ROYAL Wootton Bassett men dominated the county national pairs championship quarter-finals staged at Chippenham Town last week.

Bassett supplied three of the quarter-finalists and all of them won to reach the last four at Devizes on Sunday, July 22.

A new pairing of Neil Smith and Mel Biggs got the bandwagon rolling with a hard-fought 20-16 win over Broughton Gifford’s pairing Dave Alford and Neil Yeoman.

Smith and Biggs led 5-4 at five ends and 12-8 at 10 and despite dropping a three on the next end edged away to victory.

In the other two quarter-finals there were wins for two more Bassett duos of James Nobbs and Anthony Sprules 23-18 over Salisbury and Dave Godwin and Steve Snell 25-5 against Chippenham Town’s Rob Clews and Neil Connor.

Nobbs and Sprules were ahead throughout against Salisbury’s Frank Boynton and Tom Warner in their 23-18 victory.

They led 6-4 at five ends, 13-4 at 10, 19-11 at 15 and 20-15 after 18.

The other success for Bassett’s Godwin and Steve Snell over Chippenham Town’s Clews and Connor was a one-sided affair.

They won the first four ends to lead 9-0 and had moved 15-3 ahead at nine. This lead was increased to 24-5 at 15 ends after Chippenham had won only their third end of the game.

However, the match was all over on end 16 as Chippenham conceded as they trailed 25-5.

The only one of the four quarter-final ties that did not involve players from Bassett saw Wayne Simmonds and Wayne Snook (Holt), previous winners in 2014, thump Alistair Hoadley and his partner Andy Coles (Chippenham Town) convincingly 25-8 after only 18 ends.

The semi-finals will feature Holt’s Simmonds and Snook against Bassett’s Smith and Biggs, with the other and all-Bassett affair.

The third and fourth rounds of the county men's singles are due to be completed by Monday.

This will produce the last 16 which will see four matches played at Westlecot and four at Holt next Friday (July 13, 6.30pm).

The quarter-finals are scheduled for Royal Wootton Bassett on Monday, July 16 (6.30pm).

A disappointing 2018 campaign for Wiltshire in the Middleton Cup draws to a close this Saturday when they entertain Gloucestershire at home at Royal Wootton Bassett in their final group match.

The Moonrakers lost their opening group game away to Devon 128-105, realistically ending their hopes of success this season in the inter-club championship.

Wiltshire beat Worcestershire in their second game a fortnight ago 128-119 at Stourport but still only lie third in their four-team group, 16 points behind Devon and two behind Gloucestershire.

The best Wiltshire can hope for is a win over Gloucestershire to take second spot, with Devon the red-hot favourites to win it with a win over Worcestershire, who have lost both of their previous two games.

Westlecot’s James Richman continues to lead Wiltshire's rink two with Holt’s Wayne Snook moving up to two from three with Holt teammate Tony Keating reverting back to the reserves again.

Graham Shadwell (Spencer Moulton), who skipped the rink moves up to three with Ben Gadd (Holt) who was not available for the previous match with Worcestershire returning to skip the rink again.

HAYDON WICK Bowls Club were founded in 1994 and celebrate their 25th anniversary this season.

To mark the milestone, a couple of special matches have been arranged for this month against Swindon & District Men’s Bowling Association and a Bowls Wiltshire mixed side.

They kick off this Sunday when Wick entertain a Swindon & District mixed side on their green at the rear of the Haydon Centre on Thames Avenue at 2.30pm.

SWINDON & DISTRICT TEAM

Rink 1: James Richman (Westlecot), Alan Penfold (Supermarine), Mark Richman (match sec, Westlecot) & Maurice Simpson (pres,Faringdon). Rink 2: Lorraine Dickson, Jamie Little, Dave Jenkins & Peter Webster (all Westlecot). Rink 3: Jan Tilling, Val Goodwin, Chris Moody & Alan Norgrove (all West End). Rink 4: Pete and Lisa Doole, Danny Harvey & Steve Rose (all Rodbourne Cheney). Rink 5: Graham Richards, Alan Small, Terry Walton & Chris Cheesley (all Royal Wootton Bassett). Rink 6: Josie Cook, Wendy Rogers, Phil Cook & Terry Rogers (all Wroughton).

SWINDON & DISTRICT men’s representative side suffered a rare defeat last Sunday at Faringdon, losing to Oxford Vice Presidents BA 100-70.

The match was scheduled to be a six-rink contest but Oxford VPs could only muster five rinks so S&D adjusted their side by dropping their usual rink of officers.

They lost on four of the five rinks as they went down by 30 shots.

Their only success came on rink three the combined Faringdon and Marlborough rink of Gordon and Frances Rothwell, Malcolm Ellis and Norman Dow who won their game 21-13.

Their next match after tomorrow’s game against Haydon Wick is next Sunday, July 15 when they travel to London for their annual fixture versus Ealing & District BA which will be played this year at Springfield BC (3pm).