DORCHESTER 82

PALMERSTON 68

WITH the Dorchester Ladies already in the semi final of the National Yetton Plate competition, it was the turn of the Vivienne Trophy squad to continue to play catch up, and they did it with remarkable panache by securing an 82-68 win over Palmerston.

Not only did they win their last sixteen fixture to gain a quarter final spot, they demolished Palmerston from Fareham in Hampshire - the current holders of the title - by 14 shots, winning on three of the four rinks.

Eight of last year’s winning side were on display in the two home and away fixtures, while Dorchester still had six of the players who were National runners up in 2016.

Dorchester tore into the opposition at the Sandringham Centre. Chris Jones, Val Cornick, and skip Hazel Newboult posted 10 shots without reply after just four ends, and the Palmerston skip Mo Browne was immediately on the back foot.

Dorchester's second home rink skipped by Jenny Trotman and well supported by Val Ghose and Jan Meyers, also went positive at 6-0, against the top Palmerston triple skipped by Browne.

First feedback from the Hampshire club showed Hazel Ryan, Judith King and skip Fran Dyer in fine form and six shots clear of Maureen Holloway, and the companion Dorchester triple of Jan Cherry, Sandra Hubbard and Kay Johns 16-5 clear against Janet Chinn.

Cherry was giving a masterclass lead performance and proved to be the key to the exchanges, resulting in the final winning and vital top triple score of 25-15.

Fran Dyer hit a bad patch in the middle of her game slipping 15-6 behind before regrouping and blasting her way to a final 22-17 victory.

Meanwhile at home the Dorchester players were experiencing a mid-game crisis and the strong and experienced Palmerston players were showing how they won the title last year.

Jenny Trotman and co were particularly hard hit as Palmerston skip Janet Mudd cancelled out a one-shot deficit and battered her way to a 22-12 result.

With the overall 16-shot Dorchester lead fast evaporating down to single figures, the county town players kept their cool and the tide eventually turned in their favour.

This was thanks to the impressive away finishes which were complemented by the Hazel Newboult home triple, who won all four of their final four ends adding six shots to the overall tally to record a fine 22-12 result.

Dorchester had just managed to contain the Palmerston vanguard triples (36-35) at home while the travelling rinks returned with an impressive overall 15-shot advantage (47-32), giving Dorchester a quarter-final fixture against the Exeter ISCA Bowls Club next month.

With Dorchester improving game-by-game hopes are now high for a Vivienne Trophy semi-final spot.