A blend of youth and experience proved a successful format as Tom Bishop, Peter Line and skip Dave Edmonds scooped the triples' championship after the closest of the Hampshire finals.

In an all-Atherley confrontation they conceded a last-end three which levelled the scores at 18-18 but then snatched the trophy with a single on the sudden-death end against Jim Barrett, Jody Bright and Mick Barrett.

Although a four on the third carried teenager Bishop and his battle-hardened partners 6-3 in front by the fifth they trailed 10-8 on the tenth until regaining the advantage at 13-10 with a five on the next end.

Back came the B-specials with a four to creep 14-13 ahead, but a two and a three seemed to swing the verdict towards Edmonds, only for their opponents to force a tie with four shots over the last two ends.

l The length of that triples match seemed to take its toll on Line and Edmonds when they partnered John Fhithyan (lead) and Alex Rendall (two) for the fours in the afternoon against Victory.

For the first five ends Atherley made a good fist of it and only lagged 5-3 behind but then Bill Taws, Barry Starks, Iain Mackenzie and skip Charlie Bailey seized command with a five - and backed that with five more shots from the next three ends to forge 15-3 ahead by the ninth.

To Atherley's credit, they mustered a final effort to trim the arrears to 15-10 following the 12th before Victory turned up the heat again and bounded 27-11 ahead by the time stumps were drawn after 18 ends.