By Frank Gwatkin

National Under-25 Double Rink

DORSET 40

GLOUCESTERSHIRE 37

Dorset overcame their Gloucestershire counterparts in a nail-biting contest in the National Under-25 Double Rink competition.

The county, who appeared in three national Finals between 2009 and 2014 winning two titles, are now in the process of rebuilding a team due to several players moving out of the age range.

Three promising young bowlers in Jack-Corbin Willetts (Dorchester), George Riddington and Anthony Hobby (Dolphin Poole) were making their debut for the county, in the first round game played at neutral Taunton Deane.

The game soon seemed out of the reach of Dorset side as the Gloucestershire rink, skipped by Max Risby, racked up a 10-0 lead early on against two of the newcomers in Corbin-Willetts and Riddington, along with Dolphin club player Ollie Thake and Dorchester skip George Spracklen.

To their credit, the Dorset rink shook of their nervous start and improved to pull back the deficit to 10-8 against the Risby rink that temporally lost the initiative.

The exchange then turned on its head as Gloucestershire collected two singles with a sandwiched body blow score of a seven shots.

From then on, Spracklen and company were hard pressed to hold on to the fired up Gloucestershire rink and Dorset were desperately looking for a balancing performance from the second rink of Anthony Hobby, Peter Best (Dolphin) and the Moonfleet experienced back end pairing of Ryan Nash and England under-25 and senior international player Martin Puckett, who skipped his rink with great maturity against the top Gloucestershire skip Ben Coldrick and his fellow bowlers.

Puckett’s rink were having to graft at only 7-6 ahead which improved to 12-6 but more shots were required to offset the negative score on the Spracklen rink.

A surge from Puckett produced a tense situation when he led 24-8 to compensate the Spracklen 11-27 scoreline at the same time.

With three ends remaining the scores were level at 35 -35.

Puckett scored on two of his remaking ends to finish 27-9 to the good, leaving Dorset in the driving seat.

Embattled Spracklen and co dug in and won a single on their next two ends, and started the final end of the game with the combined rink scores showing a crucial 40-36 lead to Dorset.

Facing a three down position, Thake produced a tension relieving delivery to gain a second bowl. Risby had the final bowl of the match and attempted a trail of the jack for five shots to win the encounter, but it was too wide and Dorset had pulled off a remarkable victory.

Spracklen lost 28-13 but did enough at the end to secure the overall success

Following their baptism of fire experience, the Dorset newcomers now have the opportunity of settling into more measured performances when Dorset take on Wiltshire in the next round.