PURTON saw their hopes of reaching the last four at Worthing in the National Double Rinks ended in the regional final staged at Wootton Bassett.

Despite a gritty performance they lost their semi-final 49-40 against Barnstaple.

The crunch came for Purton late in the match when the two rinks dropped 10 shots between them in the space of a couple minutes.

Ian Williams foursome dropped a six on the replayed 17th end while Ray Sowden's quartet conceded a four on the 19th end.

It gave Barnstaple a match-winning 12 shot cushion across the board and no time for Purton to rectify the position.

It was a disappointing ending as they had performed remarkably well to reach this stage of the competition, and had fought back to give themselves a chance of a place in the afternoon final against Aldershot.

The match started brighly enough for Purton, with Williams' rink leading 9-3 at five ends and 15-6 at 10, while on the green alongside, Sowden's quartet were 6-4 up at five and trailed 12-7 at 10, but still four shots up overall.

However, on the next five ends Williams' rink failed to score, and dropped 11 shots to trail 17-15, while Sowden's rink were 19-11 down and Purton found themselves 10 shots adrift overall.

Sowden's rink were a couple of ends in front and they rallied with counts of 3,1,1, to only trail 19-16 at 18 ends, and with Williams collecting a three on his 16th end to lead 18-17, the overall deficit was now only two shots.

However, the revival was then shattered as Williams dropped a six and Sowden a four to seal their fate as they trailed 18-23 and 16-23 respectively.

Sowden's rink, chasing the game, dropped three more shots on their final two ends to eventually lose by 10.

Williams' quartet rallied with three twos on their next three ends to lead 24-23, but with the overall deficit an impossible nine, a halt was called and the 21st end not played.

A downhearted Williams said: "I haven't played very well but won my match.

The sickener was the 17th where we dropped that six."

Sowden said: "It was obviously disappointing to lose to Barnstaple but everyone should be proud of what we have achieved by reaching this stage in the competition.

"It has not been a very good weekend for me, what with losing today and getting pipped on the extra end with a wick by Alderbury in the Wiltshire fours final yesterday.

"It was always hard for our rink today as Barnstaple certainly built some very good heads against us and really outbowled us.

"The team made a good start, Barnstaple came back at us well and we rallied to cut the margin to only two shots but those two bad ends when we conceded 10 shots was a killer."

Despite the loss to Barnstaple, four of the eight Purton players have the consolation of still going to Worthing to represent Wiltshire in the national fours championship.

In the other semi-final Aldershot beat Chacewater by 11 shots, and in the final always held the upper hand over Barnstaple and won by 15.

Results

Semi-final 1

Rink 5: Dave Hall, Miles Roberts, Mark Wadsworth and Ian Williams beat Nigel Short 24-23.

Rink 6: Reg Wadsworth, Max Holland, Tery Maynard and Ray Sowden lost to John Short 16-26.

Purton lost to Barnstaple 49-41.

Semi-final 2

Rink 3: J Dobson beat B Tippett 29-14; Rink 4: J Marshland lost to C Binny 15-19.

Aldershot beat Chacewater (Cornwall) 44-33.

Final

J Marshland beat Nigel Short 23-16; D Ritchie beat John Short 21-13.

Aldershot beat Barnstaple 44-29.