Cornwall men's bowls team, national semi-finalists in two of the last three years, started this season's Middleton Cup campaign at St Austell on Saturday, with a substantial win over Wiltshire, writes Grenville Phillips.

Before the match county president Jack Hancock congratulated Mark Read from the Stenalees club, on his selection to the national team. With the squad strengthened by the return, this year of Mark Foster and Steve Lawer, manager Dave Perrin's choice of pairing club colleagues at back-end in four rinks (from Carnon Downs, St.Austell and Stenalees) paid off in three, with Richard Bray's rink losing narrowly, by one shot.

The Duchy was never behind in the match, though some rink scores see-sawed for a period of time. Ian Drew's rink, unchanged for many matches, once again proved its worth by turning in a top-rink performance of plus 14 shots; this was closely followed by Bill Lawer, with brother Steve playing at three (plus 10). Mark Foster, with Tim Phillips at three, won by four.

With the current points system of two points for a winning rink and 10 points for a team win it was essential for Cornwall to win on as many rinks as possible to stay in the hunt for the group title. With the rinks skipped by Richard Bray (minus 1) and Mark Read Read (minus 11) dropping four points John Stafford's rink, which had struggled throughout the match, was trailing by seven after the 18th end and although the match score looked fairly safe it seemed that his rink points would also be lost.

The 19th end, however, produced a miraculous reversal when he scored seven shots, to draw level; two on the next end and a loss of only one on the final end secured the two team points.

Cornwall meet Devon in two week's time at Exonia, in a match which will probably decide who wins the group. Final shots score: Cornwall 125 and Wiltshire 108 (Cornwall 18pts, Wiltshire 4). Rink scores (Cornwall skips first): I Drew 28, S Snell 14; R Bray 17, D Snell 18; M Foster 22, M Dyer 18; W Lawer 25, N.Smith 15; J Stafford 19, R Francis 18; M Read 14, M Jackson 25.

n On Sunday Cornwall met Dorset at St Austell in the National Top Two Fours knock-out competition, the rinks being skipped by Mark Foster (Carnon Downs) and Mark Read (Stenalees).

As would be expected in this competition, which features the top eight players from every county, the match was close, especially in the closing stages. Although never behind, Cornwall started to make heavy work of their victory when Mark Read finished with a deficit of three.

With only two ends to be played by Mark Read's rink the Duchy team's lead was four but on the 20th end Dorset skip Barry Patterson, holding one shot in the head, clipped out his own wood to give Cornwall two. Read scored a further shot on the final end, to win by ten, giving Cornwall a seven-shot win.

Rink scores (Cornwall skips first): M Foster 18, D Ralph 21; M Read 22, B Patterson 12.