Wiltshire's men start their inter-counties bid

The ladies have been drawn in Section A of the West Region and will face Cornwall, Devon and Gloucestershire in the Johns Trophy seeking to top the group and reach the quarter-finals.

Meanwhile the men are also in Section A of the West Region but in the Middleton Cup and will play Gloucestershire, Warwickshire and Worcestershire initially.

Local clubs supply eight of the ladies for the Johns home match against Cornwall that will actually be played in Devon at Culm Vale (Cullompton) owing to the travelling distance involved.

The players are June Corbett (Town Gardens), Babs Salter (Wroughton), the Purton duo of Alison Fail and Chris Mitchell, Janet Willis (Stratton Churchway), Josie Lloyd (Westlecot), Linda Kingston (Highworth) and Wootton Bassett’s Lucy Smith who will be making her Wiltshire Johns Trophy debut.

Local clubs Westlecot and Wootton Bassett supply over half of the team selected by Wiltshire for the county men’s opening Middleton Cup game today.

Seven Westlecot players - Graham Hatherall, Mel Biggs, Mike Richards, Ian Jefferies, Gary and Mike Jackson and Kevin Embling - plus six Bassett representatives - Barry Sictorness, Steve Snell, Chris Cheesley, Dave Godwin, Gary Morphet and Neil Smith - are named in the 24 strong Moonrakers team for the first 2014 inter-county championship group match at home against Gloucestershire at Wootton Bassett (2pm).

The trio of Mike Jackson and Mel Biggs (Westlecot) and Neil Smith (Wootton Bassett) all boast over 100 Cup appearances while Bassett’s Barry Sictorness who has made 69 took a year off from bowls in 2013 but is back in the fold again.

Godwin used to play out of Chippenham Town but has moved to Swindon and opted to switch to the Wootton Bassett club for all his national championship and competition events.

Both Wiltshire men and women will be seeking to top their respective groups in order to progress to the quarter-finals and knock-out stages in this year’s inter-county championships.