GORSLEY Chapel bowler Joe Loveys completed an unprecedented clean sweep of five county short mat bowls titles with success in the mixed fours discipline alongside Lea’s Merion Attwood and Shirley and Becci Cox of Woolhope.

A field of 10 teams competed in the championship and Loveys' team won their round robin group before defeating a Weston team in their semi-final.

The team who were out to stop them in the final was made up of Claire Herbert (Ross), David Millington Jones and Peter Wright (Weston) and Jill Howells (Golden Valley).

The side had taken their place in the final following an extra end when their semi-final against a Ross team was tied.

Despite a resilient performance in the final there was no stopping Loveys and his team who took a 12-7 victory and the title.

The same weekend saw the inaugural over-55 pairs county championship competition with the 15 teams competing safe in the knowledge that it would be over 30 years before Loveys would be eligible to enter this discipline.

At the quarter-final stage Fownhope and Weston were each represented by two teams. However, only one of those reached the semi-finals when the Weston team of David Millington Jones and Peter Wright had a narrow victory over Tony Vitale (Larruperz) and Ian Park (Ross) to move into the final.

The other semi-final saw Sue Dix and Les Williams of Ross beat Pam Park (Ross) and Hazel Vitale (Larruperz).

In the final the Ross pair of Dix and Williams then came back from an early deficit in the final to take the title by a narrow 10-8 margin.