THE two-wood singles qualifiers to produce eight players to contest the ladies quarter and semi-finals of the county competition at Avon next month were staged last weekend on four separate greens in the county.

The southern section was held on the two greens at Devizes and from an initial entry of 35 players, Karen Kirby (Blue Circle, Westbury), Emma Maslen (Avon), Helen Ellis (Box) and Janice Bull (Amesbury) were successful.

The northern section was staged in Chippenham at two venues – North Wilts BC (Westcroft) and Chippenham Town.

From an initial entry of 20 players at North Wilts, Ann Roberts-Phare (North Wilts) and Jo Hicks (Highworth) emerged as the two qualifiers.

While at Hardenhuish Park from an entry of 21 players, Irene Button (Chippenham Town) and Chris Mitchell (Purton) were the two qualifiers.

The ladies county and national four wood singles championship has reached the last eight stage in both the northern and southern areas.

These will be decided on June 29 with the last four players standing in both areas progressing to the quarter-finals and semi-finals to be held on June 29 at Holt.

  • WILTSHIRE ladies won their opening game of the 2019 season in the inter-counties championship for the Johns Trophy at Devizes, beating Gloucestershire 121-105 and collecting 17 out of the 22 points on offer.

They play their second West A group match this Saturday away against Warwickshire at Stratford-on-Avon (1.30pm).

Half of the named 24 strong side are all from local clubs and topping the representative charts are Box with six players, followed by Avon on two while Royal Wootton Bassett, Warminster, Chippenham Town and Devizes all have one.

The players selected are Sue Cooke, Alex Jacobs, Jean Collier, Carol Grenfell, Debbie Shadwell and Kathryn Yeoman (all Box); Georgina Newman and Marcia Hartley (both Avon), Charlie Godwin (Royal Wootton Bassett), Viv Baskerville (Chippenham Town), Sue Bird (Warminster) and Bev Lilley (Devizes).

Then on Sunday, Wiltshire ladies face Herefordshire at Cotswold BC

(Stroud) in the opening round of the Walker Cup – the inter-county double rinks competition.

Five local players are named in the two rinks.

Georgina Newman (Avon) and the Box trio of Kathryn Yeoman, Sue Cooke and Alex Jacobs are in the first rink. While Debbie Shadwell is chosen in the other rink alongside Purton players Chris Mitchell, Linda Young and Alison Fail.

  • WILTSHIRE ladies bounced back from their opening South West Counties League defeat to Cornwall to beat Somerset convincingly away at Chew Stoke 144-108.

They took the honours on five of the six rinks, with the foursome of Chris Mitchell, Julie Jones, Deanne Davis and skip Alison Fail topping the scoresheets with a 26-11 victory.

The next SWCL match is away against Worcestershire at Bredon on July 3.