WILTSHIRE men failed in their bid to reach Worthing in the last four of the Middleton Cup for the first time in eight years.

They were beaten 117-104 by Berkshire in the quarter-finals of the inter-county championship on the neutral green at Oxford City and County last Saturday.

Wiltshire won on three of the six rinks skipped by Michael Snell (eight shots), Mel Biggs (five shots) and Mike Jackson (three shots) who was celebrating his 100th appearance for Wiltshire and only lost on Graham Shadwell’s rink by two shots.

But suffered an eight shot loss on Mark Dyer’s and could not compensate for the 25-6 thrashing that Neil Smith’s quartet took against England international Robert Newman.

Across the board Wiltshire trailed throughout being 27-19 down at five ends and 61-49 adrift at 10. They had pulled back to only 102-97 down at 18 but were finally beaten by 13 shots.

At one stage towards the finish the match did get extremely close.

The six games were obviously not in sequence but with only 18 ends of the match remaining in total Wiltshire had cut the deficit to only two shots. However, Berkshire weathered the Moonrakers’ gallant fightback and pulled away again to victory.

TEAM

Rink 1: Paul Kistle (Westlecot), Chris Cheesley, Gary Morphet and Neil Smith (all Wootton Bassett) lost to Robert Newman 6-25.

Rink 2: Barry Sictorness, Tom Walkley (both WB), Dave Godwin (Chippenham T), Mark Dyer (W’lecot) lost to Andy Knapper 17-25.

Rink 3: Rod Summers, Keith Bailey (both Holt), Ian Jefferies and Mike Jackson (both W’lecot) beat Kirk Smith 24-21.

Rink 4: Wayne Simmonds (Holt), Paul Macdonald (Chipp T), Russell Francis and Graham Shadwell (both Spencer Moulton) lost to Alan Price 17-19.

Rink 5: Kevin Embling (WB), Michael Richards (W’lecot), Wayne Snook (Holt) and Michael Snell (WB) beat Jon Stradling 22-14.

Rink 6: Kevin Carter (Highworth), Jamie Titcombe (W’lecot), Dave Snell (WB) and Mel Biggs (W’lecot) beat Gary Stacey 18-13.

Score: Wiltshire lost to Berkshire 104-117.

PAIRINGS from Wiltshire were successful last weekend in Area 14 finals (Wilts and Dorset) and booked their places next month at Worthing in the last 16 of the National Championships.

Trowbridge’s Debbie and Graham Shadwell (Avon and Spencer Moulton clubs respectively) will be going back to Worthing to defend the National Mixed Pairs title they won last year.

They ensured another trip together to the Sussex coast when beating Derik Gray and his partner Margaret (Greenhill BC) 23-17 in Weymouth in the area final.

While Wootton Bassett’s Dave Snell and Kevin Embling, a new pairing, won the Area 14 final in the Over 55 Pairs which was played at Gillingham, Dorset.

In the area final they beat Philip Goater and his partner from the Greenhill Club in Weymouth 18-11.

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