PURTON trio of Chris Mitchell, Julie Jones and Alison Fail (skip) have won the ladies national triples crown.

They lifted the title at the Bowls England national championships currently being staged at Victoria Park, Royal Leamington Spa on Wednesday afternoon when defeating Nottinghamshire’s Terrie Wombell, Liz Munro and Janet Eames from the Dukeries BC (Rainworth, Notts) 19-18 in a tense final, Fail sealing Purton’s victory on the 18th and last end with the final bowl of the thrilling match.

Purton made a flying start in the final against Dukeries to establish a healthy 15-2 lead after only six ends and were 17-5 clear after 10 ends.

However, the Notts side, who had scored six shots on the last three ends to win their semi-final 21-20, began a tremendous fightback cutting the gap to 17-10 after 12 ends and 19-15 after 16 ends when Purton dropped a count of four to set-up a nerve jangling finish.

But Purton hung on only conceding a two and a single on the last two ends to claim a last-gasp 19-18 victory and lift the 2017 ladies national triples championship title.

Earlier on Wednesday morning in the semi-finals they had thwarted the challenge from Cumbria representatives Wigton, skipped by Carol Baxter 17-15 to book their place in the triples final.

Purton made a good start against Wigton and led 6-1 at five ends but had fallen behind at nine ends (halfway) and trailed the Cumbrian trio 10-6.

Back came the Purton girls to draw level at 12-12 at 13 ends and move 15-13 up at 15 ends. But then were pegged back immediately to 15-all with only two ends remaining.

However, Fail’s trio grabbed a pair of singles on the last two ends to snatch a 17-15 success and a place in the afternoon triples final.

The national triples victory is Purton’s first success in a national championship event since the club was formed in 1971.

However, the club’s team of Jean Bird, Carol Bartlett and Josie Lloyd did win the women’s national benevolent triples competition in 1999.