PALMERSTON face a tough task in the second half of the season if they are to retain the Bramley Bowl as Hampshire League Division 1 champions.

Even though the Fareham club whitewashed relegation-bound Chawton Park, they made no headway in cutting down Victory's lead at the top since the Portsmouth stalwarts were also 8-0 winners, while second-placed Rushmoor bagged seven points against East Dorset.

Palmerston sealed an eight-pointer (90-64) thanks to the last-gasp display from Roy Reader, who scored seven shots on his final two ends to shock John Kellow 21-20 at Fareham. Alongside, Neil O'Donovan suffered no such drama as he cruised in 29-11 against Greg Roberts.

At Alton, Tony Grant overcame Dave Turner 21-17 and Andy McKain defeated David Sims 17-15.

Both Banister Park and East Dorset paid the price of having to field sides on the same morning that their first strings were involved in Denny competition.

Despite an encouraging start, Banister Park plunged 90-63 to Victory though the Eastleigh men reckon they did not have the rub of the green.

At Portsmouth Ralph Baker, Raj Kapur, Derek Clare and Stuart Martin were holding five shots on the final end, only to find the jack was ruled just out of the rink.

The outcome was that Nick Fairall sneaked a 16-15 win.

The other Banister Park away rink of John Halliday, Eric Williams, Derek Read and Neville Scovell deserved better than a 29-13 defeat by Phil Penn.

Bob Fawcett, Charlie Benjamin, Malcolm Comley and George Churcher fell 26-19 to Gary Starks at Stoneham Lane while Dave Moore, Nat DiCristina, Roger Penney and Ken Foulkes went down 19-16 to Alan Jones.

A makeshift East Dorset team had only the travelling rink of Bob Sprules (22-19) in winning form as they buckled 7-1 (95-63) to Rushmoor.

Alan Doughty lost 29-13 at Farnborough with Mike Grimsdale (21-15) and Cyril Bransky (26-13) beaten at Christchurch.

Results: Banister Park 63 (0) Victory 90 (8), East Dorset 63 (1) Rushmoor 95 (7), Chawton Park 64 (0) Palmerston 90 (8).

Points: (all played five) Victory 37.5, Rushmoor 29, Palmerston 24, East Dorset 14.5, Banister Park 11, Chawton Park 4.

Next fixtures: (Saturday, January 8) Chawton Park v Banister Park, Palmerston v East Dorset, Victory v Rushmoor.