PURTON’s Chris Mitchell, Julie Jones and skip Alison Fail have booked their place at the National triples championships at Royal Leamington Spa after reaching the county final.

The trio secured their place in July’s final, where they will face Salisbury, following their win over Chippenham Town last weekend.

In their quarter-final match against Carol Grenfell’s Box trio, Purton led 7-2 after five ends and 14-7 at 10 following a six on the 10th end.

However, they were pegged back to 15-14 after 15 ends before eventually winning 22-14.

Against Chippenham in the semi-final, the two teams were tied 4-4 at five ends.

However, by end nine Purton had pulled 10-4 clear and increased their advantage to 16-7 at 15 before finally winning 17-8 at 17 ends.

Lynda Whittingham’s Westlecot trio suffered a 15-11 quarter-final defeated to Salisbury despite having an 8-6 lead after nine ends.

THE second round of the ladies county and national pairs championships begin on Monday with the third round matches scheduled for next Friday.

The quarter-finals and semi-finals will take place at Westlecot on Saturday, June 18 with a place at Royal Leamington Spa and a spot in the county up for grabs.

WILTSHIRE ladies produced a superb battling performance in their opening Walker Cup match to beat Warwickshire 42-41.

The match at Welford-on-Avon was a tight and tense affair with rink honours shared 1-1.

Overall, Wiltshire were 14-11 down at five ends, 23-20 down at ten and still losing 32-30 at 15.

However they edged in front 35-34 after 18 ends and held on for a one shot victory 42-41 after 21 hard fought ends.

Alex Jacobs’ quartet of Mitchell, Grenfell, Fail were always ahead in their game leading 13-7 at 10 ends, 22-13 at 18 before finally winning 25-16.

However, Kathryn Yeoman’s young rink of Katy Smith, Georgina Newman, Marcia Hartley never recovered from a poor start which left them 11-2 down after five ends before eventually losing 25-17.

In the next round Wiltshire will host Gloucestershire on Sunday, June 25.

THE county’s ladies team will kick off their Johns Trophy campaign today when they host Dorset at Devizes.

After Dorset, Wiltshire host Cornwall at Tiverton West End on June 24 before facing Somerset at Clevedon on July 8.

Only the group winner progresses to the west final against the other west group winner on July 15.