WILTSHIRE were beaten in both of their Middleton Cup trial games last weekend.

In the first held on Saturday at Bath they went down by nine shots losing 124-115 to Somerset.

And 24 hours later they fared even worse when crashing at Banbury to a 136-105 defeat at the hands of Oxfordshire.

The experiment of selecting nearly 50 players for the two trials, only using a few on both days, and mixing up the established county cup players would appear to have back-fired.

It should be interesting to see if the Wiltshire selectors now decide to opt for the more experienced Middleton Cup players for this coming Sunday's final trial at Wootton Bassett against Hampshire, who are a very strong county.

In the first trial match at Bath against Somerset, Wiltshire went down by nine shots.

Showing several enforced changes from the original selected team, Wiltshire battled hard against an experienced Somerset team, winning on two and drawing on one rink.

Neil Hope's quartet, aided by a timely six on the 19th end, won 22-21, while Graham Shadwell's rink finished with a flourish scoring five and two on the last two ends to win 25-20.

Ian Jefferies' quartet held their nerve to cap a great revival and force a well-deserved 21-21 draw.

They had dropped two heavy counts of seven and four in the middle of the match to trail 16-6, but then fought back to snatch a last gasp draw with a five on the last end.

Twenty-four hours later Wiltshire slumped to a 31-shot loss against Oxfordshire at Banbury.

They did not even record a single rink success. They lost on five of them while on the other the quartet skipped by Adie Lloyd (Chippenham Town), managed to draw.

Results (Wilts names first): Saturday, May 10 v Somerset, Rink 1: Dave Snell 15 Clive Edwards 19; Rink 2: Neil Hope 22 Kevin Rowdon 21; Rink 3: Mike Jackson 14 Steve Remington 23; Rink 4: Graham Shadwell 25 Graham Luker 20; Rink 5: Mark Dyer 18 Simon Bruford 20: Rink 6: Ian Jefferies 21 Neil Williams 21. Wiltshire 115 Somerset 124.

Sunday, May 11 v Oxfordshire, Rink 1: Graham Hatherall 16 C Carpenter 22; Rink 2: Dave Snell 19 M Charlette 21; Rink 3: Steve Snell 16 G Lucas 19; Rink 4: N Smith 15 A Ley 30; Rink 5: Keith Hutchens 16 B Sparkes 21; Rink 6: Adie lloyd 23 L Campion 23. Wiltshire 105 Oxfordshire 136.