KINGTON started their defence of the Tarmac Herefordshire League title with a five-shot win at Hereford.

Their narrow victory was led by the rink skipped by last year's captain John Bathurst with a runaway 24-10 winning margin.

Hereford held on to share rink honours with Phil Holland's rink producing their best result with an 11-shot win.

Brimfield began with a clutch of four matches in a fortnight but they were only been able to record one win, by 17 shots as visitors Castle Green went down by three rinks to one.

Colin Bowen's rink won by 11 shots for Brimfield's best, while the Castle Green rink skipped by Colin Reading won by four shots to avoid the whitewash.

St Martin's, Wellington and Weobley all opened with wins at the expense of Brim-field, with Weob-ley's victory by 52 shots in a 16-point maximum haul easily posting the week's best score. All four Weobley rinks won by handsome margins with M Powell leading the way with a 14-shot margin.

Brimfield fared better against both St Martin's and Wellington, sharing rink honours but losing by eight and 16 shots respectively.

Twelve shot wins by John Gill's and Frank Harwood's rinks for St Martin's did not see the best the win of the day, however, as Eileen Turner's rink for the home club turned in a 16-shot success.

Barry Briffett's rink for Wellington carried the home club to their opening win of the season by a 12-shot margin but the day's best performance came from John Edwards' rink who were tied at nine shots at the halfway stage before powering away to record a 23-14 shot win after 21 ends.

Results: Brimfield 81 Castle Green 64 (home rinks won 3 lost 1),Wellington 84 Brimfield 68 (W2 L2), Brimfield 70 St Martins 78 (W2 L2), Hereford 74 Kington 79 (W2 L2), Brimfield 52 Weobley 104 (W0 L4).