ATHERLEY rounded off the indoor season in magnificent style by becoming English Indoor BA mixed fours champions.

Their rink of Jean Arnaud (lead), Ella Dibble (two), Steve Spreadbury and skip Peter Ward carried off the title 21-13 against local club Ryedale in the final at York.

For Ward it was the perfect swansong as the ex-England international is leaving Atherley to join East Dorset next winter.

In the skip's opinion, the Atherley foursome gave their best performance of the finals weekend against Ryedale, a club from nearby Malton.

The Yorkshire quartet, roared on by their home crowd, went into the final as favourites, but their supporters grew progressively quieter as Atherley built a 15-2 advantage by halfway.

Although Ryedale managed some in-roads into that lead over the last ten ends, Atherley finished comfortable winners making it case of third time lucky for Ward and Arnaud this season in the play-off stages of national competitions.

Atherley's only real scare came during their opening game. They trailed 13-6 to Eldon Square, but the Newcastle rink became marooned on unlucky 13 for six ends and Atherley swept through 24-15.

The Hampshire standard-bearers crushed Scunthorpe 24-12 in the second round and then thrashed Roundwood from Norwich 34-6 at the quarter-final stage after romping 19-1 ahead.

Things looked black for Atherley when they dropped a six on the 13th end of the semi-final to trail 16-10 but they bounced back immediately with a five and strode on to a 24-18 success against Acle (Norfolk).

Arnaud said: "Our first game was probably our worst and we were fortunate to get through, but we thought then that luck was on our side and we decided to make the most of it.

"We played reasonably well after that - we all did our bit - and Peter felt our best display was against Ryedale especially as they came from the York area and had so many supporters there.

The flying start was just what we needed and after that we knew we would win provided we didn't do anything silly."

Atherley's recently installed president Frank Grayer added: "This has been a wonderful achievement and everyone at the club is very proud of them."

For Ward this win in the last final of the EIBA season soothed the disappointment of being runner-up in the outdoor mixed fours last summer alongside Anne Pearce, Helen Phillips and Colin Thresher.

Atherley will receive their trophy at the EIBA annual presentation luncheon at Bedworth, Warwickshire, on Saturday (April 27).