ATHERLEY - maximum winners against Palmerston on day one - continued their flying start to the Hampshire League Division 1 season by crushing reigning champions East Dorset 7-1 (84-64).

The rink of Colin Stark, Peter D Ward, Tony Nixon and Dave Archibald stamped Atherley's authority on the match from the off by sprinting 15-1 up after five ends against Bob Tappin at Hill Lane.

Despite being pegged back to 19-16 at 15 ends Archibald held his nerve to win 24-19 and he was backed at home by Micky Barrett who also began impressively but suffered few lapses as he beat Terry Chivers 22-11.

Those old Middleton Cup teammates Peter Line and John Plomer clashed at Christchurch where Line gave Atherley more success with a 22-15 victory but East Dorset, weakened by Liberty Trophy calls, struck back on their own carpet with a 19-16 win for Bob Sprules against Ray Wilkinson.

Atherley top the early-season table but the surprise name in second place is Rushmoor, last season's Division 2 champions who followed up their opening success against Riverside by beating Palmerston 6-2 (74-69).

Despite being beaten Terry Cuming was the Rushmoor hero with a last-end four that gave his side the overall points. Cuming lost 22-19 to Tony Grant.

Leo May, 13-6 ahead at ten ends, doubled his tally in the second half to outgun Palmerston's Neil O'Donovan 26-12 while Rushmoor's other point came from Colin Moore who pipped Eddie Hopgood 14-13.

Palmerston took the fourth contest with Roy Reader, a 9-6 leader at ten ends, finishing 22-15 up against Paul May.

Riverside are still looking for their first Division 1 win after falling 6-2 (100-76) to Victory.

Despite skipping a reshuffled rink, Simon Doig's quartet, which was completed by John Maskell, Peter Phippen and Jim Heard, came up trumps marching 11-0 ahead at five ends on their way to a 23-22 verdict against former Palmerston bowler Ian Purton at Portsmouth.

However, dad George Doig did not fare so well there especially when Victory skip Nick Fairall turned to short jacks, Doig being sunk 31-14 after dropping a late seven.

At Winchester Roy Evans, Ty Gadd, Roger Parsons and Eddie Bates built a 23-9 advantage at 15 ends for Riverside before Tom Pullin cut the final margin to 24-17 while Chris Ralph - skipping a HL rink for the first time - was just 16-14 adrift on 15 ends until a late fade-out allowed Victory's Alan Jones to triumph 30-15.

Results and league points: Atherley 84 (7) East Dorset 64 (1), Palmerston 69 (2) Rushmoor 74 (6), Victory 100 (6) Riverside 76 (2). Points: (all played two) Atherley 15, Rushmoor 12, Victory 8, East Dorset 7, Riverside 3, Palmerston 2.

Next fixtures on November 23: East Dorset v Palmerston, Victory v Rushmoor, Atherley v Riverside.

This Saturday Riverside play Palmerston in the Denny Plate (10am).