CHIPPENHAM Town, representing the southern section of the county, have reached the final of the Wiltshire men’s Four-Rink League after a last-end 82-80 victory over Swindon Westlecot in the play-offs semi-final at Avon on Sunday morning.

Town were one shot down overall going into the very last end on Richard Gainey’s rink with the other three rinks already finished.

But Gainey’s foursome turned up trumps, notching a match-winning count of three to cut his own rinks loss from 20-14 to only 20-17 and put Chippenham into the final this Sunday.

Their opponents have still to be decided as the other semi-final between holders Royal Wootton Bassett and Holt was postponed until this evening (Thursday) at Avon under lights, with Bassett contesting an inter-area final in the Men’s Top Club against Boscombe Cliff with a place in the last eight at Leamington the prize.

Chippenham Town have won the league title 13 times, but the last success came 21 years ago in 1997. Since then they have lost two finals in 2003 and 2008, ironically against Westlecot.

This season’s encounter was a closely-fought affair and went all the way to the wire, even though Chippenham led for most of the match.

They led across the board 21-17 after five ends, 41-33 at 10 and 61-51 after 15 but then saw the 10-shot advantage disappear.

Westlecot hit back in the next three ends to score 22 shots to Chippenham’s four shots to take an eight-shot lead at 73-65 at 18 ends and set up a grandstand finish.

Jeremy Haselton’s rink went from 23-12 up at 16 ends to 24-23 down at 18 having conceded two sixes, however they recovered to win the next three to win 29-24.

Town fought back to cut the gap to only one shot overall at 79-80 with just one end of the match remaining.

Up stepped Gainey’s rink to deliver the goods and a place in Sunday’s final at Devizes (2pm).

RESULTS

Rink 2: Rich Ellis, Mike Travers, Andy Coles & Richard Gainey lost to Mike Titcombe 17-20. Rink 3: Jim Fitzpatrick, Keith Fletcher, Dave Williams & Willie Jones lost to Mike Jackson 15-19. Rink 4: Alan Stell, Rob Clews, Tino Riccio & Neil Connor beat Ian Jefferies 21-17. Rink 5: Kevin Ringham, John Lucas, Nobby Tucker & Jeremy Haselton beat Mike Richards 29-24.

Score: Chippenham Town beat Westlecot 82-80.

ROYAL Wootton Bassett have qualified for the men’s Top Club final stages at Victoria Park, Royal Leamington Spa next weekend (Saturday-Sunday, September 15-16).

The Dorset/Wilts champions booked their place in the last eight (quarter-finals) at Leamington for the third consecutive season with a hard-fought 3-2 win after two extra ends over Hampshire/Isle of Wight champions Boscombe Cliff, Hants in the inter-area played at Banister Park, Eastleigh, Southampton.

Bassett won both the two wood and four wood singles courtesy of Neil Smith (16-13) and Dave Godwin (21-10) respectively.

Phil Gregory, Gary Morphet and Mel Biggs lost the triples 10-21.

However, the pairs and fours both went to extra ends. James Nobbs, Chris Cheesley, Kyle Anderson and Steve Snell were tied 14-14 but lost on the 22nd and extra end 15-14 for the match to be tied 2-2 overall.

The partnership of Graham Hatherall and Neil Collett came from 15-10 down to snatch a single on the last end to tie their game 16-16 and keep Bassett’s hopes of success alive.

The duo then took the accolades with a count of two to win 18-16 on the extra end to send Bassett men, who have already had a successful time at the recent national championships at Leamington to Victoria Park in search of another national crown.

Bassett were runners-up in the Top Club two seasons ago.

BOWLS WILTSHIRE'S domestic finals will be staged at Devizes Bowls Club on Saturday and Sunday.

They will also feature three of the four county national championship events in the men’s singles and pairs plus ladies pairs that were not played over the weekend of July 28-29, owing to torrential rain and flooded greens.

Four-time winners in 2003 and 2011-2113 and losing finalists last year Sue Cooke and Alex Jacobs face Highworth duo Joanna Hicks and Linda Young in the outstanding ladies county national pairs final on Saturday morning at 9.30am.

In the men’s pairs, Bassett duo Dave Godwin and Steve Snell, who were losing semi-finalists by a shot on an extra end at Leamington in the national pairs recently, face Holt's pairing of Wayne Simmonds and Wayne Snook, 2014 Wiltshire champions on Saturday morning (9.30am).

Godwin and Snook face each other again in the afternoon in the top men’s event county national singles final. Godwin won the title for the first time in 2016 after being runner-up the previous year.

It is a busy weekend for Godwin at Devizes as will also feature in the men’s champion of champions competition on Sunday morning and possibly in the four rink league final against Chippenham Town in the afternoon if holders Bassett beat Holt in the outstanding semi-final being tonight.

Box player Jacobs is involved in three events over the weekend – national pairs, ladies champion of champions final against Fizz Mace (North Wilts) and the Top Ten on Sunday against Westlecot which Box have won in eight consecutive seasons since 2010.

In other team events Chippenham Town meet Avon (Melksham) in the mixed double rinks final and Pewsey Vale face Broughton Gifford in the men’s Tourist Trophy final at Devizes.