A TRIO of former policemen staged a mighty shock by arresting the progress of three East Dorset internationals in the English Indoor BA triples championship.

Ron Wilton (lead), Ray Cartwright and skip Ken Marsh from Banister Park played the game of their lives to beat Dean Morgan, Russell Morgan and skip Nicky Jones 16-13 - and what's more they did it at Christchurch.

The Banister men went into the match very much as the underdogs. Spokesman Marsh said: "I told Ron and Ray beforehand that I didn't mind if we lost as long as we gave them a good game - and we certainly did that!

"It was a great performance by us, and all credit to the East Dorset lads, they took it in good part."

After five ends this third-round fixture seemed to be going very much to form with junior international Jones and his two senior England colleagues sweeping into a 7-2 lead inside five ends.

But when Marsh's marvels got the measure of the green, they won five ends on the trot to forge 9-7 up.

Back came East Dorset to level matters at 9-9 on 12 ends, only for Banister to score a decisive seven shots over the next three ends to build a winning 16-9 advantage at 15 ends.

The drama, however, was still not over because East Dorset pulled back three shots from the next two ends and were holding three shots with a measure for four on the final end, until ice-cool Marsh rolled in for second wood to seal a memorable victory for the Stoneham Laners.

Banister Park now meet Clive Bunford's triple at Bournemouth during January.

Marsh's triumph gave him valuable experience of the East Dorset carpet because he goes back there on January 4 to face Eric Bates (Riverside) in the over-60s' area final.

Steve Whitehead's trio are also going strong in the triples, their latest victims being Chris Daniels and his Bournemouth colleagues 22-20.

However, Banister's Danny McEwan bowed out of the singles, beaten 21-9 by Chris Martin (East Dorset), while Russell Morgan conceded to his East Dorset clubmate Dean Morgan because of business commitments.

Daniels powered past John Keenan (Atherley) 19-6 in the fours, but the Bournemouth bowler fell 23-14 to Atherley international Peter Ward in the mixed pairs. Whitehead lost 27-11 to the unrelated Dolphin pair of Vicki Miller and Alan Miller and Banister's Denny Graydon went down 22-18 to Mark McGrath and Janet Green (Dolphin).

Ray Sutton skipped his Atherley rink to a 21-20 win against Bob Taylor (Dolphin) in the mixed fours, while an all-Atherley tussle saw Peter Line oust Peter Rathband 22-11.

Andy Ross and his Longmeadow associates pulled off a tremendous 22-10 victory against Julian Haines (East Dorset).

Tomorrow sees the area under-25 singles final between Simon Doig (Riverside) and Craig Shepherd (Dolphin) at Atherley.