DORSET, who were dumped out of the Walker Cup by Somerset last summer, gained revenge in this season’s ladies double-rink championship at Honiton, Devon.

In the clash of two current internationals, Julie Saunders beat reigning national singles queen Edna Bessell 18-15 while her Poole Park colleague Rosemary Spetch overcame Margaret Dyer by an identical score as Dorset marched through 36-30 to a second-round date with Gloucestershire at Bradford-on-Avon, Wiltshire, on July 2.

In the previous round Dorset had beaten Wiltshire but the Moonrakers turned the tables in the Johns Trophy at Street, Somerset.

Dorset were pipped 116-115 with the winning shot decided on the umpire’s measure by literally a fraction of an inch after Sue Jennings had just failed to wrest the shot from Wiltshire on the final end of the day.

  • Hampshire ladies failed to beat Buckinghamshire and the jinx on Johns Trophy winners at Reading.

No county has ever won the inter-county championship two years on the trot, and holders Hampshire could not overcome the hoodoo when bowing out 108-105.