WILTSHIRE men bid to win the Liberty Trophy for only the third time in the Moonraker county's history this weekend in Nottingham.

They have reached the semi-finals in the inter-county indoor championship for the first time in 21 years.

The 24-strong Moonrakers side, containing 14 players from the Westlecot indoor club in Old Town, Swindon, booked their place in the last four of the Liberty Trophy against Kent with a superb performance against Devon at Isca IBC (Exeter) in the quarter-finals in mid-January, toppling the holders 126-108.

The semi-final against Kent was originally scheduled to be played on the neutral indoor green at Whiteknights, Reading on March 3 but had to be postponed owing to snow and transportation difficulties.

Semi-final two between Lincolnshire and Norfolk suffered a similar fate.

Consequently, English Indoor Bowling Association (EIBA) competition officials decided to re-arrange the two semi-finals as well as the planned final for Nottingham this weekend.

Wiltshire's bid to reach the final for only the fourth time in their history starts today (4pm), with the final to be played tomorrow (9.30am).

Wiltshire won the Liberty Trophy in 1984 when they beat Lincolnshire and more recently in 1996 when defeating west country rivals Cornwall.

Wins over Oxfordshire at Westlecot (127-105), Worcester (138-65) and then Devon took them to this stage.

“It was a brilliant performance from everyone,” said player/manager Neil Smith. “This has been coming for the last few seasons.

“We have rebuilt the team and instilled the belief in them that we are good enough to go all the way.

“I have always believed that, now the team are believing and enjoying it.”

“This is Wiltshire’s best run (in the Liberty Trophy) since the three glory years of the 1990s - runner-up, winner and semi-finalist - three years on the trot.

”We are all looking forward to the next game and playing Kent.”

Wiltshire are forced to make one player change to the side that beat Devon in the previous round as Kyle Anderson is unavailable and is replaced by fellow Westlecot IBC player Kevin Embling but also make several positional changes as Anderson was a skip.

TEAM

Rink 2: Steve Snook, Darren Anteney (both North Wilts), Nick Revell (Five Rivers, Salisbury) & Andy Moore (Christie Miller, Melksham).

Rink 3: Kevin Embling, Denis Holborow, Graham Hatherall & Ian Jefferies (all Westlecot, Swindon).

Rink 4: Barry Sictorness, Chris Cheesley, Mel Biggs and Mike Titcombe (all West).

Rink 5: Jordan Moody (FR), Tom Pittuck, Craig Hatherall & Phil Gregory (all West).

Rink 6: Ashley Plumb, Jamie Reynolds, Fraser Boynton & Tom Warren (all FR).

Rink 7: Tom Newman (CM), Terry Walton, Dave Godwin & Neil Smith (player/team manager, all West).

Res: Jordan Moore (Christie Miller) and Dave Williams (North Wilts).

FOUR of the Wiltshire side to play Kent - Dave Snell, Denis Holborow, Terry Walton and Mel Biggs - had an outing on the bowls carpet at Nottingham last weekend.

The foursome from Westlecot indoor club were competing in the over 60 men’s final stages of the national fours championship.

They won their opening game against Suffolk side Beccles 20-13 and in the quarter-finals were drawn against a foursome from host club Nottingham who made home advantage well and truly pay-off to win 20-7 and go on to take the title.