HEREFORDSHIRE'S hopes of going through from the group stages of the Middleton Cup for the first time were virtually ended by their second successive defeat in the competition - a 13-shot reverse to Somerset at Bath on Saturday.

It followed the previous week's opening 60-shot home defeat to Worcester-shire and they are bottom of Group 4A with two games to play - against Gloucestershire, who lead them by just one point, at Leominster this Saturday and leaders Warwickshire at Leamington Spa the following week.

But Herefordshire showed fighting spirit against Somerset and won three of the six rinks to collect six points to their rivals' 16.

After eight ends Somerset looked to be heading for a comfortable win when they held a 31-shot advantage and led on every rink.

But four ends later the gap was reduced to 12 when five of the Herefordshire rinks picked up shots as Ron Perry's rink led the recovery. They went from 2-14 down to be only 11-14 adrift.

By the 18th end the gap was down to just two shots as several Herefordshire rinks battled back.

Perry continued to improve, scoring 21-2 over 10 ends, while Mike Rickett's rink also picked up 15-3 over the same period and Fred Williams' rink collected 16-8.

But over the final three ends Somerset held the game to finish winners.

Somerset 131 Herefordshire 118 (Herefordshire rink scores): D Holloway, A Read, C Benson, FJ Williams 20-22; R Gwilliam, B Angle, J Watkins, G Wills 18-15; J Wear, P Williams, J Gladwin, M Ricketts 21-18; A Mann, RE Jones, P Holland, R Perry 24-18; M Bithell, K Ham, R Bithell, K Edwards 16-34; M Hill, P Merredy, G Merredy, P Middleton 19-24.

Group 4A placings: 1 Warwickshire played 2-points 38, 2 Worcestershire 3-35, 3 Somerset 3-24, 4 Gloucestershire 2-8, 5 Herefordshire 2-7.

l Leominster joined Hereford in the second round county semi-finals of the Travelsphere National Club Champion-ship when they won 4-0 at St Martin's.

Leominster winners, singles: T Powell 21-10; pairs: C Hodgson and T Watts 20-16; triples: L Smith, M Bolton and R Wright 27-12; fours: G Eley, O Goodwin, S Legdon and S Harris 25-13.

CLUB RESULTS

Castle Green 97 (Benson 27-15, Cox 30-8, Sutton 24-14) Wellington 61 (Winney 24-13)

Castle Green 110 (Phelps 20-13, Cox 19-18, Lewis 34-9, Rosser 18-18) Kingsland 86 (Poiner 28-19, Price 18-18)

Castle Green 133 (Cox 30-8, C Reading 19-16, D Herbert 26-11, Benson 29-12) Brimfield 90 (Turner 25-14, Griffiths 18-15)