BOWLS Wiltshire finals weekend at Devizes saw the 16 men and ladies titles shared around the county amongst 10 clubs.

Leading the way with three winners were Royal Wootton Bassett, although surprisingly none were recorded in team events.

Chippenham Town bagged a brace in team competitions. They sprang a shock by beating former winners Holt to win the men’s four-rink league play-offs for the first time in 21 years, and also won the mixed double rinks.

Also on two wins each were Broughton Gifford and Box with one team win and one individual success.

Bassett’s three victories came from Dave Godwin (singles), Steve Snell and Godwin (pairs) as well as Lawrence Smith in the men’s BW unbadged singles.

Godwin and Snell opened with a narrow last-end 17-16 victory in the delayed men’s county national pairs final against Holt duo Wayne Simmonds and Wayne Snook.

The Bassett came from 13-7 down at 13 ends to wipe out the deficit and lead 17-14 at 19 and then hold on to win 17-16 at 21 ends.

Godwin then completed a double with a comfortable 21-4 win over Holt’s Snook in the men’s delayed county national singles final. He only dropped four singles, with the match only lasting 15 ends.

But Godwin missed out on a hat-trick in the BW men’s champion of champions final, losing to Broughton Gifford’s Neil Yeoman.

He had earlier got the better of a close encounter with Jeremy Haselton (Chippenham Town) 21-16 in the semis.

In the final against Yeoman, Godwin led 17-10 after 16 ends and 19-12 at 18 but lost the next four ends to crash to a 21-19 loss.

Bassett’s third victory of the weekend at Devizes came from Lawrence Smith in the men’s unbadged singles final. He thumped Wanborough’s Robbie Ferguson 21-7.

Ferguson also missed out in the men’s champion of champions, losing to Yeoman in the semi-finals 21-9.

The outstanding ladies national championship event in the pairs was played at Devizes.

It resulted in a narrow last-end 21-20 win for Highworth duo Joanna Hicks and Linda Young over Box pairing of Sue Cooke and Alex Jacobs.

Hicks and Young made a flying start and were 8-3 up after six ends and had moved 16-3 ahead after 11. However, the Box duo fought back to reduce the gap to 16-14 at 15 ends.

Hicks and Young extended the lead to 21-14 at 18 ends and then held their nerve to take a one-shot victory.

The BW greenkeepers singles was an all-Westlecot affair between Brian Whittingham and young Gary Jackson.

The latter made a fine start and led 9-1 after five ends and 12-4 at 11. Whittingham fought back to cut the deficit to 12-10 at 16 ends, but Jackson was in control and ran out a 21-12 winner after 24 ends.

It proved to be Westlecot’s only success as their ladies lost to Box in the ladies' Top Ten event.

Westlecot battled hard but went down 3-1, with Linda Perfitt their only winner in the singles as they lost the pairs, triples and fours.

The other local success came in the men’s O60s triples where Purton trio Eric Collier, Dave Mitchell and Colin Baker beat Amesbury 21-17.

They came from 13-7 down at 10 ends to draw level at 16-16 after 15 ends before earning a 21-17 victory on the final end.

However, Purton lost in two other finals as Alison Fail and Paul Boyles were edged out in the BW secretary and treasurers final by Wilton 21-20, as well as crashing 27-5 to North Wilts in the ladies benevolent triples final.

Stratton Churchway and Wroughton also suffered losses at Devizes.

Churchway went down 21-2 to Spencer Melksham in the BW Officers triples, while Wroughton’s Sue Fletcher reached the final of the unbadged singles but lost 15-8 to Emma Maslen (Avon).