LODDON Vale men have had a mixed start to 2018, writes ALAN TAIT.

In the London and Southern Challenge Shield knockout competition Loddon Vale took on a strong Whiteknights (Reading) team containing a number of Internationals. Unfortunately they came out a distant second best losing on all four rinks.

However, it was a better start to the year in the 2 league competitions. In the Hampshire League (Bramley Trophy) Loddon took on Atherley IBC (Southampton) which turned out to be a very tight match.

With one end left to play Loddon held a slender one shot lead but thanks to the rink skipped by Ian Laming at Atherley picking up one shot on the last end, as Loddon won 75-73.

Rink scores were Brian Goodyear 17-19, Fred Norris 24-14, Geoff Green 22-18, Ian Laming 12-22. This leaves Loddon joint top but having played one more game.

In the Wessex League East Division Loddon took on Oxford City. With the rink skipped by Steve Shaw taking a large early lead and the other three rinks keeping things tight Loddon were always in control of the match.

The rink skipped by Trevor Morgan picked up 11 shots in two ends it was just a case of how large the victory and how many points could be gained.

Loddon eventually ran out 99-65 winners and gained 14 points to put them top 11 points clear of Carterton. The rink scores were Trevor Morgan 32-10, Gary Lovett 25-16, Steve Shaw 26-16 and Dougie Morgan 16-23.

On the county scene, eight Loddon Vale men bowlers were involved in Hampshire’s quarter finals clashes with Kent in the Liberty Cup (English inter-counties knockout) at Mote Park IBC, Maidstone.

Hampshire got off to a slow start and were behind for all of the game. However, with one end left on five of the six rinks and two on the rink skipped by Loddon Vale’s Trevor Morgan, Hampshire found themselves only four shots behind.

With Morgan holding three on his penultimate end a great escape looked possible. However, four of the rinks dropped shots on the last end, one rink dropping a six, which meant that Hampshire were nine shots adrift with only one end to play so had to concede the match 113-104 Morgan’s rink was Hampshire’s best winning 25-12.

Loddon lost both their friendly matches last weekend going down 121-99 to Three Counties Fellowship ended 99 shots to 121, with the losers best rink being Olive Richardson, Dave Edwards, Barry Bolden and Tom Regan-Atkins.

Sunday’s fixture saw a 129-112 loss to West Berks, with Loddon's top rink being Sue Saunders, Keith French, Margaret French and Mo Saunders.