NEIL Smith bids for glory and the top prize of £1500 at Boston Indoor Bowls Club today.

The Westlecot indoor player, Wootton Bassett outdoor member and England indoor triallist, will be competing in the invitation-only planetbowls.com Grand Prix Final that will feature the top 32 players on their 2013/14 ranking list, playing for a prize pot of £4,000.

Smith finished third in the planetbowls.com rankings list – mainly as a result of winning the Ipswich Open Singles title when beating Wayne Willgress (Norfolk) 2-1 in the grand final last February.

He also lost 2-0 in the Wey Valley Open final to fellow Planet Bowls director Matt Hyde (Desborough, Maidenhead) and, in April, was edged out 2-1 on a tiebreaker in Poole in the Dolphin Open final by Martin Puckett (Moonfleet, Weymouth).

At Boston, Smith will meet former Westlecot teammate Neil Hope, who now plays out of Leicester IBC and was 31st in the rankings, in his opening round match at noon.

With BJ Byles (Whiteknights, Reading) coming in to the Grand Prix field in place of the absent Jamie Chestney, Westlecot’s Ian Jefferies, number 35 on the rankings list last season, has moved up to second standby reserve for the Boston event.

  • THE NATIONAL inter-club team competitions begin in earnest this weekend for Swindon’s indoor clubs, with first round matches in both the ladies Yetton Trophy and mixed Egham Trophy being staged.

In the Yetton Trophy today, with two rinks at home and two away, Swindon Manor are scheduled to make their debut in the competition (10am) with a tough first round tie against MidGlos IBC (Brockworth).

Westlecot ladies have a first round bye and do not start their campaign until November 8 when they face the winner in round two.

The Old Town club will be looking for revenge tomorrow (10am) when they face Carterton in the first round of the Egham Trophy, a national inter-club mixed knockout competition, after going out in round two 77-73 last season to the Oxfordshire side.

WESTLECOT TEAM

Home - Rink 1: Val Coles, Jenny Vowles, Kevin Embling & Dave Snell. Rink 2: Linda Perfitt, Julia Hunt, John and Kyle Anderson.

Away - Rink 1: Rosemary Nichols, Wendy Anderson, Tom Pittuck & Chris Cheesley. Rink 2: Viv Barker, Josie Lloyd, John Thomas & Tom Walkley.