HOPES were high as Warwickshire set off to Portishead Bowling Club in Bristol to challenge Cornwall in their third match of the Johns Trophy round-robin event.
However, although the sun came out and Warwickshire proved the stronger team, it was not enough to outshine Somerset’s win against Gloucestershire and Warwickshire fell four points short of reaching the Regional Finals.
Their final score against Cornwall was a 121-11 victory with four winning rinks, but as it turned out they needed six winning rinks to win overall.
Highest winning rink went to Maureen Tims with Helen Slimm (both Whitnash), Di Medhurst (Stoke) and Di Thurlbeck (Lillington) who took five shots on the third end to put them one ahead and they never looked back, finishing with a resounding 25-11 win.
Moira Parsons with Wendy Holloway (Welford), Kirsty Richards (Kings Heath) and Trish Jarvis (Wolvey) started slowly but gradually pulled back and a strong finish led them to a 21-16 win.
Jenny Corn (Lillington) with Heather Mills (Grange Ladies), Liz Westell (Welford) and Elaine Taylor (Stoke) were fairly evenly matched to start and then began to pull away but a strong response by the opposition in the second half of the game restricted the Warwickshire players to a 23-19 victory.
Pat Moore with Brenda Carlton (Three Spires), Gill Maund (Sherwood Park) and Sigrid Thomas (Rugby Thornfield) were slow starters on this occasion, trailing 10-2 at nine ends, but four shots on the eighth followed by a steady trail of eight winning ends put them ahead and they finished 22-19 victors.
Maureen Edwards with Yvonne Bromfield (both Rugby Thornfield), Pat Bax (Grange Ladies) and Debbie Bloxham (Stratford) also struggled in the first half of the game but managed to pull back and lost just 22-16.
Sue Hornsby, Margaret Grosvenor and Jacqui Cook (all Lillington) with Helen Harris (Stoke) saw their efforts in the first half of the game prove to no avail and it was only a determined effort that kept them going to eventually finish 24-14 down.
Report compiled by Jenny Corn.
