WILTSHIRE men bounced back from their surprise loss to Warwickshire to beat Dorset in their second Middleton Cup group game.

However, despite winning this inter-county championship tie at Royal Wootton Bassett, they had to battle hard for a 112-105 victory over Dorset.

Wiltshire took the honours on only three of the six rinks to take six points but also collected a further ten points for the overall shots win.

Team manager Dave Snell said: “We went into this match knowing we had to win to give us a chance of qualifying to the quarter-finals next month. This we did with a 16-6 win, however a bigger win would have given us more of a chance to overhaul Warwickshire as they had an 18-4 points win against Somerset.”

RESULTS - Rink 1: Wayne Simmonds (Holt), Craig Hatherall (Westlecot), Wayne Snook & Ben Gadd (both Holt) beat Wayne Garnett 25-13. Rink 2: Kevin Embling (Royal Wootton Bassett), Michael Titcombe, Ian Jefferies (both West) & Neil Smith (RWB) beat Jamie Lockwood 19-11. Rink 3: David Snell (player/manager, RWB), James Reynolds (Salisbury), Mike Jackson (West) & Mel Biggs (RWB) lost to Dan Steadman 10-25. Rink 4: Tom Warner, Nick Revell (both Amesbury), Craig Doughty (Holt) & Russell Francis (Spencer Moulton) lost to Martin Puckett 17-25. Rink 5: Adam Bolwell (Winsley), Kyle Anderson, David Godwin & Stephen Snell (all RWB) lost to Chris Weekes 13-22. Rink 6: Gary Jackson, Michael Richards, Graham Hatherall (all West) & Graham Shadwell (S Moulton) beat Graham Parker 28-9.

Score: Wiltshire beat Dorset 112-105 and by 16pts to 6pts.

  • THE senior men’s side face Devon in the west regional of the Balcombe Trophy tomorrow at Clevedon.

TEAM - Rink 1: Wayne Simmonds, Wayne Snook (both Holt), Neil Smith (Royal Wootton Bassett) & Ben Gadd (Holt). Rink 2: Kyle Anderson, Mel Biggs, Stephen Snell (all RWB) & Graham Shadwell (Spencer Moulton). Reserve: Dave Godwin (RWB).

  • WILTSHIRE men's junior side missed-out last Sunday in their bid for a place in the last four at the national championships at Royal Leamington Spa in August as they lost their White Rose Trophy semi-final with Devon 46-21.

Devon went on to win the regional final beating Somerset comfortably.

RESULTS - Rink 3: Adam Bolwell (Winsley), Tom Warner (Amesbury), Gary Jackson (Westlecot) & Nick Revell (Ames) lost to Ryan Whitlock 8-31. Rink 4: James Richman (Highworth), Mike Titcombe, Craig Hatherall (both West) & Kyle Anderson (Royal Wootton Bassett) lost to Michael Coombes 13-15.

Score: Wiltshire lost to Devon 21-46.

  • PURTON and Westlecot were both winners in the semi-final of the men’s county fours and triples events respectively, which were staged last Sunday at Devizes.

The Purton foursome of Dave Hall, Eric Collier, Colin Baker and Dave Jones beat Holt on the last end 18-17.

However, Westlecot had a much easier passage in their triples semi-final, battering Devizes into a 25-7 submission on their own green.

The other fours semi-final between Westlecot and Spencer Moulton and the triples semi between Royal Wootton Bassett, and Amesbury that were postponed last Sunday at Clevedon, are provisionally scheduled for July 17 at Devizes.