NEIL SMITH has made a fine start to his 2016 indoor campaign by qualifying for the national finals of the Premier Threes tournament to be staged at the end of the year by winning the Taunton Deane regional final, writes Dave Eaton.

The Premier Threes is a quickfire format of the indoor game, where each player only uses three woods in his game, with matches over three sets and consisting of only three ends.

There will be four regional tournaments staged throughout the country, with each hosting two groups of eight players, competing on a knockout basis. The winner of each group goes forward into a Grand Final on December 15 at Erewash Indoor Bowls Club.

Every match in this competition will be broadcast live or as live on British Eurosport.

The first two qualifiers have already been held at South Shields IBC and Taunton Deane over the past 10 days, with Smith winning the top group at Taunton with fellow Westlecot indoor player Mike Titcombe losing in the final in the bottom section of the draw.

A prize pot of over £3,000 is available in the Grand Final at Erewash, Derbyshire, and the decisive stage will feature the eight winners, two from each regional final.

In his opening game at Taunton Deane, Smith defeated Julie Leake (Bournemouth) 2-0 and then had to meet Trowbridge's Commonwealth Games medallist Graham Shadwell in the second round (semi-final).

Both players won one set each, with the other being drawn as the match was settled in Smith’s favour in a one-bowl shootout for a 2.5-1.5 victory.

The same applied in the final against Devon’s Jamie Chestney, with Smith taking the honours 2.5-1.5 after a one-bowl shootout.

Mike Titcombe just missed out in joining Smith.

In the bottom half of the Taunton Deane draw, Titcombe clocked up two 2-0 victories, beating England junior international Ryan Atkins (Malvern Hills) and Ryan Hooper, who plays out of the host club.

However, he was beaten 2-0 in the final by world number four Rob Paxton.

  • WILTSHIRE U25 men were beaten 68-67 on aggregate in their four-rink opening match of the 2016 outdoor season away against Somerset.

Rink honours were shared 2-2, with Craig Hatherall and Craig Morphet both leading their rinks to 25-12 and 19-14 victories respectively.

The county's U25 side are back in action this Bank Holiday Monday when they go looking to make a successful start to the defence of their Four Counties Tournament crown at Broadway in Worcestershire.