PLAYERS from North Wilts and Clarrie Dunbar clubs have qualified to represent Area 16 in seven events at the national indoor championships that commence in Nottingham this week.

North Wilts have the bulk of the local qualifiers, with five out of seven.

Four of them are in the ladies’ section, with Alex Jacobs competing in all of them.

Clarrie have two qualifiers in the men’s section, while North Wilts have a lone representative.

Jacobs had already booked her place in the last 16 and final stages of the ladies’ two-bowl singles and ladies’ fours championship with Jean Collier, Irene Button and Sue Cooke as well as in the ladies’ O60s singles.

She brought her total up to four events when combining with Cooke to win the area final in the O60 ladies’ pairs when defeating Clarrie duo Jeanette Wheeler and Sue Bird 18-14 in the final played in Bristol.

In the men’s section, the Moore family trio of Steve, Chris and Andy will be North Wilts’ lone male representatives in Nottingham in the O50 triples competition.

Andy Colebrooke features in both events in Nottingham representing Clarrie – men’s singles and triples alongside Wayne Snook and Dale Taylor.

Unfortunately, there were also three area final losses.

In the ladies’ section, Clarrie’s Jeanette Wheeler, Teresa King and Sue Bird lost on an extra end 16-15 in the O50s triples final in Bristol to the MidGlos trio Joan Surman, Maryann Pye and Pauline Gunn.

Meanwhile, North Wilts’ Andy Moore lost to Brian McNamara (Malvern Hills) in the men’s O60s area final 21-15 at MidGlos (Brockworth).

The Clarrie foursome of John Freeman, Alan Brown, Duncan McGovern and skip Keith Bailey also went down 25-14 in Bristol in the O60 fours to the team from Malvern Hills of Marcus Smith, McNamara, Edric Vorsterman and Martin Smith.

  • CLARRIE Dunbar men are still on course for a fifth overall Wessex League title.

The Standerwick-based club are through to the play-off semi-finals following an impressive 83-53 win over Welford-on-Avon (Warks) in the last eight.

Clarrie took the honours on three rinks and drew on the other.

The foundations for the superb win were laid at home where the foursomes of Pete Hooley, Colin Easton. Duncan McGovern and Russell Francis, plus Andy Taylor, Ian and Terry Perkins and Graham Shadwell won 25-10 and 26-11 respectively.

These successes were more than adequate to cover for any potential losses in Welford.

However, they were not needed as the rink of John Jones, Alan Brown, Dale Taylor and Andy Colebrooke were ahead 17-14 when Welford conceded after 18 ends.

While the quartet of Chris Pewsey, Brian Hawkins, Steve Mayhew and Keith Bailey were tied 15-15 at 18 ends when the game ended.

Clarrie will face Bournemouth in the semi-finals on March 31 at the neutral venue of Dolphin IBC (Poole, Dorset).

  • CLARRIE Dunbar Ladies are enjoying their best-ever run in the Mason Trophy – national ladies O60s double rinks competition – and face Torquay United in the quarter-finals.

To reach this stage of the national competition, Clarrie have eliminated MidGlos (conceded); Bristol (50-25), Thornbury (40-26), North Wilts (35-31) and Handy Cross (43-35).

In their last game against Handy Cross, they had to come back from 16-6 down at five ends to finally win 43-35 after 18 ends.

The foursome of Maggie Morgan, Ailsa Midwinter, Jo Dunford and Teresa King took top billing with a 25-11 success.

Their win helped to wipe out the 24-18 loss sustained by Ruth Jupp, Pam Trippick, Sue Bird and skip Jeanette Wheeler.