DORCHESTER 88

ILMINSTER 51

DORCHESTER progressed in the Denny Cup with an 88-51 thrashing of Ilminster.

Having demolished Watchet in the previous round, the county town side were expecting a harder game against Ilminster, and the initial exchanges proved to be just that.

The two rinks home and two rinks away format resulted in Ilminster putting early shots on the board, on all four rinks, leaving Dorchester players mulling over the possibility of a tough battle ahead.

To their credit the response was decisive and later with the away rinks in credit 15-7 after five ends, they were more than covering the single-shot deficit at Dorchester.

From there on in Dorchester took the game to their opponents and gradually widened the winning margin. For the second consecutive time the opponents eventually threw in the towel, with 12 ends still to be played.

At home, Steve Willsher, Gareth Thomas and George Spracklen were well skipped by Martin Puckett and having lost the opening four ends to Ilminster’s Matt Hamilton, they buckled down to win all but two of the remaining ends to post a healthy 19-6 finish.

Brian Paulson, Dave Tremlin, Roger Nicholas and skip Darren Nutman went one better against Ilminster skip Will Anderson.

When holding a single shot lead at 7-6 Nutman turned on the afterburner.

He dominated the remaining exchanges to amass a further 22 shots, while conceding just a single, and achieved a top rink 29-7 performance.

Meanwhile the Dorchester away quartets continued to scrap.

Clive Matthews, Mike Durant, Dave Joslin and Ged Costello at skip kept the home Ilminster rink skipped by Ian Lightfoot, at arm’s length.

A keen game produced an eventual narrow 19-16 win for Costello.

The only crumb of comfort for Ilminster fell to the companion home quartet skipped by Pete Matravers, against Dorchester’s Phil Hallett, Terry Greenman, Colin Gifford and Nick Voss, who was making a welcome return to the team at skip.

Matravers, who trailed 13-11, had the better of the run-in and moved from 18-18 to win by four shots, shading Voss 25-21.

Dorchester’s latest victory gives them the opportunity of making further progress in this prestigious national inter club competition.

Weston-super-Mare club, St. Andrews, await in the next round.