JEAN BIRD and Dave Snell have qualified for two English indoor national finals.

In the space of 24 hours the Westlecot duo clinched their place in both the mixed pairs and mixed fours finals to be staged at Northampton IBC from February 11-16.

Bird and Snell booked their place in the last 32 of the mixed pairs when winning a hard-fought area final 22-18 against Thornbury's Rachel and Paul Bryant, which was played at Christie Miller, Melksham.

The game was extremely tight with the lead changing hands several times.

The teams were tied 8-8 at eight ends and 16-16 at 18.

The Bryants then collected a two, but Bird and Snell hit back with two threes on the last two ends.

The mixed fours area final at Thornbury was a high scoring roller coaster affair.

Bird, Wendy Anderson, Kevin Embling and skip Snell were 8-0 down after only two ends against North Wilts' Kath and Adi Lloyd, Janet Tombs and skip Keith Hutchens, but led 12-9 after eight ends.

They then dropped a three, scored a three and conceded a four to trail 16-15 at 11ends.

However, a fine run of 1,3,1,1,2,2 put them into what seemed a commanding 25-16 lead after 17 ends.

Their opponents had other ideas to hit back with a fine rally to cut the gap to 25-21 with one end to go. But Snell's quartet held on for a 25-24 success, despite conceding a three on the last end.

n MARTIN Hope saw his chances of also reaching the last 32 and two national finals at Northampton next month disappear in the space of three days.

In the area final of the Over 50s Triples, playing alongside Kevin Embling and Tony Stevenson, the trio were edged out of the competition 14-13 by Nailsea's Michael Wollatt, Brian Holloway and skip Richard Hicks.

Going into the last end of a tight game, Hope trailed 14-11. He held two shots and with his last wood just missed another by inches to lose by one shot.

In the father and son competition playing with Neil, a former England junior international, in the area final, Martin missed out again to another Nailsea combination.

They went down 22-18 to Roger and Neil Yeoman. They were down for most of the game but came back to lead.

They were three down with one end to go, but despite Neil moving the jack, the rub of the green was not with them and they conceded a single.

THAMESDOWN recorded a crucial 79-75 win in their re-arranged Wessex League match against Rivermead (Reading).

They took 14 of the 16 points on offer to move on to 28 points and fifth place in the East Region section.

Westlecot lead the eight team group on 54 points, nine clear of Oxford & District.

Round five matches are scheduled for Sunday, January 30.