CHAWTON Park men had a notable success at the weekend when they defeated Atherley IBC, champions for the last two years, in the Bramley Bowl Hampshire League.

Chawton began strongly and at five ends were leading by 15 shots. The home rinks, skipped by Mark Fyfield and Graham Robinson, were edging in front, while, away from home, Adam White’s rink had opened up a 10-shot lead and John Kellow’s men were level.

At 10 ends, the overall lead had increased to 17 shots, but the Kellow rink had slipped behind. By end 15, Chawton’s advantage was down to nine, with all rinks leaking shots.

But the nine-shot cushion was maintained through 18 ends and over the last three ends Chawton increased their lead to 14 and eventually finished 88-74 victors to emerge as the early league leaders.

Chawton had a mixed bag of results in national competitions. Derek Ham and Terry Cull came through via an extra end in an all-Chawton encounter in the 0/60 pairs, while Sue Murray and Graham Robinson had a comfortable 22-5 win in the mixed pairs.

However, a below-par Mark Fyfield lost in the singles and he and Basa Smith then suffered an unlucky one-shot defeat at Atherley.

Having led for long periods, Alice and Dave Atwell lost by two shots at Riverside (Winchester) in the mixed pairs, and there was no success for Linda Habberfield and Charlie Spear in their match at Banister Park.

The weekend friendly against visiting Banister Park proved to be a one-sided encounter. Tracy Bird, Lesley Johnson and skip Tony Pratt were Chawton’s only winners in an 82-131 reversal.