It was a case of a, nearly, but not quite, for the Lyme Regis ladies this week in the county finals, writes Paul Moffitt.

Firstly, they failed to reach the final of the June Culpin trophy by a margin of just three shots.

Having had a comfortable lead midway through the game, it started to rain.

The opposition, Dorchester, coped much better with the wet conditions and slowly overhauled Lyme's ladies.

Next came disappointment in the Benevolent Triples and the Mixed Four's being played at Greenhill during the county finals weekend.

In the triples, the ladies had a fine win in the semi-final, but had no answer to a very strong trio from Gillingham in the final.

In the afternoon, Alan and Pam Weech partnered with Trevor and Ann Allman, took on a quartet from Greenhill in the final of the county mixed fours and, despite a gallant effort, they finally succumbed to the four Greenhill players. In the friendlies, the club won both games. Firstly, a comfortable win against a touring side from Carshalton with Lyme winning on all rinks.

Against Seaton it was a much closer affair with Lyme just squeezing past the visitors by two shots.

The highlight of the week came when the ladies played Dorchester B in the county league, a contest they bagged nine points from and that guarantees their place in the top division by one point with one game to play. The ladies can now relax against Dorchester A knowing they are safe in the top flight.

This means that both the men and the ladies hang on to their top division places having both left it to nail-biting games at the end of the season.

Results

Dorset Ladies Div 1: Lyme 71, Dorchester B 50: H Dowling, C Pomeroy, L Broom, C Barber, 18-18; A Allman, A Darvill, N Stephens, P Weech, 30-19; J Moffitt, J Parsons, P Knight, S Rowe, 23-13.

Friendlies: Lyme 72, Seaton 70: J Sherring, P Moseley, G Clode, N Solomon, 15-24; L Young, P Hancock, P Stephens, P Weech, 21-12; A Sherring, J Owen, J Moseley, S Pomeroy, 21-9; B Smith, T Young, B Parsons, A Weech, 15-25.

Lyme 127, Carshalton Tour 91: A Sherring, C Pomeroy, J Parsons, P Weech, 21-14; R Turpin, C Haseman, J Moffitt, B Rattenbury, 25-12; L Young, J Sherring, B Driscoll, J Moseley, 21-11; M knight, M Haseman, A Darvill, P Moffitt, 21-20; N Driscoll, R Hunt, P Knight, A Weech, 21-19.