THE ladies' section at Westlecot are enjoying a fine run this season in the top women’s national team event for the Yetton Trophy – inter-club championship – for the first time for several seasons.

They have reached the last 32 and on Saturday face MidGlos (Brockworth, Gloucester), two rinks at home in Old Town and two away in Gloucester.

This is following excellent wins so far over a trio of Thames Valley clubs – Rivermead (Reading) 87-66, Oxford City & County 88-77 and Desborough (Maidenhead) 76-55.

After extremely early exits in the last few years, this is the furthest that a Westlecot women’s team have progressed in the Yetton Trophy since the 2011/12 season when they reached the last 16.

The Old Town club’s team shows one change and two positional switches from the side that beat Desborough last time out.

In the home rink skipped by Patricia Murray, Katy Smith comes in as lead with Kay Webb moving to number two to replace the injured Julia Hunt, while Judy Hallard and Sheila Kenny swap places in the away rink.

Westlecot ladies also had an interest in the Mason Trophy – O60 double rinks – on Friday, with the competition one of only three women’s national indoor titles the club has won since the indoor green first opened 35 years ago.

They were due to play Oxford C& C, one rink home and one away.

Seven of the eight players selected are members of the Yetton team chosen to play today against MidGlos. The exception was Linda Farragher.

  • SISTERS Lucy and Katy Smith, from Westlecot, have qualified for the last 16 and latter stages of the ladies U25 singles championships to be staged at City of Ely IBC.

Katy, 21, the U25 national champion in January 2017, booked her place at Ely by winning her pool at Bristol with a 2-0 victory over Morgan Merryweather (Whiteknights, Reading) in her West group final.

Joining her at Ely will be 23-year-old Lucy, 23, who was losing U25 finalist to her sister back in 2017.

Lucy booked her spot at Ely with a 2-0 victory over Imogen Cracknell (Taunton Deane) in her West group final.

The other two West group winners were Nicole Rogers and Cassidy Lenton from Exonia (Devon).

The quartet are joined in the last 16 at Ely by the four group winners from the North, East and South regions.

The men’s U25 section is not at quite as an advanced stage.

Westlecot’s Mike Titcombe has reached the Area 14 section final again and awaits the winner of Carlos Lali (Oxford C&C) and Westlecot club colleague Phil Gregory. The final has to be played by January 6.

Last season, Titcombe reached the U25 semi-finals at Ely.