ON a soggy afternoon in Cheltenham on Saturday the dream of the Cornwall men’s bowls team of progressing to the quarter-finals of the county championship was lost in the mist when they lost to a largely superior Gloucestershire team and took only four points of the 22 available.

Although honours were even in the first 10 ends the Duchy men slowly slipped away to a 16 shot defeat, winning on only 2 rinks.

The early stages of the match looked reasonably promising for Cornwall, with the match scores equal after ten ends. Colin Binny’s rink, in particular, had a good start, 6 up after 5 ends and 7 up after 10, but slipped away in the middle section to eventually lose by 2 , while the other rinks were still in contention.

From the tenth end on the match slipped away from Cornwall completely, with the rinks skipped by Ian Drew and Ian Ball rarely in contention. From early on rinks skipped by Tim Phillips and Mark Read made steady progress to run out eventual winners.

The remaining match in the group sees Cornwall against Devon at St Austell with the Duchy having to take maximum points to have a chance of progressing.

Scores; (Cornwall skips first): C.Binny 18 R. Hinder 20, J.Stafford 15 J.Hodges 19, I. Drew 12 M. Cuthbert 27, T. Phillips 19 D.Harris 14, I.Ball 9 C.Davies 21, M.Read 29 P.Bryant 17. Totals: Cornwall 102 Glos 118.

Cornwall team: D.Drew,D.Grose,B.Cotton,I.Drew ( St.Austell) ; J.Sanders,(Falmouth) A. Brooks, R.Teague, T.Phillips (Carnon Downs); C.Smith, D.Parr, N. Laity, C. Binny(Chacewater); J.Drew,(St.Austell) M.Tippett,(Chacewater) S.Pollard,(Porthmeor)M.Read (Stenalees); K.Taylor,(St.Austell) D.Mudge, C.Allen, (Carnon Downs) J.Stafford (Camborne); G. Frost (St.Austell), O. Bennett (Stenalees), A. Barron (St.Austell), I.Ball (Stenalees).