FIVE ladies’ foursomes from clubs in the local area – Chippenham Town, North Wilts, Winsley and two from Box – contested the county fours quarter and semi-finals last Saturday at Amesbury.

They were bidding to claim a spot in the county final and a place in this year’s ladies’ national championships at Royal Leamington Spa.

Only the Box foursome of Debbie Shadwell, Jane Taylor, Jean Collier and skip Michele Williams were successful as the other four local teams all missed out, with the other place at the nationals claimed by Westlecot.

In the bottom half of the draw, Williams’ Box rink posted a comfortable 17-8 victory over Chippenham Town, skipped by Irene Button, while the North Wilts rink of Janet Hardie, June Coyle, Ann Roberts-Phare and skip Fizz Mace eliminated last year’s winners Supermarine, skipped by Susan Griffiths, 18-16.

It was Box who came out on top when the two met in the semis.

Williams’ rink led 6-2 at five ends, 8-5 after 10, 13-8 at 15, but were pulled back to a narrow 14-13 advantage at 18.

They then lost the lead as North Wilts moved 15-14 ahead, but back came Box to win 17-16 and gain a place in county fours final as well as a qualification to the national fours championship.

The top half of the draw saw the other Box rink of Carol Grenfell, Kathryn Yeoman, Sue Cooke and Alex Jacobs lose 19-15 to Westlecot, skipped by Lynda Whittingham.

The Winsley rink of Gill Chandler, Gill Viles, Ninna Beaven and Sandra Bartlett also exited in the quarters, losing to Salisbury, skipped by Margaret Annetts, 20-16.

However, Salisbury came unstuck in the semis, going down 18-13 to Westlecot.

The ladies’ fours championship final will be played at Bradford-on-Avon on July 27, the home rink of county ladies president Ruth Gerrish – the first county president from Bradford since the ladies association was formed in 1946.

Attention now turns to the county ladies’ triples championship, with the first and second rounds having been played around the county last week.

The last eight in both the northern and southern sections were due to be played earlier in the week, which should have produced the eight teams to contest the quarter and semi-finals at Box this Saturday.

WILTSHIRE ladies made a poor start to the defence of their South West Counties League title.

In their opening game of the new season against Cornwall played on the neutral venue of Tiverton West End, they were beaten 119-103 last Tuesday.

Wiltshire only took the honours on one of the six rinks, that was the rink skipped by Stratton Churchway’s Janet Willis, who led throughout the entire match for a 26-15 victory.

Otherwise it was a sad state of affairs in the other five games, with narrow two-shot defeats for the rinks skipped by Babs Salter (Wroughton) and Alison Fail (Purton), while the rinks led by Rose Fitzpatrick (Chippenham Town), Janice Rowe (Amesbury) and Margaret Annetts (Salisbury) were also beaten.

Wiltshire only collected two of the 22 points on offer courtesy of the lone rink success from Willis’ team that avoided a whitewash.

Wiltshire will be seeking better fortunes in their next SWCL match, which is another away encounter against Somerset at Chew Stoke on June 12.