WOOLHOPE dominated and consolidated their winter success when Herefordshire Short Mat Bowls summer league came to a close.

The summer league comprised two leagues of five teams each with the league winners meeting in the play-off final which took place at Upton Bishop Millennium Hall.

Each league was won by a Woolhope team so the final became an intra-club affair with club as well as county reputations at stake.

Woolhope 2, mainly comprising players who recently steered Woolhope A to winter league success for the 10th successive year, established early command of the match with Ian Park in the singles and the four skipped by Anthony Rogers both securing emphatic wins in their disciplines.

But Woolhope 1 came back with wins from the pairing of Mark Bowden and John Mills and the triple skipped by Shirley Cox to level the match points score. Woolhope 2, however, secured the trophy by virtue of their overall shots superiority which was established in the first two disciplines and proved too much for their club-mates to pull back.

County association president, Norman Allen, presented the trophy and thanked umpire Richard Bemand and the helpers on the night.

He also expressed his view that the summer league, in its second year, is now firmly established on the county short mat bowls calendar and that he hoped to see it continue to expand in future years.