WHILE they are celebrating their double qualification for the national stages of the English Indoor BA Championships, it has not been entirely a land of milk and honey for Banister Park.

They have been relegated from the Hampshire League Division 1 after a last-day miracle, which would have saved them from the drop, failed to materialise.

The Eastleigh men, however, did make a reasonable fight of it, winning three battles but not the war against champions Victory. Banister Park needed to gain at least seven points while hoping that relegation rivals East Dorset collected only a single point against Rushmoor.

In the event neither score was in Banister Park's favour. They lost 5-3 (81-75) to Victory and East Dorset bagged two points in an 81-66 reverse by Rushmoor.

Banister Park took both rinks at Portsmouth thanks to Andrew Herring, Chris Prior, Stuart Martin and Paul May (22-17 against Phil Penn) and Cliff Higgins, Malcolm Comley, Brian Dibdin and Mark Hammond (16-15 against Dave Deacon), and at Stoneham Lane Steve Whitehead took a third Banister point 25-16 against Alan Jones.

However, Victory took the overall verdict due to the 33-12 roasting handed out to John Joslin by Gary Starks, whose rink was reinforced by under-25 international Steve Robertson.

Bill Ward (21-20) and Terry Chivers (19-18) crept in for East Dorset at Christchurch, but at Farnborough Rushmoor were the masters with Bill Belcher beaten 17-14 and Mike Grimdale eclipsed 26-12 by a remarkable show from home skip Terry Cuming.

A 28-6 runaway from Fred Voller at Fareham plus a fine 25-15 away result from Tony Grant carried Palmerston to their 82-66 (6-2) success against relegated Chawton Park.

Beaten Palmerston skips were Roy Reader (21-19 at home) and Andy McKain (24-10 away to John Fensom).

Final points: Victory 59, Rushmoor 50.5, Palmerston 45, East Dorset 39, Banister Park 35, Chawton Park 11.5.

Results: Victory 81 (5) Banister Park 75 (3), Rushmoor 81 (6) East Dorset (2) 66, Palmerston 82 (6) Chawton Park 66 (2).