TOP North Wilts ladies pairing, Sue Cooke and Alex Jacobs, march on in the women’s national championships and are still running in four events following another victory last week.

Cooke and Jacobs, the Area 30 pairs champions, qualified for the latter stages of the national pairs at Melton and District for the fifth time in the last six years with a 27-9 victory in the inter-area final over Area 29 champions Corrine Williams and Karen Malone (Victoria IBC, Street).

Cooke and Jacobs trailed 5-1 after four ends and 6-3 after seven but on the next they collected a four and followed it with a six to move ahead and totally change the game before pulling away to a comprehensive victory.

This success makes it two appearances at Melton Mowbray for Cooke and Jacobs as they had already qualified for the last 16 in the triples with Janet Hardie thanks to an 18-13 inter-area final win over St Andrews.

And the trio, together with Molly Manning, are also the Area 30 and inter-area fours champions and only one step away from a national fours quarter-final at Melton.

They have to meet ex-England international Barbara Bellamy’s foursome from Torquay United in the regional final at Taunton Deane on March 4.

Also, Cooke and Jacobs, with Jean Collier, won the inter-area final in the Over-50s Two-Wood Triples 23-14 against Ilminster and now have to face Beryl Willis, Gillian Callaghan and Maureen Robertson (Mid-Devon, Tiverton) in the regional final – one step away from the last eight and latter stages at Nottingham on March 23-24.

  • NORTH WILTS were forced to make two late changes to the side that had beaten Plymouth in the previous round of the Yetton Trophy for the quarter-final clash with Bournemouth.

The match against the Dorset side was close until the latter stages when Bournemouth pulled away to book a semi-final spot at Darlington in mid-April.

Across the board after five ends North Wilts were only 20-18 down and at halfway were only losing 40-35.

They had pulled back to 55-55 after 16 ends but Bournemouth then upped their game and pulled away to clinch a semi-final place.

North Wilts only took the honours on one rink, with Fizz Mace leading her quartet to an 18-16 home success, while Janet Hardie’s four went down on the last end by a single shot.

It was away in Bournemouth where North Wilts struggled, with the rinks skipped by Sue Cooke and Alex Jacobs losing by 12 and 10 shots respectively.