Both of the bowls county teams currently sit in second place in their respective qualifying groups of the National Inter County Championship competition.

The Premier team started their campaign with a comfortable 26-14 away win at Avon, who have entered a team in the Premier competition for the first time in several years.

The Herefordshire side then faced successive fixtures against their local rivals Gloucestershire who boast several England players in their strong squad.

The home tie was the closest match between the two sides for several years and Gloucestershire ended up squeezing the narrowest possible 21-19 victory by securing the bonus points on the final discipline.

The return match in Gloucester was also closely fought and, although Herefordshire won 7 of the 16 matches they conceded all but one of the 8 available bonus points so slipped to a 25-15 defeat. The strong performances in the two Gloucestershire matches will have left the team confident going into their remaining matches against Avon and Oxfordshire.

The ’A’ team also started with an away win at Avon which reached an exciting climax as the result rested on the last match being played.

A Herefordshire win in that match saw them secure a 21-19 victory. They then travelled to Hampshire for their second match to face a team which they had not played for several years.

Hampshire proved to be too strong in the Singles and Pairs disciplines, where they had concentrated their strongest players, and, despite stronger performances in the Triples and Fours, Herefordshire slipped to a 27-13 defeat but will be looking to bounce back when they play the reverse fixture at home in a couple of weeks.