HEREFORDSHIRE opened their Middleton Cup campaign with an away match against Warwickshire and, although losing by 114 shots to 95, managed to win on three rinks.

This was a very creditable performance by a team that contained a number of players new to the competition against strong opposition.

Phil Williams skipped the highest winning rink to a 19-12 victory in a match where they were always in control, and the rink skipped by Fred Williams played well to secure an 18-16 win.

The third winning rink, skipped by Mike Ricketts, also played well and, despite losing four shots on the 20th end which levelled the score at 15-15, managed to pick up two shots on the last end for a 17-15 success.

The rink skipped by Rob Gwilliam led 17-13 after 15 ends, but scored only one shot in the remaining six ends to go down by 21-18, and Phil Middleman's rink never recovered from losing seven on the third end and were finally beaten 24-12.

The heaviest defeat was sustained by Brian Cade's rink who won only four ends and went down 26-11.

This result gave Warwickshire 16 points to Herefordshire's six.

Herefordshire's next Middleton Cup match is against Worcester-shire at Gilt Edge, Kidderminster, on Saturday, starting at 2pm.

Worcestershire, usually very strong in the competition, will be smarting from an opening 133-121 defeat to Gloucestershire in which they picked up only three points to their rivals' nine.

nHerefordshire had previously entertained the English Civil Service at Brimfield and had four winning rinks in a 130-114 victory.

Frank Harwood skipped the highest winning rink to a 33-13 success in a match where they out-bowled their opponents and lost only seven ends.

Dave Holloway's rink had a very close match and led 19-16 playing the last end, but the Civil Service lay six shots and it took a superb draw from the home skip to secure a 20-16 win.

The rink skipped by David White fought back from 19-13 down after 14 ends to concede only two more shots while picking up nines in the remaining ends to register a 22-21 success. And Jim Farmer's rink held on for a 20-19 victory in a match which was very close from start to finish.

Colin Reading's rink were involved in a high-scoring match but were never behind, and the Civil Service picked up the two shots required on the last end to draw level at 25-25.

Fred Williams' rink were down after 13 ends but, although they fought back in the remaining ends, the earlier deficit could not be overcome and they went down 20-10.