TWO Wiltshire bowlers - Purton’s Alison Fail and Royal Wootton Bassett’s Steve Snell - have been invited to attend the Bowls England senior ladies and senior men’s international trials at Victoria Park, Royal Leamington Spa on Saturday, September 22 (10am).

Fail has been knocking on the door before. She skipped Purton to victory in the ladies triples championship last year in Leamington.

This year she led the same trio of Chris Mitchell, Julie Jones and herself to win the British Isles Women’s Bowls Council triples title at Belmont BC, Belfast, beating Scotland in the semi-finals 18-9 and crushing Wales in the final 25-13.

Snell, who has been chosen to attend the trials as a reserve, is a stalwart at Royal Wootton Bassett and a Middleton Cup skip and has made 81 appearances for Wiltshire.

His father Dave has played for Wiltshire 113 times while younger brother Michael has appeared 46 times and is a former England junior international.

Following in his father’s footsteps, he has skipped a winning rink at Leamington. He led the foursome, which included Kyle Anderson, Mike Snell and Dave Godwin, to win the national fours crown beating Heaton Hall (Manchester) in the final 17-15.

Father Dave skipped Kevin Embling, Graham Richards, Alan Small and himself to the senior fours title against New Lount (Leics) 24-13.

While in the pairs championship with Dave Godwin as lead they were unluckily edged out on an extra end 19-18 by West End, Woking, Surrey in the semi-finals.