 PAIRS DRAW Friday, July 8 at Westlecot (6.30pm): J Reynolds (Salisbury) v M Biggs (RWB); G Jackson (West) v R Moore (Alderbury); K Williamson (West) v T Riccio (Chippenham T); S Hicks (Highworth) v B Gadd (Holt).

Friday, July 8 at Holt (6.30pm): N Grenfell (S Moulton) v J Nobbs (RWB); G Archard (Holt) v R Wilcox (Malmesbury); J Crowder (Avon) v M Richards (West); I James (Marlborough) v J Cook (Devizes) or R Francis (S Moulton).

The eight winners contest the quarter-finals at Royal Wootton Bassett on Friday, July 15 (6.30pm).