WILTSHIRE men have missed out on a last four and semi-final place at Royal Leamington Spa in the Middleton Cup on the opening day of the 2015 national championships on August 1.

Winners of their west group in the inter-county championship for the fifth year in a row they had to give second best to their old adversaries Devon, winners of the other west group, in their Middleton Cup quarter-final tie staged last Saturday at West Backwell, north Somerset.

Wiltshire lost at this stage in 2013 to Devon 129-110 but beat them in the quarter-finals last season 117-109, alas they were unable last weekend to repeat the feat at West Backwell (Bristol) this time around.

The Moonrakers shared the rink honours at 3-3 but still lost by 14 shots as they went down to Devon 122-108.

Rink wins were recorded by Mel Biggs (12 shots), his fifth win of the season, and the Spencer Moulton duo of Russell Francis (eight shots) and England international Graham Shadwell (two shots).

Wiltshire made a good start against Devon and led 31-27 across the board after five ends and were only 62-52 down at ten ends and 85-77 at 15. But then Devon pulled 20 shots clear 108-88 at 18 ends and Wiltshire were unable to peg all of the deficit back by 21 ends.

Disappointed player-manager Dave Snell said: “As expected we had another tough battle against a very good Devon side and we certainly fought all the way. It was only in the last four or five ends that Devon just edged into a small winning margin.

“After six ends we had taken a small early lead of four shots with Russell Francis rink 15-0 up against Ian Lesley.

“Devon had turned it round after 10 ends leading by 10 shots but all still to play for and we were still fighting hard and had reduced the lead by seven shots at 15 ends. Then over the last few ends Devon moved into a winning position finally winning by 14 shots 122 to 108.''

Snell added: “Obviously we are all disappointed to lose at this stage after winning our four group matches, but I believe Wiltshire have come a long way over the last four years.

“We are a solid well balanced team with excellent team spirit and very hard to beat and we are still improving.

“We have some good young bowlers on the fringes and I can see us competing strongly for the cup in the coming years.”

“Devon remain a very strong side with many internationals in their ranks but we have closed the gap between the two sides over the last four years,” continued Snell.

“In this campaign Mel Biggs’ rink has won all five games with both Neil Smith's and Graham Shadwell's rinks winning four out of five, with Ben Gadd winning three and overall the whole squad has performed well.

“The selectors and myself have now completed our four-year reign, so whoever takes Wiltshire forward they have a great starting point.”

RESULTS

Rink 1: Gary Jackson (Westlecot), Craig Doughty (Holt), Gary Morphet (Wootton Bassett) & Graham Shadwell (Spencer Moulton) beat James Webber 16-14. Rink 2: Dave Snell (WB), Graham Hatherall, Mike Jackson & Mel Biggs (all West) beat Griff Sanders 28-16. Rink 3: Tom Warner, Nick Revell (both Amesbury), Wayne Snook & Ben Gadd (both Holt) lost to Rob Paxton 10-19. Rink 4: Wayne Simmonds, Kevin Rowden (both Holt), Andy Colebrooke & Russell Francis (both S Moulton) beat Ian Lesley 24-16. Rink 5: Kevin Embling (West), Keith Bailey (Holt), Tom Walkley & Neil Smith (both WB) lost to Sam Tolchard 10-28. Rink 6: Barry Sictorness, Chris Cheesley, Dave Godwin & Stephen Snell (all WB) lost to Louis Ridout 20-29.

Reserves: James Nobbs (WB), Mike Titcombe, Craig Hatherall & Paul Kistle (all West).

Score: Wiltshire lost to Devon 108-22.

SNELL, who won the senior singles (O55s) title last year at the national championships at Leamington Spa when he beat Jim Marsland (Cove, Hants) 21-7, will be back next month to defend his crown.

The Wootton Bassett bowler has won the Wiltshire section of this year’s senior singles to book his place at Leamington with wins over Mel Biggs (Westlecot), Bob Clews (Chippenham T), John Thomas (Westlecot) and Pete Long (Amesbury).

Two years ago Snell, together with Mel Biggs, won the O 55s seniors pairs title at Worthing and are one step away this year from going to Leamington to try and regain the title.

So far in the Wiltshire section they have beaten Westlecot duos led by John Anderson and Gerry Charman, Bassett’s Chris Cheesley and John Thomas (Westlect).

Snell and Biggs are due to face Holt’s Rodney Summers and Kevin Oliver next Monday, July 27 at Wootton Bassett in the county final with the winners booking their place at Leamington in the last 32.

Holt are through to the Dorset and Wilts final in the Top Club against Poole Park while in the Men’s Club Two Fours Spencer Moulton have to face another Dorset side, Wellworthy (Weymouth) on Friday, July 24.

To date Moulton have taken out some big scalps beating Devizes 38-29, both Holt sides A and B 46-35 and 40-32 and Westlecot B 42-18.

Meanwhile in the last round, the rink of Jamie Shadwell, Kevin Farrer, Andy Colebrooke and Graham Shadwell beat Steve Snell 20-14 and the rink of Gary Fippen, Ian White, Nick Grenfell and Russell Francis lost by three shots 20-17 to Neil Smith.

However, on aggregate Spencer Moulton took the spoils beating Wootton Bassett 37-34 to book their place in the inter-area final against Wellworthy later this week.

Wiltshire men were beaten by Vale of Glamorgan by 11 shots in their latest friendly match under the stewardship of 2015 president Richard Gardiner.

They went down 123-112 to VoG at Barry Plastics last Thursday with Wiltshire only winning on two of the six rinks.

RESULTS (skips only)

Rink 1: Brian Merritt lost to M Symons 15-16. Rink 2: Graham Annetts lost to G Brown 17-27. Rink 3: John Southern beat R Charlton 22-13. Rink 4: Alfie Maslen beat M Doyle 23-18. Rink 5: Bob Fredericks lost to D Kuhnell 17-22. Rink 6: Alan Penfold lost to E Phillips 18-27.

Score: Wiltshire lost to Vale of Glamorgan 112-123.