Townsend reached the final of the Top Club competition after winning at defending national and county champions Garston.

The match was evenly balanced throughout with Townsend, through John Godman, winning the two wood singles 17-8 only for Garston to draw level with victory in the other singles discipline.

The visitors then won the fours convincingly 26-12 with the team of Alfie Long, Jason Hall, Peter Armstrong and Gary West never really troubled by their opposition.

The scores were levelled as Garston won in the pairs, leaving the tie to be decided by the triples.

With five ends to go Townsend were up by five shots but their hosts came back with a three, a one and a two to lead by one going into the final end.

The final shot of the last end of the match fell to Townsend skip Simon Gilbert who casually drew in to score two and win the game and match for the visitors.

The winning trio who booked Townsend their place in the final were Alan Charran, Dave Houghton and Gilbert.

In the county pairs, the Townsend duo of Andrew Briden and Danny Macro came up against visiting opposition from Buntingford.

For the third time in two weeks the result was the same – a home win with the match conceded after 18 ends with the score at 24-14.

Soon after that victory they had an equally impressive 26-6 success against a pair from Royston to ease into the semi finals.

In the third round of the London and Southern Counties fours, Townsend came up against a rink from Barton-le-Clay and found themselves nine shots adrift at the half-way stage with the score 13-4 in favour of the visitors.

Gradually Townsend pulled back the deficit and scored no less than 15 of the next 17 shots to win 19-15.

The victorious team featured Carl Robinson, Mike Cowell, Roger Potter and skip Armstrong.

In the district fours, Godman’s rink, of Andy Bates, Armstrong and Potter, in a replay of last year’s semi final match that was won by their opponents Hatfield with the last bowl of that match, were faced with having to turn around a two shot deficit in order to progress against the champions.

Godman’s final wood ensured progress to the next round after a 20-17 victory.

In the same competition, Charran, Mike Doherty and father and son team Barry and Carl Robinson, edged home against a team from Harpenden 24-19.

The district triples had Fred Mulberry, Les Perkins and Chas Prior in action against Les Roberts’ rink from Harperbury.

In a rain affected match the hosts conceded after 17 ends with the Townsend trio 17-12 ahead.

Peter Thomson, Jason Hall and Houghton faced Reg Collins’ team from Welwyn.

At 24-10 at the end of the 17th end, with no chance of the opposition making up enough ground, the match ended and Townsend progressed to the next round.

A third Townsend triples were also in action against Harpenden.

The team skipped by Charran, featuring Doherty and David Day, also moved on in the competition thanks to an 18-12 victory.

In the triples league Townsend played Potten End.

The home team of Ian Forster, Doherty and Chas Prior won 23-14, and the away trio of Alfie Long, Josh Briden and his father Andrew triumphed 25-11.

This made for a 48-25 aggregate win for Townsend.