LODDON Vale Indoor celebrating national and county recognition for a number of their bowlers.

Nicole Rogers, who started playing at Loddon Vale at the age of eight, has been selected to represent England in the British Isles Ladies under-25 series next mouth in Nottingham.

The 19-year-old will play number three to World Champion Katherine Rednall. The team of 16 will be out to revenge their surprise loss of last year to Scotland.

Rogers, along with other Loddon Vale ladies Yvonne Grant, Mary Morgan, Tina Rogers, Mary Varndell and Sheila Stone, put up a strong display in the Atherley Trophy, English inter-county knockout, where Hampshire pulled off a surprise 115-107 win against Kent.

Eight male Loddon players Duncan Rogers, Jeff White, Steve Shaw, Trevor Morgan and Geraint Jones, Ashley Nethercliffe, Gary Lovett, Dougie Morgan are set to represent Hampshire in the Liberty Cup, the equivalent English inter-county knockout for men, against Berkshire.

In the Hampshire League Loddon men lost to last year’s champions, Palmerston 73-63.

The two home rinks skipped by Lovett and Geoff Green were always in control of their matches with both winning comfortably. However, the rinks skipped by Ric Newson and Peter Read struggled at Palmerston.

In the Wessex League, Loddon took on Westlecot (Swindon), one of their main rivals in the Eastern Division.

This was a real nip and tuck affair with Westlecot holding the upper hand for most of the game.

With only a few end to go Loddon faced a deficit of 78-72. However, wins from the home rinks skipped by Trevor Morgan and Gary Lovett more than offsetting the loss of Dougie Morgan away, Loddon found themselves ahead by three with one end left to play.

With two woods left to play the rink skipped by Steve Shaw was two down on the end, but as the Swindon skip went to try and win the match with his last wood, but unfortunately took his own woods out, leaving their match drawn and the final score 88-83 to Loddon.

In the London and Southern Challenge Shield (knockout) against Foxhill, Aylesbury, it was another titanic tussle.

Throughout the game Loddon held a slender lead, but with only a few ends to go the lead was down to four.

The home rinks skipped by Trevor Morgan and Lovett winning by a combined 11 shots and the away rink of Dougie Morgan losing by one to the last wood of their match, it was left to Steve Shaw to guide his rink to a narrow four point loss giving Loddon the match 79-73.

Duncan Rogers’s rink in the London and Southern progressed against Camberley after allowing their opposition to score on only one end. They now have to face an all Loddon Vale match when they take on Gary Lovett’s rink for a place in the quarter-finals.

Nicole Rogers has once again qualified for the English under-25 Ladies National finals from January 27 to 28 and will face Hannah Felce in the last 16.

Loddon Vale beat Chawton Park 83-81 in a friendly with the top rink being Wendy Taylor, Gerry Hughes, Maryann Chadwick