THIS weekend is an important one for the men's section of Westlecot Indoor Bowls Club, both individually and on the team front, writes DAVE EATON.

Five players are involved in three Area 16 national finals being played at the Cotswold club in Stroud today, while tomorrow sees the start of the Wessex League play-offs with Westlecot drawn against Cotswold.

Graham Hatherall, Barry Sictorness, John Thomas, Tom Walkley and Neil Smith are just one match away from earning a place in the last 32 and final stages of the English Indoor Bowling Association national championships being staged this year in Nottingham in April.

The quintet will compete in the area finals in three of the four main national championship events - singles, triples and fours - on the neutral green at Stroud today.

Hatherall contests the Area 16 singles final and defends his title against Thornbury's Paul Bryant.

He reached this stage once again after an epic 21-20 semi-final victory over Neil Smith, while Bryant booked his place in the final against Hatherall when beating Jason Sparkes 21-11.

Smith's consolation for the singles defeat is that he has reached both the triples and fours area finals.

In the triples Smith, together with Sictorness and Walkley booked their place in the area final with a hard fought 14-9 win over fellow Westlecot clubmates Kevin Embling, Dan Hoskin and Dave Snell. They face John Hick's triple from Clevedon in this morning's area final.

Tonight Smith and Sictorness link-up with Hatherall and John Thomas to defend the area fours title against Mick Humphries' quartet from Thornbury. Thomas replacing Mike Jackson is the only change from last year's winning combination.

The Westlecot rink booked their place in the fours final with a 22-5 win over Andy Moore's Christie Miller team, while Humphries had an equally comfortable semi-final win when beating John Hick's rink 26-7.