Smith brothers defeat Lillington duo to book Victoria Park berth

Adam and Mark Smith were victorious in the junior pairs at Wolvey BC. Picture submitted

Avenue duo Mark and Adam Smith will appear at the Nationals in Leamington after winning the inaugural Warwickshire county junior pairs competition at Wolvey BC.

The pair faced Lillington duo Matthew King and Dan Ellicott and set a fast pace, opening up a 14-3 lead after nine ends.

The sides exchanged three shots before a brace of twos and a treble for the Smiths saw King and Ellicott concede with the score 24-6.

In the county triples, the Kineton trio of Rich Townsend, Neil Weston and Robert Weston found themselves trailing by a shot to Rugby’s Craig Carter, Brian Boardman and Tom Millership after six ends.

A pair of twos and three singles helped widen the gap before the sides exchanged trebles to leave Millership and co seven clear with one end left.

Faced with a near-impossible task, Townsend finished with a four but could not deny Millership’s trio an 18-15 victory.

The four area stage winners of the Ivens Cup arrived for the semi-final draw, with Kineton matched against Solihull Municipal.

The Kineton quartet of Keith Stanley, Nick Butcher, Sandy Mitchell and Alan Barker opened up an 8-3 lead after seven ends but John Bentein, Clive Burbage, Rob Wilson and Gary Langford fought back with ten unanswered shots to take the lead.

With 18 ends played and Solihull holding a one-shot advantage, they picked up a treble to extend their lead.

Kineton scored a single to head into the final end needing four to win but could only get another single to go down 21-19.

There was some consolation for Kineton when they claimed an unlikely comeback victory against fellow beaten semi-finalists Bilton on an extra end.