DORCHESTER 83

ILMINSTER 73

ONCE again a travelling Dorchester rink came up trumps with a deserved 83-73 victory in the Yetton Trophy second round against Ilminster.

By gaining a net away advantage of six shots, Dorchester laid the foundation for a win but the outcome was achieved in contrasting styles.

Sue Lofthouse, Val Cornick, Linda Hill and skip Margaret Cullip had a field day against the Ilminster rink skipped by Sue Spurway, who was swamped 36-12 to give Dorchester a massive building block for the eventual result.

Barbara Lacey skipped the companion rink of Ros Gwatkin, Sylvia Lawley, and Sandra Hubbard.

They were facing a rink skipped by former England under-25 International and senior England trialist Kirsty Hembrow, who had recently joined Ilminster from Taunton Deane.

Hembrow showed her class by nullifying many heads in favour of Dorchester, to great effect, as she built a 16-4 lead over the Dorchester quartet who endeavoured to little avail, falling to a heavy 29-11 reverse.

The net away advantage now required the two Dorchester home rinks to keep ahead of their opponents, but after five ends both were trailing and the game was far from won.

Jan Meyers, Sue Maggs, Kay Johns and skip Sue Jennings were hoping to repeat their big win of the previous round against Bridport, but the Ilminster skip Monica Woodland had other ideas and posted an opening score of three shots.

As the game was slipping away, Dorchester struggled to stay in touch, soon finding themselves 15-11 down with five ends remaining.

A welcome spirited comeback from the Jennings quartet ensured they preserved their unbeaten record, winning four of the remaining ends to snatch a hard fought 16-16 draw.

Carole Parsons and her Ilminster quartet also took the game to Dorchester’s Julie Corbin, Jan Nicholas, Eve Peavoy and Freda Yates. Parsons dominated the exchanges to go 12-4 ahead.

Yates and company then dug in and levelled at 12-12 before dropping singles on the next two ends.

With the game in the balance at 75-71 in Dorchester’s favour, a strong run-in from Yates eventually gave her a 20-16 win, and secured the county town a place in the next round against Weston St Andrews next month.