THE indoor green at Cowley proved to be a graveyard for Westlecot bowlers twice in the space of eight days.

The mixed team were beaten there 10-6 in the rearranged match in the National Top Club competition and then a week later the two away Wessex League rinks slumped to a 58-26 aggregate loss.

Westlecot only recorded two wins out of five in the Top Club mixed disciplines to go down by 10 points to six and are still awaiting their first win in this new competition introduced last year after making another swift exit.

Ian Jefferies got Westlecot off to a good start with an excellent 10-shot win in his two-wood singles match.

And Wendy Anderson looked like adding to the success as she led her two-wood singles 13-11 at 17 ends and 14-12 after 19.

But she then dropped a two and a single to lose by one shot.

Rosemary Nichols and John Thomas pulled off a good pairs win in close game with England international Katherine Hawes and her partner Howard Watts by four shots. However, it was all downhill from then on as Jeff Nichols’ mixed triples never recovered from 14-1 down at nine ends to lose 24-10.

The mixed fours saw Janet Willis’ rink trail at 10 ends but pull level at 11-11 at 15. They were still tied at 13-13 at 18 ends but dropped a single on each of the last three ends.

  • WESTLECOT men’s hopes of reaching the Wessex League end of season play-offs took a severe jolt as they went down by 24 shots to Oxford & District in their latest east group match.

They only managed to take two points out of a possible 16 as they crashed to a surprise 101-77 reverse.

The bulk of the damage occurred away in Oxford where Tom Walkley’s rink never recovered from trailing 16-1 after only five ends and 25-2 at 10. They finally lost 40-10.

A 30-shot deficit against a good side like Oxford and District was asking too much to pull back.

In Oxford John Thomas’ quartet trailed for most of their game but managed to keep their loss to only two shots.

At Westlecot Ian Jefferies provided the only joy. His rink only led 10-8 at nine ends but then pulled away for a 17-shot victory.

Neil Smith’s quartet led 15-5 at nine ends and cruising. But then dropped a six and struggled from that point and only won three of the last 11 ends to lose 20-29.

If Westlecot can win their final two matches and Oxford lose one game, the league organiser believes Westlecot can still make the play-offs.