Leominster landed the Nash Rocks League title for the first time by just two points from the reigning champions Hay.

Both clubs had to play at St Martin's in their final round of matches with Leominster first to take on the Hereford-based club.

Leominster failed to achieve the maximum points which would have guaranteed the championship and came away with 14. They won easily on three rinks and looked set to take the fourth when John Gill's rink for St Martin's went 8-0 down after just four ends. But they staged a terrific comeback and ran out 20-17 winner over Tony Hoare's Leominster rink.

It was then down to Hay six days later and they needed to take all four rinks and score maximum points to retain the title.

They took the eight match points, thanks to John Hughes' rink winning 25-10. But the other three rinks were very closely contested, with Hay getting a second rink victory by just two shots. The remaining two rinks went to St Martin's by two-shot and three-shot margins, so depriving Hay of the title.

So Leominster became the first club to break the Hay and Kington stranglehold on the championship over the past six years. They will be awarded the shield at the presentation evening, to be held at Kington on Wed-nesday, September 24.

Meanwhile, further down the league, Here-ford and Kingsland completed their league programmes with a match at Hereford.

Hereford took the match by three rinks to one but Kingsland did well to restrict the winning margin to just 10 shots.

Results: St Martin's 65, Leominster 98 (Home Rinks W1 L3); Hereford 67, Kingsland 57 (W3 L1); St Martin's 70, Hay-on-Wye 80 (W2 L2).