WOOLHOPE'S short-mat bowlers have plenty to celebrate with two county titles and a place at the national finals to look forward to.

John Mills has won a national finals place after a win in the singles qualifier against his Woolhope club-mate Charlie Cox.

And the village club then dominated as the two latest county championship disciplines were fought out.

In the triples tournament, three generations of the Rogers family teamed up to take the title with 11-year-old Dominic joining dad Anthony and granddad Phil in the successful trio against another Woolhope team consisting of John Mills and Becci and Charlie Cox.

The Rogers trio were joined by Pam Park the following day when they carried off the fours title against a Weston-under-Penyard team consisting of Betty and Harold Aubrey and Gill and Tim Rigden.

Unluckiest of the 124 competitors who took part in the weekend's activities must have been George Marshall of Ross who, on each occasion played in a team which beat Woolhope in the group stages to go through as group winners only to lose in the knockout stages when Woolhope, who had been group runners-up, came through to win the tournament.

Four young Herefordshire bowlers were in the England squad which took on the county side in a friendly fixture.

Joseph Loveys of Gorsley Chapel, Kate Williams (Lea), Cameron Johnson (Fownhope) and Luke Rawlings (Larruperz) assisted the national side to a 28-12 win.

England manager, Brian Claessen, paid tribute to the Herefordshire hosts, particularly captain Becci Cox and June Pearce and her team at the Larruperz Centre, for organising the day which ran so smoothly and to Brab Hallowes of Devon and Herefordshire’s Richard Bemand who umpired the match.

Herefordshire A team bowed out of the inter-county championship with a 24-16 defeat in their knockout tie with Dorset while the Herefordshire first-team travel to Bristol for a quarter final tie against Surrey.