WILTSHIRE'S men produced their best set of results indoors since the mid 1990s last season when they reached the semi-finals in the inter-county championship for the Liberty Trophy.

However, they were denied a place in the Liberty final for a fourth time at Nottingham and the possibility of emulating their previous wins in 1984 and 1996 when losing to Kent.

Although the new indoor season has only just started Wiltshire men have held a Liberty trial already in preparation for the 2018/19 competition that begins on Saturday, October 27 with an away first round match against Gloucestershire at Cotswold IBC (Stroud).

County men played Surrey in a full scale six-rink match at Westlecot and came out on top by 17 shots, winning 131-114.

They took the honours on three of the rinks drew on another and only suffered a reverse on two rinks.

Wiltshire made all of the running leading from start to finish.

Across the board they led 38-31 after five ends and were 71-66 up at 10.

The advantage was increased to eight shots 98-90 at 15 ends and 112-101 at 18.

A final flurry saw Wiltshire men increase the winning margin at 21 ends to 17 shots as they ran-out 131-114 winners.

Top rink honours went to the foursome of newcomer Gary Fountain (Five Rivers), Dave Williams (North Wilts) and Westlecot duo of Mel Biggs and player/manager Neil Smith who stormed to a 35-9 success.

Next best was the rink skipped by Westlecot’ s Kyle Anderson who were tied 19-19 at 15 ends but edged to a fine 26-20 victory.

The other winning rink saw Andy Moore (now representing North Wilts) come from 15-9 down at 18 to score seven shots on the last three ends and grab a last gasp one shot win 16-15.

The draw came on the all-Westlecot rink skipped by Mike Titcombe.

RESULTS

Rink 1: Steve Snook, Darren Anteney (both North Wilts), Chris Cheesley (Westlecot) & Andy Moore (NW) beat Steve Fortescue 16-15.

Rink 2: Kevin Embling, Terry Walton, Dave Godwin &Kyle Anderson (all West) beat Alan Binns 26-20.

Rink 3: Paul Kistle, Barry Sictorness, Andy McIntyre & Mike Titcombe (all West) drew with Charles Bruder 20-20.

Rink 4: Ashley Plumb, Chris Lawrence, Jamie Reynolds & Fraser Boynton (all Five Rivers) lost to Gary Clarke 17-26.

Rink 5: Jordan Moody (FR), Craig and Graham Hatherall & Phil Gregory (all West) lost to Dave Morris 17-24.

Rink 6: Gary Fountain (Five Rivers), Dave Williams (NW), Mel Biggs & Neil Smith (manager, both Westlecot) beat Paul Vamvacopoulos 35-9.

Score: Wiltshire beat Surrey 131-114.

NORTH WILTS men have made one of their best starts to a new Wessex League campaign for many seasons.

Boosted by the inclusion of several new players from Christie Miller IBC, Melksham, which is unfortunately due to close in the next few days, North Wilts produced a fine performance to beat one of Somerset’s top indoor sides Clevedon by 17 shots as they ran-out 86-69 victors.

The Chippenham-based club won on three of the four rinks to collect 14 out of the 16 points on offer.

Top honours went to the rink skipped by newcomer Andy Moore that won their match away in Clevedon 28-15.

Next best were the two home rinks skipped by Richard Gainey (10 shots) and David Williams (three shots).

The only loss was sustained at Clevedon where Tom Newman’s quartet lost by nine shots.

North Wilts next game sees them face Clarrie Dunbar (Frome) in their second game on Sunday, November 4.

The demise of Christie Miller means that the Central region in the re-vamped Wessex League has been reduced from nine to eight clubs – Bristol, Clarrie Dunbar, Clevedon, Nailsea, North Wilts, Purnell (Paulton), St Andrews (Weston-Super-Mare) and Thornbury.

This season there are eight regions in the re-vamped Wessex League with only the top two teams in each region qualifying for the end of season play-offs. All wild card entrants have consequently been axed.