ATHERLEY and Sports Centre both bowed to the stars from the east in the semi-finals of the Hampshire County BA triples championship, writes David Briers.

After a splendid 21-19 quarter-final victory over Adam Trinder, Russell Morgan and Julian Haines of Boscombe Cliff, the Atherley threesome of John Armstrong, Alan Rowe and John Wise fell 23-18 on their own green to Colin Burrans, Dave Biggs and Colin Hayward from Civil Service Portsmouth.

Sports Centre's hopes of reaching Worthing for the national stages were also foiled by Eastern Division opponents when John Keat, Norman Shelley and Richard Shelley lost 17-14 to Frank Middleton, Barry Starks and Iain Mackenzie from Southsea Waverley. Sports Centre had earlier polished off the other Boscombe Cliff trio of Ken James, Leon Pope and Peter Pull 23-11.

Results - Quarter-finals: Civil Service Portsmouth (Colin Hayward) 26 Basingstoke Town (Keith McEwan) 13, Sports Centre (Richard Shelley) 23 Boscombe Cliff (Peter Pull) 11, Southsea Waverley (Iain Mackenzie) 20 Aldershot Traction (John

Dobson) 18, Atherley (John Wise) 21 Boscombe Cliff (Julian Haines) 19.

Semi-finals: CS Portsmouth 23 Atherley 18, Southsea Waverley 17 Sports Centre 14.

Southampton finished with the wooden spoon after the annual Gwyn Guy Trophy inter-association tournament at Gosport.

Fielding an under-strength side their gallant team did not disgrace themselves in slender defeats by Basingstoke and Aldershot before being outclassed in their final match by Portsmouth.

Colin Thresher's rink, however, had every reason to feel proud as the Woolston bowler, playing alongside Derek Place (Brockenhurst), Simon Doig (Fleming Park) and Dave Edmonds (Pirelli General) won all three of their games for Southampton beating Basingstoke 23-11, Aldershot 21-15 and Portsmouth 26-16.

The Banister Park rink of Geoff Norgate, Derek Read, George Churcher and Danny McEwan took their opening match 23-17 against Basingstoke, and with Barry Bendall substituting for Norgate they beat Aldershot 22-13 before losing 21-13 to Portsmouth.

Overall Southampton went down 8-2 (122-115) to Basingstoke, 6-4 (116-115) to Aldershot and 9-1 (146-99) to Portsmouth. Aldershot ended up as tournament winners and were presented with the trophy by former Middleton Cup star Gwyn Guy himself.