THE Banbury Borough bubble finally burst at Worthing in the semi-finals of the triples on Saturday when Alan Prew, Greg Moon and Les Gillett were beaten on an extra end.

On paper, Borough were hot favourites to beat Anthony King, Barrie Kitson and David Colbourne of Bolton. But it was suddenly tough going for the Oxon side who were playing their 11th game in six days at the championships, having won the fours earlier in the week.

Borough led 14-10 after 12 ends and 16-14 after the 16th.

Gillett had been lucky midway in the game when, with six shots against him, he let fly with a drive and knocked in a wing wood for shot.

But there was no such luck on the 17th end which cost Borough four, meaning they went into the last end needing three to win.

Luck was again on Gillett's side on the 18th when, with three shots against him, he played another weighted bowl and came out of it with two shots.

That meant an extra end on which, with Banbury holding two shots, Colbourne trailed the jack through for shot and Gillett was unable to get it back.

So Borough were out, beaten 19-18 but they collected £100 each as losing semi-finalists which added to the £300 each for winning the fours.

In the other semi-final, Sandwich, who put out Summertown's Martin Crellin, David Wedge and Normal Wallace 22-16 in the quarters, beat Wigton before going on to lose the final 23-17 to Bolton.

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