Oxfordshire bowlers made their presence felt in the Bowls England Women’s National Cha-mpionships in Royal Leamington Spa this week.

Carole Galletly led the way by reaching the semi-finals of the two-wood singles before bowing out, and she also helped Banbury Central for through to the third round of the fours before they also met their match.

Galletly, who made her England debut in June, must have felt like the odd one out in the fours, playing at lead in a quartet, and setting up good positions for three generations of the same family.

Skip Caroline Campion had the services of her mother, Stella Amos, at No 3, and her 23-year-old daughter Helen Campion at lead, but the Central players were flabbergasted to find they had been drawn to play a team that also contained three generations!

England international Edna Bessell was skipping a Yeovil rink with her daughter Lisa Veiga at second and grand-daughter Louise Veiga at lead.

“I was very proud to take to the green with my daughter and grand-daughter,” said Amos. “But it was amazing that our opponents were a similar family combination.”

In an extremely competitive match, Central came out on top, 21-17, and they were being tipped as favourites to go all the way when they dashed the hopes of a team from Box in Wiltshire, 25-16, in the second round.

With a place in the quarter- finals beckoning, Campion’s quartet opened up a 10-0 lead over Bletchley Town, but were overhauled in an epic struggle, and went down 19-14.

Galletly promptly returned to the green to bid for the two-wood singles title, and brushed past Janet Sellek (Middlesex) 18-10, and Huntingdonshire’s Joan Robinson, 17-11.

She grabbed a place in the last eight with a 17-10 win over Kent’s Debbie Baker, then demolished Cambridgeshire’s Moire Osborne, 18-8 to set up a semi final clash with Worcestershire’s Sue Davies.

Davies was dropped by England this year, and had a point to prove. And, after Galletly had opened up a 5-2 lead, the Broadway (Worcs) star slowly but surely got on top, pressing home to a 16-7 victory.

Oxon’s Helen Campion and Jody Flitter went down to first-round defeats in the under 25 singles championship.