BOX suffered a surprise defeat in the ladies national triples semi-finals last weekend.

The experienced trio of Debbie Shadwell, Sue Cooke and Alex Jacobs blew a big lead and then were hit by a late rally from Salisbury to lose 15-13 on the last end.

They had claimed a comfortable 19-9 win over Malmesbury in the quarter-final despite being 6-3 down after five ends. They hit back to move 15-7 up at 13 ends and finally win by ten shots.

In the other quarter final, Salisbury had come from 6-4 down at five ends and 8-6 at nine to beat Westlecot 15-11 and book their last four spot.

Box made a very confident start against Salisbury and had built up a 9-1 lead after eight ends.

However, they then dropped a four, a two, another two and a single to trail 10-9 at 12 ends.

Box though rallied to win the next two ends and lead 13-10 after 14.

However, Salisbury a two and three singles in the final four ends to secure their place in the Wiltshire final next month before heading off to Royal Leamington Spa in August.

In the other half of the draw, the other Box team skipped by Carol Grenfell, were always behind against Purton in their quarter-final game and lost 22-14, while Chippenham Town beat Wilton 21-13.

Purton then went on to book their place in the county final on July 29 at Alderbury with a 17-8 win over Chippenham.

THE second round in both the northern and southern sections of the ladies county and national pairs championships are due to be staged at various venues around the county on Friday evening with the third round taking place on Monday, June 5.

WILTSHIRE Ladies produced a superb battling performance in their opening Walker Cup match to beat Warwickshire 42-41 on Sunday.

But there were mixed fortunes for the two Wiltshire skips from Box, Alex Jacobs and Kathryn Yeoman.

The away match at Welford-on-Avon was a tight and tense affair with rink honours shared 1-1 but with Wiltshire just edging home.

Overall, Wiltshire were 14-11 down at five ends, 23-20 down at ten and still losing 32-30 at 15. However they edged in front 35-34 after 18 ends and held on for a one shot victory 42-41 after 21 hard fought ends.

Jacobs’ quartet of Chris Mitchell, Grenfell, Alison Fail and herself were always ahead leading 13-7 at 10 ends and winning 25-16.

However, Yeoman’s young rink of Katy Smith, Georgina Newman, Marcia Hartley and herself had to battle hard before eventually going down 25-17.

In the next round Wiltshire will host Gloucestershire on Sunday, June 25.

THE county ladies will be in Johns Trophy action on Saturday at Devizes when they host Dorset in the first of their West group matches.