At the half-way stage of the short mat bowls league season, the reigning champions, Woolhope A, once again lead the way in Division 1.

However, they could face their closest challenge for several years as Ross A are currently level on points with them at the top as they try to prevent the league title going to Woolhope for the 15th consecutive season.

Woolhope and Ross have a 15-point lead over Larruperz A and Aston Ingham A, who are also tied on points in 3rd and 4th place. At the bottom of the division, Gorsley Chapel are finding life tough following their promotion last year, trailing Tarrington by two points with Dewchurch Warriors, tackling the top division for the first time, a further four points ahead. The next team up, Llangarron, will take some comfort from having played seven of their first nine matches away from home and will hope for some good home results in the second half to keep them clear of the danger of relegation.

The top of Division 2 has a similar look to the first division with Woolhope B leading Ross B by five points. These two teams have a match in hand over the chasing teams as they play each other in the first fixture of the New Year and that match will be important in determining who leads the way into the second half of the season and how much advantage either will have over Fownhope, currently in third place a further three points behind, and Ledbury a further three points back.

Meanwhile, the two county teams have had differing fortunes in the inter county championship. The Premier team have a match left to play in their qualifying group but trail second placed Avon by 21 points and seem destined to move through to the consolation knockout competition.

The A team, however, have qualified for the main knockout segment of their competition by the narrowest of margins, garnering the 15 points that they needed against Gloucestershire in their final match to finish a single point ahead of their rivals in second place.

Fortunes were reversed in the national double rink competition with the Premier team qualifying for the finals from a qualifying group containing Cheshire and Kent whilst the A team failed to qualify, losing all of the matches in their group.