LOCAL players missed out in their bid for glory at the final weekend of the month-long 2019 national bowls championships being held at Victoria Park, Royal Leamington Spa.

Over the previous three-and-a-half weeks, Wiltshire lifted two national titles courtesy of Royal Wootton Bassett men in the Club Two Fours competition and the Westlecot combination of Lucy Smith and Mike Titcombe in the mixed pairs.

Hopes were high last weekend of more success for Wiltshire but they did not materialise.

Box’s mixed team went the closest to claiming honours as they lost in the final of the Tony Allcock Trophy O60s mixed double rinks, going down 42-36 to Camberley.

The county junior men’s side containing two Westlecot and one Bassett player put in a spirited showing in the White Rose Trophy U25s fours.

The quartet of Tom Newman (Avon), James Richman (Westlecot), Craig Hatherall (Royal Wootton Bassett) and skip Mike Titcombe (Westlecot) had qualified for the quarter-finals by winning one of the two sections of the West regional final at Clevedon.

In the last eight at Leamington, Wiltshire edged out one of the North winners, Durham Dynamos, in a tense last-end decider 14-13.

But their progress was halted by Northampton Cobblers in the semi-finals as they fell to a 16-3 defeat.

Elsewhere at Leamington, Chris Cheeseley and fellow Bassett player Kyle Anderson went out early in the men’s singles event, while Wiltshire junior ladies missed out in the defence of their Amy Rose Bowl Trophy after going out 35-16 in the first round against Surrey Scorpions.

And in the mixed fours, the rink of Lucy and Katy Smith, Phil Gregory (all Westlecot) and skipped by Neil Smith (Royal Wootton Bassett) went out in the last 16 after being beaten narrowly 19-18 by Silksworth, Sunderland, Durham, skipped by England international David Bolt.

  • ATTENTION now turns to the final month of the outdoor season and the county domestic finals at Devizes this weekend, plus the finals of the Ladies’ Top Ten and men’s four-rink league play-offs.

Plus most local clubs will be staging their annual club championships.

And the annual end-of-season county men’s presidential tour under the leadership of 2019 president Dave Williams (Chippenham Park) is going to Somerset next weekend and will be based in Taunton.