PALMERSTON, who reached the third round of the Yetton Trophy for the first time last winter, have proved that was no fluke by repeating the performance.

Now, after squeezing past Five Rivers 86-84, the Fareham club are determined to top last season's efforts by qualifying for their first Zone 14 final.

Home strength served Palmerston well against their Salisbury opponents. Val Cooper's rink gained a splendid 31-13 victory against Maureen Gourlay and she was supported by the 22-18 card returned by Ann Broadhurst against Pat Sharp.

Those wins outweighed defeats for Palmerston's travellers as Ellie Mundy lost 26-19 to Joan Driver and Joyce Bradlaugh went down 27-14 to Sue Frost.

The zone semi-final - on Thursday, January 10 - pitches Palmerston against Arun. Although the Sussex club are one of the strongest on the south coast, Palmerston will take heart from the fact that they beat them in the second round last season.

Arun earned their place 93-60 against the Isle of Wight, Mavis Butler showing the way with a 30-12 eclipse of Margaret Wallace. Pauline Proud came closest to giving the Islanders a rink win with an 18-18 draw against Pat Terry but they were outgunned in the other two contests with Jean Sorbie falling 21-13 to former international Wendy Adams and Eileen Wilkinson finishing 24-17 down to Frances Ireland.

The other zone semi-final is between East Dorset and Moonfleet (Weymouth).

Christine Doig and her son Simon took another step towards the national finals of the Generation Pairs Championship with a convincing 31-15 success against Joy Cotton and her son Jim (Dolphin, Poole) in the area final at Atherley.

Atherley was also the venue for the zone final of the women's Over-60s Double Rink Championship in which Bournemouth pipped Victory 38-36.