SWINDON MANOR men have finally broken their Wessex League hoodoo at the tenth time of asking after registering a victory.

The Rodbourne Cheney indoor club made the perfect start to their 2015/16 campaign in the east region of the competition recording a six-shot win over Banbury Cross IBC as they ran-out 81-75 victors.

This win earned them a heady 13 points out of a possible maximum of 16. This was in stark contrast to their woeful time last season, their first in the Wessex League regional competition, when they lost all nine of their group matches and only could muster a meagre 12 points in total.

Swindon’s other indoor club Westlecot also recorded a victory, beating Chipping Norton by 27 shots as they ran-out 93-66 winners.

“Everyone at the club is thrilled with the win and it is a big boost for us,” said Swindon Manor’s Carl Fernandes.

“After last season we would have been happy with one rink winning but with two and a draw it is a bonus for us.”

After a disappointing 2014/15 campaign, where they missed-out on a spot in the end of season play-offs, Westlecot made a fine start to life in the east section beating Chipping Norton 93-68.

  • ONLY Westlecot and Salisbury’s Five Rivers will supply all eight of the Wiltshire players named in the junior county side to face neighbours Gloucestershire.

An entire rink from Old Town club Westlecot and one from Five Rivers meet Gloucestershire at Westlecot on Saturday, October 17 (10am), in round one of the U25 inter-county double rink competition.

The Westlecot names comprise of Gary Jackson, Craig Hatherall, Mike Titcombe junior and Kyle Anderson.

Included at skip in the other rink is Tom Warner, who has moved back to the Five Rivers club from Bournemouth.

Wiltshire men commence their series of 2015/16 winter county indoor friendly matches this weekend.

Under the stewardship of new Wiltshire IBA president Bob Roberts-Phare (North Wilts) they meet Oxfordshire at Westlecot (2pm).

The host club supply five of the 20 players named in the five rinks taking part in the friendly while Swindon Manor have two men named.

  • WESTLECOT U25 side begin their bid today to go a stage further this season in the inter-club David Cornwell U25 double Rinks.

In this season’s opening round in the southern section of the draw, Westlecot have been paired against St Andrews, Weston-Super-Mare.

The team chosen to play the Somerset side shows one change to the one that lost in last season’s semi-final with Nathan Richards making his debut.

Richards goes into Kyle Anderson’s rink at two, in place of Craig Morphet who moves into the home rink, skipped by Mike Titcombe at three.