A tough first round draw against internationals Gary Smith and Andy Thomson of Cyphers faced Preston's Glyn Hesketh and ex-England man Richard Moses.

They competed in the pairs at the nationals in Melton Mowbray.

And although they gave it 100 per cent, they were beaten 21-12.

The last involvement for Sussex players in Leicestershire was Preston's appearance in the over-60s double fours.

The squad had paid all their own expenses through the rounds and were thrilled to walk out and face Desborough in the semi-finals.

Dennis Alderton, Charlie Harvey, Joe Gallelli and Ken Thatcher led 10-8 at ten ends but finished 20-19 down to Jim Turner, Ian Harvey, Len Essex and Ron Aitken.

Eric South, Alf Carver, John Laker and Dave Woosnam, meanwhile, led 11-4 after nine ends against Ted Hughes, Fred Hathaway, John Stannard and Bill Winstanley and still had four ends to play after Thatcher's rink had finished.

Woosnam's rink were holding on to a winning position until the 20th end. His colleagues having left him in trouble, Woosnam was just a yard too heavy with both attempts at drawing to save and the end cost them a five.

Needing four shots to win on the last end Woosnam was again in trouble and killed the end but when it was replayed all they could score was two. Woosnam's rink lost 19-18 and the overall defeat was 39-37 and in the final Desborough lost 36-35 to Beccles.

Adrian Finnie, 20, made his debut in the singles and won his first round match 21-12 against Paul Maynard of Essex County.

In the second round against Brian Patterson of Moonfleet, Finnie played equally well but his opponent was in peak form. Invariably Patterson's first bowl was within a foot of the jack but at 7-7 the Sussex qualifier was optimistic.

He then dropped a two and on the next end Patterson fired them both out to score three more. Adrian could not recover and was beaten 21-9.