HIGHWORTH, Supermarine and Royal Wootton Bassett all recorded victories at the county ladies finals day at Avon, the home green of Wiltshire women’s president Dawn Edwards.

Despite the inclement weather last weekend, five of the scheduled six finals were held on Saturday, with Sunday's pairs final to be rearranged after heavy rain thwarted Sunday's play.

Highworth’s Linda Young took the main event, the ladies four wood singles, beating Bassett’s Lucy Smith in a close encounter 21-17.

Kingston was 7-2 down to Smith at five ends and still trailing 12-8 at 10.

But two counts of three and the loss of two singles saw Kingston tied 14-14 at 14 ends. Kingston then pulled away to lead 19-14 at 17 ends before clinching her first county singles title 21-17 on the 19th end.

The Supermarine foursome of Ann Andrews, Cheryl Walker, Nicki Kemble-Young and skip Susan Griffiths had been the surprise package in the county fours and repeated it in the final with a late flurry when beating a vastly-experienced Box quartet, skipped by Alex Jacobs, 20-15.

Supermarine were 4-2 down at five ends but 10-5 up at 11 (halfway).

Box rallied and had gone back ahead 12-11 at 16 ends and 15-13 up at 19 before Supermarine staged a big finale.

On the last two ends they scored a count of two and followed with a match winning haul of five to grab a superb 20-15 victory and another prize big scalp.

It was a first for all of the Supermarine ladies, who had never even reached a county final before.

Skip Susan Griffiths said: “We went to Avon with the intention of giving Box a good game, which we did.

“It was a very exciting final, drawing at 15 all after 20 ends. We could not believe we had actually won.

“Supermarine is a very friendly club with quite a small group of ladies who all support each other. We are all ‘one’ team.

“We do not select the 'best' for our afternoon or evening league games. We also enter the Top Club, Double Rinks, Swindon & District and Wiltshire bowls competitions and in this way we give all our ladies the opportunity to play and experience very competitive games.”

“I think by doing this has contributed to our success.''

Lucy Smith (Royal Wootton Bassett) was the third local winner in the junior (U25) singles, beating her younger sister Katy, 21, in the final 21-6.

The win extended 23-year-old Lucy’s remarkable record in this event to six consecutive victories since 2013.

The other two clubs to field a winner were Spencer Melksham and Box.

Sue Cooke was the lone Box winner in the two wood singles final. She came from 5-1 down at five ends, 11-8 down at 16 to edge past Amesbury’s Janice Bull (Amesbury) to win 14-12 at 21 ends.

However, in the triples the Box trio of Debbie Shadwell, Cooke and Alex Jacobs never recovered from a poor start that saw them trail the Spencer Melksham trio of Jenny Couch, Marilyn Jay and skip Delia Godwin 11-1 after only six ends and 15-6 after 13 ends before rallying to cut the final deficit to 18-13 to Spencer Melksham at 18 ends.

RESULTS

Two Wood Singles: Sue Cooke (Box) beat Janice Bull (Amesbury) 13-12

Four Wood Singles: Linda Young (Highworth) bt Lucy Smith (Royal Wootton Bassett) 21-17

Fours: Carol Grenfell, Kathryn Yeoman, S Cooke & A Jacobs (Box) lost to Ann Andrews, Cheryl Walker, Nicki Kemble-Young & Susan Griffiths (Supermarine) 15-20.

Triples: Jenny Couch, Marilyn Jay & Delia Godwin (Spencer Melksham) beat Debbie Shadwell, S Cooke & A Jacobs (Box) 18-13

Junior (U25) singles: Lucy Smith (holder, RWB) beat Katy Smith (RWB) 21-6

Pairs: Joanna Hicks & Linda Young (Highworth) v S Cooke & A Jacobs (Box) to be rearranged as green at Avon closed owing to the bad weather.

All finalists in above six events will represent Wiltshire in the 2018 national championships at Royal Leamington Spa this month.

THE month-long 2018 national championships and competitions start at Victoria Park, Royal Leamington Spa today (Saturday).

They kick off with the women’s and men’s top inter-county championship semi-finals and final in the Johns Trophy and Middleton Cup.

Wiltshire Ladies have named an unchanged team for the semi-final of the Johns Trophy against Yorkshire at Leamington today August 4 (9.30am). The other morning semi-final features Northamptonshire against Surrey with the final in the afternoon.

The county selectors have not surprisingly decided to field the same line-up that earned Wiltshire ladies a magnificent 115-108 victory over Devon in the quarter-finals at Castle Cary, Somerset, three weeks ago.

It will be the first time that Wiltshire have appeared in a Johns Trophy semi-final for 23 years.

The last time was in 1995 when they won the competition for the only time beating Sussex in the final and Huntingdon in the semis.

The men’s Middleton Cup semi-finals are between Buckinghamshire and Devon, who won Wiltshire’s west group A with the other semi-final between Leicestershire and Yorkshire.

WILTSHIRE ladies rounded off a highly successful South West Counties League campaign this season with a victory.

They won their opening four games against Cornwall (120-117), Somerset (119-92), Worcestershire (123-121) and Herefordshire (123-101) before losing to arch rivals Devon by eight shots 104-112.

They bounced back from that reverse to thrash Dorset last week by 43 shots in a 128-85 rout and collect 20 of the 22 points on offer.

This certainly secured at least second spot in the SWCL table, but a few of the counties still have matches to complete and will not play them until after the national championships end at Leamington.