WILTSHIRE men produced an awesome performance against Herefordshire to reach the quarter-finals of the Middleton Cup.

They demolished Herefordshire 153-94 in their final group match to book a place in the last eight of the national competition.

In the past two years Wiltshire have fallen at the last hurdle in the inter-county championships group matches, losing to Devon and Cornwall respectively.

But Wiltshire made no mistakes this time around at Wootton Bassett in their final South Midlands group match.

They had already recorded away wins over Warwickshire and Worcestershire to head the group, but still needed to win their last group game to make certain of a last-eight place.

The win was never in doubt after Wiltshire made a flying start and after five ends were leading Herefordshire 42-13.

That advantage was increased to 62 shots as Wiltshire roared into an 89-27 lead at 10 ends.

Not surprisingly Wiltshire could not maintain the glut of shots and the visitors rallied in the second part of the game to cut the final winning margin to 59.

Ian Jefferies' rink led the onslaught. They were 22-3 ahead at 10 ends and finally won by 23 shots.

Steve Warren's four only led 6-5 at five ends and 12-7 at 10 but finished with a 12-shot win.

Graham Shadwell's rink led 9-0 at five ends, and that early advantage turned out to be the final winning margin.

And there were comfortable victories for the quartets skipped by Dave Snell and Neil Smith.

The big surprise came on rink one where Mark Dyer's four led 17-7 after 12 ends only to lose out on the last end.

This reverse denied Wiltshire a clean sweep on all six rinks.

However, they still collected 20 points (two per rink and 10 for the overall victory) to win their group comfortably from nearest rivals Worcestershire, and claim a last eight Middleton Cup spot.

Wiltshire will face Oxfordshire in the quarter-finals on July 26 at a neutral venue.

RESULTS

Rink 1: Barry Sictorness (Wootton Bassett), Des Rideout, Mel Biggs and Mark Dyer (all Westlecot) lost to Rob Gwilliam 20-21.

Rink 2: Mike Tyler (Amesbury), Russell Francis (Spencer Moulton), Keith Hutchens (Westinghouse) and Graham Shadwell (SM) beat Ian Maddox 23-14.

Rink 3: John Thomas (West), John Williamson (WB), Gary Mophet (Rodbourne Cheney) and Ian Jefferies (West) beat David Magness 37-14.

Rink 4: Michael Snell (WB), Chris Cheesley (Purton), Neil Hope (West) and Neil Smith (WB) beat Mark Lovelock 23-16.

Rink 5: Barney Fernandes (Swindon), Tony Stevenson (West), Steve Snell (WB) and Steve Warren (West) beat Barry Payne 29-17.

Rink 6: Kevin Embling (West), Nigel Price (Cooper-Avon), Mick Crook (Ames) and Dave Snell (WB) beat Marcus Smith 21-12.

Final Group Tables

Group 4A: 1 Wiltshire 54 pts, 2 Worcestershire 41, 3 Herefordshire 24, 4 Warwickshire 13.

Group 3A: 1 Oxfordshire 59 pts, 2 Hampshire 41, 3 Middlesex 23, 4 Isle of Wight 9.