MARK Charlett's never-say-die attitude earned his Headington rink a thrilling victory in the Oxfordshire BA fours semi-final at Banbury Chestnuts.

Charlett and his team of John Nichols, Ian Henwood and Jason King trailed their fellow Headington rivals Jon Philpott, Colin Whitehead, Ian Snowdon and Ray Gaskins 15-8 with five rinks to go.

However, they drew level over the next three ends, and a two for each side saw the scores level 17-17 after 21 ends, necessitating and extra end.

Gaskins with one wood left was shot down and saw his final wood pull up short to give Charlett and his three partners the game 18-17.

In the final, they will meet yet another Headington four of Dean May, Nathan Lewis, Gary May and Howard Watts.

Watts pulled off damaging shots over the last five ends to assure his rink of a 18-12 success against Banbury Borough's Keith Holloway, Jamie Wilkinson, George Schwab and Mark Sykes

Holloway had already reached the singles final with a 21-9 success over Shiplake's Jim Bland.

There was a tighter contest in the other semi-final between Colin Whitehead (Headington) against Chris Gilkes (Watlington).

Gilkes led 14-6 after 14 ends, before shortening the jack length and let in Whitehead, who with a two and a brace of threes, levelled the score

The Watlington man then took control again taking six of the next eight ends to move into the final on the back of a 21-17 win, having also qualified for the OBA Under 25 singles final earlier in the season.

In the pairs, Headington's Henwood and Charlett, who trailed 9-4 down after eight ends against Adderbury's brothers Nigel and Ted Eley, collected 13 shots over four ends on the way to a 24-11 victory.

The Kidlington pairing of Jim Feeley and Chris Cox led 20-17 after 19 end against Carterton's Tim Jupp and Stuart Richens, before

disaster.

Jupp and Richens collected a four on the 20th to go ahead and then a single on the last saw them squeeze through 22-20.

Banbury Borough prevailed in the triples, with Wilkinson, Schwab and Sykes taking no prisoners as they swept aside the Headington trio of May brothers Dean and Gary and Nick Rae-Welsh 19-3.

Borough's other triple, Holloway, Darren Sharpe and skip AJ Docherty were 5-13 adrift after seven ends to their Carterton opponents, Peter Maisey, Dan Wakeman and Chris Weedon, but recorded two fives as they eased home 24-15.

All the OBA finals will be held at Carterton this Sunday.