Desborough keep winning

Desborough were buoyed by three successive victories in national competitions within the space of four days.

The women’s team firstly beat Tye Green in the Yetton Trophy and on Sunday the mixed rinks team trumped Havering in the Egham Trophy to grab quarter-final spots and to cap it all the over 60s secured themselves a semi-final place at Northampton later in February.

The headlines belonged to the Over 60s as they realised a dream of just two matches from a final success and yet the early signals were distinctly mixed as they faced a tough Dorchester team.

In the depths of  Dorchester the alarm bells sounded prematurely as skip Len Essex, Brett Long, John Young and Rodney Richardson were thumped for eight shots after three ends but within two further ends Desborough had reduced the gap by half.

At base camp the home side had started well getting a 6-1 lead after five ends and that doubled in the 10th. Peter Hooper had Dick Jones at three and Teg Hughes and Stan Wong playing front end and they played a magnificent match restricting Dorchester to a single figure score.

Len Essex and his men were down but not out, and slowly but surely they crawled back into contention.

With an eight-shot deficit after 18 ends they got to within three shots at the close and this gave the home team valuable confidence as they marked up a 15-shot victory to give Desborough their moment of glory and a semi-final appearance against Eastbourne. Final score 41-29.

Rink Scores (Desborough first), home: S Wong, T Hughes, D Jones, P Hooper 23-8. Away: R Richardson, J Young, B Long, L Essex 18-21.