On-a-roll Preston advanced to the quarter finals of the Egham Trophy when they beat Dorchester 81-70.

This with the two home rinks winning 41-33 and the away rinks 40-36.

When Brenda Bailey went down with 'flu, Ann Millward came into lead at home with Doreen Brockes, Dave Woosnam and Ken Thatcher. All four drew well with heads built up from the front and they won 21-17 over Adam Tidby.

With Marie Wilson omitted, Sue Jones took her place in the other home rink and the change meant that Andy Smalldridge and Kathy Flood formed the front partnership with Sue and Pat Flood the back two. They won 20-16 over Steve Gait.

At Dorchester Alf Carver, Terri Wall, Betty Durrant and Basil Holding won 21-16 against Steve Dickinson while Eric South, Jean Bowles, Pat Pearce and Dave Hesketh only lost 20-19 to Steve Nutman.

With only a week between the rounds, Preston now play Bridgwater TCL tomorrow at the Bournemouth club at 2pm.

Martin Biggleston went to Gullivers for his national singles area semi-final against Charles Wright, looking for a double over the Wright family after beating brother John in an earlier round.

In desperation Charles took the mat up when he trailed 15-4 and the game changed dramatically. Now it was Wright who was peppering the jack as he won 21-18. In the area finals at Denton Island on Tuesday he will play the winner of the tie between Preston youngsters Ollie Ovett and Adrian Finnie.

After a flourish of 3,2,2,3 starting on the fourth end, Alan Beech, John Rose, Adrian Raphael and Mick Howard were out-bowled by Worthing colleagues Steve Hawkes, Bill Smithers, Eric Pidgeon and Keith Cruise in the national fours area semi-final.

Keith's rink were in cruise control as they won 27-13 when Howard's team quit after the 18th end.

The other tie produced a sensational start when Worthing Pavilion's David Webb, Gareth Beven, Pat Graysmark and Nick Dudman dropped a seven on the first end at home to Mathew Marchant, Barry Starks, Darren Griffiths and Iain Mackenzie of Victory. But they fought back well to win 24-18 after some excellent bowls from Dudman and Mackenzie in the closing ends.

Grattons' Ralph Lonsdale, Ted Cousins, Mick Law and Simon Pettingel were caught 16-16 at Adur by Dave Cornwell, Roy Bainbridge, George Shaw and John Godfrey in their area semi-final, but they hit back to win 20-17 after 20 ends. The area final at Denton Island on Tuesday will be against Bob Gooding's (King Alfred) team who won 21-6 at home to Preston's Adrian Finnie, Andy Smalldridge, Dave and Ollie Ovett.

Former Beechams employee Eric Pidgeon gave Tom Campbell and Chris Young something nasty to swallow when a superb last bowl on the extra end clinched a 16-15 win for himself and Steve Hawkes in a superb national pairs area semi-final at Worthing which lasted four-and-a-half hours.

Hawkes and Pidgeon were only ahead once after the extra end on which Pidgeon bowled for superb deliveries all under extreme pressure after Campbell's second delivery had nestled right behind the jack.

Young had taken out the shot Pidgeon had drawn on the seventh end to score four and lead 8-2, and it was 14-9 at 17 ends. On the 21st end Pidgeon sprung the jack back and then fired it into the ditch to score the two needed to force the extra end.

In the area final they will play Charlie Bailey and Colin Hayward of Victory who were in excellent form when winning their semi-final at home to Arun's Robin Armstrong and Anthony Bull.