Gloucestershire Bowls Association
County Fours Quarter Finals
REIGNING champions Cam Mills were pushed every inch of the way against British Aeroplane Company (BAC) as they progressed to the semi-finals of the Gloucestershire Bowls Association County Fours at Gloucester Spa.
The Cam rink of Alan Norris, Dave Smith, Phil Smith and Russ Mellerup were level at six- all with BAC’s Derek Howard, Don Thorne, Keith Stokes and Kevin Griffiths before inching ahead with three shots to lead 11-7.
Two shots won on the 15th end made it 13-9 in favour of Cam who then saw BAC close the gap to 14-12.
The match-winner came in the 20th end with four shots to stretch Cam Mills’ lead to 18-12 as they went on to win  18-14.
But Frampton-on-Severn quartet Ron Smale, Glyn Marriott, Wilf Sutherst and Arthur Elliott went out of the competition as they could not play against a team from Barnwood Bowls Club who were simply great.
Barnwood’s Ben Coldrick, Aaron Lloyd, Pat Main and Mike Smith were in devastating form over the first seven ends, scoring 17 shots without reply.
A four on the 11th end followed by a three made it 24-5 before Frampton struck back with a three and a two to reach double figures and then took four successive ends.
However, the damage had already been done and they went down to a 25-14 defeat.  
Last season’s runners up of Nathan Kitchen, Nick Holliday, John Roach and Matt Cuthbert (Cheltenham) also progressed forward as they held off the challenge of Dowty (Adam Smith, Alan Bennett, Brian Davies and Steve Pope) to win 19-13.
The last semi-finalsts are the team from Bristol St Andrews who came back from an astonishing scoreline of  12-0 down against Barnwood’s other side in the quarter-finals to win 24-15.