THREE players from the Westlecot indoor club will be chasing ranking points at the Bristol City & County Open Singles tournament this weekend at Ashton Vale.

The trio of Neil Smith, Mike Titcombe and Phil Gregory compete in the penultimate event on this season’s Open Singles Circuit (OSC).

The final event is the re-arranged two-day Ipswich Open Singles that will be held next weekend after being postponed on March 3.

The Westlecot IBC trio need to finish in the top 32 of the OSC rankings to ensure a place in the play-offs and Grand Final at Potters Leisure Resort, Norfolk, in November.

Smith is the highest ranked of the Westlecot trio in joint fourth place on 250 points, boosted by two quarter-final appearances at Wellingborough and Torquay recently, plus a win at Dolphin (Poole) on Easter Monday.

He is certain to make the Grand Final, but Titcombe and Gregory need at least one or even two more good finishes to qualify.

Titcombe, 22, who reached the semi-finals in both the U25 and main singles events at the recent national championships, lies in 27th spot in the rankings on 136 points following a win at the Clarrie Dunbar singles in late February.

Gregory, though, has had a consistent but unspectacular season and lies 38th.

At Bristol, Smith faces Peter Belsten from the host club in his first match, Titcombe meets Shaun Jones from Malvern Hills, while Gregory plays Steve Broome (Bromsgrove).

  • THE play-offs for the overall Wessex League title were hosted by Westlecot last Sunday, with the event taking place at their green in Old Town for the second time since the turn of the century.

The only difference was that Westlecot competed in the final last time back in 2008 against Plymouth and were victorious, but this time around they failed to reach the final, which was contested by Atherley and Bromsgrove.

Both finalists were wildcard entrants after finishing third in the Coastal and Midland regions respectively, with Bromsgrove lifting the title after an 87-53 success.

Westlecot’s run was ended by the eventual champions in the quarter-finals, where they lost 75-71.

This was the last season for the Wessex League in its present format as the six regions are being revamped into eight next term.

The regions for 2018/19 are Midland, Mercia, Thames, Cotswold, Coastal, Jurassic, Central and West, therefore wildcards for the play-offs are to be dropped as the 16 qualifiers will be the eight regional winners and runners-up.

Westlecot, together with Rodbourne Cheney-based Swindon Manor, move out of the East region into a smaller Thames region.

Three new clubs are joining the league – Tamworth (Midland), Chawton Park (Coastal) and Dorchester B (Jurassic) – to take the overall total of clubs from 49 to 52 from 12 counties.