THE inspiration which had carried Atherley to Melton Mowbray deserted them in the semi-finals of the National Express English Indoor BA over-60s' double rink championship.

They looked a pale shadow of the side which had outclassed Wey Valley in the quarter-final as they crashed 45-24 to Moonfleet from Weymouth.

Atherley struggled from the start and were 12-4 down after five ends.

By the 15th there was clearly no way back when they lagged 38-18 behind.

Larry Collins, Dave Edmonds, Dink Mintrum and Wilkinson lost 17-10.

But just how well Baker performed was summed up as early as the fourth end when the Dorset club bowler produced an impossible shot to somehow remove the Atherley wood from the head without disturbing the two Moonfleet bowls or the jack when they were all clustered together.

That piece of brilliance earned Moonfleet a three and left Atherley open-mouthed.

It was the bowls equivalent of the most sumptuous Beckham free-kick. John Barter, Dennis Durrant, Dave Archibald and skip Peter Line had an even tougher time on the other rink against John Crabb who was backed by his regular partner John Searle.

Down 11-2 at seven ends, Line gave the Southampton club hope with two counts of three from the next two ends, the Atherley skip sparking the revival with a fine delivery that turned two down into a three by trailing the jack through the middle of the pack.

When Line weighed in with his second three to slim the gap to 11-8, Atherley looked revitalised but, in the next breath, their optimism was dashed by Wilkinson dropping a four to be 10-4 adrift. Line scored on just four of his last 12 ends in a 28-14 defeat.

In a tense finish to the final, Moonfleet - 40-38 adrift with two ends to play - lost 45-38 to Newcastle Eldon.

Lymington-based Bill Ward followed up his appearance in the final of the fours by reaching the quarter-finals of the singles.

The East Dorset bowler accounted for Phillip Barr (Acle) and Jeff Newson (Peterborough) before goin-gout 22-7 to Neil Chandler (Cotswold) who had beaten world indoor champion Tony Allcock on the road to Melton Mowbray.

Chandler, a 21-15 semi-final winner against Glenn Skipp (Thornaby), was level at 8-8 in the final before falling 21-10 to Greg Harlow, the City of Ely international who went one better than Ward by qualifying for all four major disciplines in the nationals.

Durham, beaten by Hampshire in the 1999 final, regained the Liberty Trophy 112-111 in a thrilling finish having led Devon by 26 shots at one stage.