WOOTTON Bassett teams dominated the men’s national and county fours championship quarter-finals held on their own green on Tuesday night.

Neil Smith’s foursome raced to a comprehensive 35-4 victory after only 18 ends over Salisbury skipped by Bob Fredericks.

In sharp contrast Gary Morphet’s rink trailed Westlecot led by Mike Richards 16-10 after 16 ends.

But they stormed back winning the last five ends to grab an unlikely 22-16 win and sealed the victory with a four on the last end.

Bassett’s third quartet skipped by Stephen Snell were locked in a tight match early on against Craig Doughty’s Holt rink.

They only led 9-7 after nine ends but pulled away to move 16-9 up at 15 and finally won 19-15.

Chippenham Town’s four skipped by Steve Heseltine put a brave fight but had to give second best to Mel Biggs’ Westlecot rink losing 18-13.

Heseltine was tied 5-5 at five ends but 9-7 up at nine and led 12-8 at 12. But his rink only scored one more shot on the 15th end.

Biggs rink scoring two twos on ends 13 and 14 and notching six successive singles from the 16th end to win the match 18-13.

The three Wootton Bassett rinks skipped by Neil Smith, Gary Morphet and Stephen Snell plus Mel Biggs’ Westlecot rink progress to the county men’s fours semi-finals at Chippenham Town on Sunday June 14.

The Wiltshire men’s national and county triples championship has reached the sharp end with the quarter-finals being staged at Westlecot on Friday evening at 6.15pm.

Three teams from this area will be taking part and bidding to book a semi-final place at Chippenham Town in the middle of next month.

Two of them are from Wootton Bassett and are skipped by Middleton Cup players Gary Morphet and Stephen Snell while the other one is from Chippenham Town and led by Steve Heseltine.

As in the fours on Tuesday night Heseltine’s triples team has been drawn against a Westlecot outfit again led by former England international and county stalwart Mel Biggs.

Whereas Bassett players Gary Morphet has to meet a Spencer Moulton trio led by Ian White and Stephen Snell a triple from Amesbury skipped by Nick Revell.

In the fourth and remaining quarter-final tie the holders Holt - Wayne Simmonds, Wayne Snook and Ben Gadd - face a young trio from Westlecot led by Craig Morphet.

The four winners will progress to the triples semi-finals due to be staged at Chippenham Town on Sunday June 14.

MIXED fortunes were endured by Wiltshire senior and junior men’s sides last weekend in the national county top two fours competitions.

The juniors were successful in their opening round White Rose Trophy match in the west region beating Dorset by six shots. However, the seniors went down by seven shots to Devon in their first round west region tie in the Balcombe Trophy.

In both matches honours were even at one rink each with the final result having to be settled on overall shot difference.

At Blandford the match was extremely tight until the three quarters mark, tied 25-25 across the board at 15 ends, then Wiltshire U25s surged ahead to lead 38-27 at 18 and finally won 41-35 despite conceding six shots on the 21st and last end.

Tom Warner’s rink was always in control and led 18-7 at 15 ends before finally winning by 18 shots.

However, the rink skipped by Kyle Anderson (Wootton Bassett) after a few tight ends fell behind on end nine and by the 15th was 18-7 down.

But then four successive winning ends saw them close the gap to only 18-14 after 19 only to drop a six on the last and lose by 12 shots, however, Warner’s rink easily cancelled out this deficit to ensure an overall victory.

Wiltshire U25s move forward to the regional semi-final and final at Bristol on June 14 against Somerset, Devon and Cornwall with the winner on the day booking a last four spot at the national championships at Royal Leamington Spa on Sunday, August 30.

While there was joy for the juniors it was a different story for the senior side in their first round Balcombe Trophy match at Bristol against Devon.

They made a slow start and trailed 12-3 across the board after five ends but had cut the gap to only 20-18 at ten and edged in front 27-26 at 15.

Devon hit back to move 35-29 up at 18 and finally won 41-34.

The Ben Gadd rink came from 12-7 down at ten ends to lead 14-13 at 15 but then fell 17-14 behind at 18 but finally won by one shot.

Mel Biggs’ rink led 11-8 at halfway and 15-13 at 16 ends but did not score again on the last five ends and lost 23-15.

RESULTS

White Rose Trophy v Dorset U25s, Rink 1: Mike Titcombe (Westlecot), Matt Daniell (Wootton Bassett), Gary Jackson (West) & Kyle Anderson (WB) lost to Martin Puckett 14-26. Rink 2: James Richman (Highworth), Ashley Plumb (Amesbury), Craig Morphett (West) & Tom Warner (Amesbury) beat George Spracklen 27-9.

Score: Wiltshire beat Dorset 41-35.

Balcombe Trophy v Devon Rink 1: Andrew Colebrooke, Russell Francis (both Spencer Moulton), Neil Smith (Wootton Bassett) & Mel Biggs (Westlecot) lost to Ian Lesley 15-23. Rink 2: Wayne Simmonds (Holt), Dave Godwin (W Bassett), Wayne Snook & Ben Gadd (both Holt) beat James Webber 19-18.

Score: Wiltshire lost to Devon 34-41.

WOOTTON Bassett players feature prominently in the Wiltshire men’s Middleton Cup side named to face Warwickshire on June 6 at Rugby in their opening west group match of the season.

Nine are included in the side of 24 to play Warwickshire which is only drawn from five clubs Wootton Bassett (nine), Holt and Westlecot (five each), Spencer Moulton (three) and Amesbury (two).

The team shows six changes to the side that lost in the semi-finals of the inter-county championship last season at Royal Leamington Spa to Hampshire who went on to beat Norfolk in the final.

The significant change is the inclusion of Wootton Bassett player and Wiltshire’s Middleton Cup team manager Dave Snell in the side.

He won the national senior singles (over 60s) at Leamington in 2014 and will play against Warwickshire at number two in the rink to be skipped by Spencer Moulton’s England international Graham Shadwell.

Snell. 68, was the first player in the county to reach the milestone of 100 Middleton Cup appearances for Wiltshire when he took to the green on June 4 at Dorchester against Dorset in the opening Middleton Cup match of 2011.

TEAM

Rink 1: Kyle Anderson (Wootton Bassett), Graham Hatherall, Mike Jackson & Mel Biggs (all Westlecot). Rink 2: Gary Jackson (West), Dave Snell, Stephen Snell (both WB) & Graham Shadwell (Spencer Moulton). Rink 3: Barry Sictorness, Chris Cheesley, Dave Godwin & Gary Morphet (all WB). Rink 4: Wayne Simmonds, Kevin Rowden (both Holt), Andy Colebrooke & Russell Francis (both Spencer M). Rink 5: Tom Warner, Nick Revell (both Amesbury), Wayne Snook & Ben Gadd (both Holt). Rink 6: Kevin Embling (West), Keith Bailey (Holt), Tom Walkley & Neil Smith (both WB).

Reserves: James Nobbs (WB), Ian Williams (Haydon Wick), Justin Davis (Holt), Craig Hatherall, Mike Titcombe, Paul Kistle & Mike Richards (all West).