WESTLECOT duo Mike Titcombe and Neil Smith will be bidding to win the top prize of £1,500 at this year’s Open Singles Circuit grand final today at Northampton & District IBC.

Titcombe, 21, will be making his debut in the grand final shoot-out while the vastly experienced Smith, 50, has been a regular at the nationwide season-ending event since it began in 2012.

Both qualified for the OSC grand final by finishing in the top 48 in the rankings, with Titcombe placed fifth and Smith tenth.

Youngster Titcombe burst on the OSC scene in late January this year and sealed his grand final place with an incredible run of results over a nine-week period, which included two runners-up placings in the Wey Valley and North Wilts Opens.

After these two disappointments, Titcombe broke his duck in March with victory over home player and England international Martin Puckett in the Dolphin Open in Poole to cement his top-five ranking.

Smith will be hoping it is third time lucky for him in Northampton, having collected the runners-up prize in the last two grand finals after losing in two extremely close and tense extra-end finals.

In the 2013-14 season, he went down in Boston to Shaun Jones (Malvern Hills) and in the 2014-15 grand final last October at Wellingborough IBC to England international Louis Ridout (Torquay United).

  • TWO TEAMS from Westlecot recorded an indoor double in national team championship and competitions last weekend in the Denny Cup and David Cornwell U25 double rinks.

The Old Town club’s senior men’s side were involved in a hard-fought Denny Cup tussle with Carterton but eventually emerged as five-shot winners, despite only taking the spoils on one of the four rinks contested.

Westlecot’s heroes were the quartet of John Anderson (c), Tom Pittuck, Dave Snell and Mel Biggs, who won their game in Carterton 23-13 and finished by scoring a five and two on their last two ends to seal a 63-58 overall triumph for their club.

Their ten-shot advantage wiped out the away loss by Steve Remington’s foursome and the two home defeats of Ian Jefferies and Neil Smith’s rinks.

In the second round, Westlecot will face MidGlos, two rinks home and two rinks away, on Saturday, November 5.

Meanwhile, Westlecot’s mixed junior side opened their campaign in this season’s David Cornwell U25 double rinks with a comfortable win over Oxford City and County in round two.

Beaten semi-finalists two seasons ago, Westlecot, who received a first-round bye, had to overcome Craig Hatherall pulling out through illness, forcing them to field a triple, but they still beat Oxford by nine shots on an adjusted final score.

The home triple played well to limit the damage while away in Oxford, Mike Titcombe’s foursome were in blistering form and powered to a comprehensive 24-8 victory, only dropping shots on five of the 18 ends.

In the third round, on January 22, 2017, Westlecot will be pitted against either MidGlos or St Andrews, from Weston-super-Mare, who have yet to play.