WESTLECOT came within a whisker of recording only their third national title since the indoor club opened 33 years ago.

The foursome of skip Neil Smith, his daughters Lucy and Katy, and Ian Jefferies went agonisingly close to lifting the national mixed fours crown at Lincoln & District last weekend.

They were pipped at the post on a replayed 21st and last end in the final, losing 21-20 to holders Emma Seed, Sue Kearsley, Jonathan Goodall and Mark Dawes from Blackpool Newton Hall.

Westlecot skip Neil Smith said: “It was an unbelievable finish. We held game and Mark got it with his last bowl.

“We all thought he was wide, we can’t believe we didn’t win it. It was a fantastic game.

“I am so proud of the way we all played. The girls were fantastic in all four games. We couldn’t have done any more.”

They had made a fast start in the final and led Blackpool 6-1 after three ends and had extended that advantage to 12-4 at eight and 15-6 at 12.

But then holders Blackpool began chipping away at Westlecot’s lead and won the next four ends to cut the gap to 15-14 at 16 ends, but the Smith combination rallied to move 17-14 up at 17.

However, the 18th end proved crucial as Westlecot dropped a big count of six to go 20-17 down as Blackpool went in front for the first time.

End 19 was tied but Westlecot hauled themselves back into the game with a superb three on the 20th end to set up the tense and absorbing last end decider that took two attempts to play but the result did not go in their favour and they had to settle for the runners-up trophy.

Westlecot had reached the final thanks to a hard fought 19-16 victory in the semi-finals over host club Lincoln and District, who came from 15-7 down at 14 ends to trail 17-16 at 19 and set-up a tense finish.

Earlier in the competition, Westlecot had beaten Taunton Deane comfortably 25-13 in the last 16 and followed that up with a 20-13 victory in the quarter-finals over Ipswich, coming from 9-6 down at 11 ends.

n WESTLECOT men start their play-offs campaign in the Wessex League today as they seek a fifth league crown.

Westlecot won all nine of their East Region group games and have been drawn against Dolphin (Poole) in the first round of the play-offs, with the Dorset side finishing as runners-up in the Coastal Region.

Westlecot have named a strong side again but will be missing Neil Smith and Gary Jackson and the winners will move forward to the quarter-finals to face either Cotswold (Stroud) or Bournemouth on Sunday, March 13.