BANISTER PARK strode through their Hampshire semi-final to book a place in the national stages of the English BA triples championships at Worthing next month.

Playing in Last Eights week at Atherley, Cliff Higgins, Gary Squires and skip Danny McEwan, pictured right, crushed Odiham 20-9 to reach tomorrow afternoon's county final.

The main prize in the semi-final, however, is to qualify for Worthing and there was never much doubt about the outcome after the Eastleigh men had gone from 2-2 at four ends to lead 10-2 after eight.

The prospect of Banister Park being joined by their fellow Central Division representatives in Sussex on August 22 was ruined when Mike Aldren, Tony Nixon and Jody Bright of Sports Centre were mugged 15-12 by Eastney.

In a tight contest, Sports Centre trailed 10-9 at 11 ends but on two occasions over the closing ends when they looked set to go ahead they were foiled by the good fortune that opposing skip Jeff Amos seemed blessed with.

Bright and Nixon had also been out of luck in the fours alongside Iain Bunday and skip Colin Thresher. Sports Centre fell 23-10 to Aldershot Traction and the other Central representatives - Martyn Cole, Jim Heard, Tony Cove and George Doig of Fleming Park - bowed out at the same stage 19-15 to Boscombe Cliff (Tony Gabb).

Gabb lost a dramatic semi-final 20-19 to the Old Basing rink of Ian Griffiths, Alan Turvey, Graham Hillier and Peter Gentry who wiped out a 19-14 deficit on 19 ends with a two and a three - and then snatched a 20-19 victory with a single on the extra end. Old Basing had beaten Portsmouth Civil Service 21-19 in the quarter-final.

The second semi-final went to the Boscombe Cliff quartet of Lee Croad, Michael Hutley, Chris Daniels and Chris Martin.

County singles quarter-finals (today at Atherley, 10am, semi-finals 2pm): Graham Hillier (Old Basing) v Paul Lawrence (Portsmouth CS), Nicky Jones (Boscombe Cliff) v Ken Marsh (Hampshire Police), Michael Squires (Boscombe Cliff) v Ray Long (Eastleigh Rail), Peter Adcock (Star and Crescent) v Paul May (Pyestock).

Under-25 semi-finals (tomorrow morning): Mark Hammond (Sports Centre) v Ben Settle (Gosport), Paul May (Pyestock) v Michael Hutley (Boscombe Cliff).

Secretaries' semi-finals (tomorrow morning): Gordon Smith (Sports Centre) v Chris Martin (Boscombe Cliff), Roger Williams (Lee-on-the-Solent) v Peter Hutchings (Aldershot Underwood).

Finals are all due to start at 2pm tomorrow at Atherley.