Silver End Bowling Club claimed the bragging rights with a victory in the quarter-finals of the PDQ Cars Trophy against their local rivals Braintree Bowling Club.

The competition, which was played at Colchester Indoor Bowling Club, is for clubs who do not have their own indoor bowling facilities and rely on their outdoor bowling skills to be reflected on the much faster indoor carpets.

It was an entertaining match with a keenly respectful rivalry between two successful outdoor clubs, with competition in pairs, triples and fours matches.

Silver End had already beaten West End in the previous round, while Braintree had been given a bye into the quarter-finals.

Braintree were slower off the mark, but battled on and, as with most bowls games, the result wasn’t clear until the final skip’s bowl had settled.

This seemed to be the general overall picture for each end, in each match, when Braintree would find themselves several shots up, only for the opposing skip to nullify this by taking the shot wood with his final bowl.

As the games progressed, Silver End’s margin of winning shots was gradually reduced but to no avail at the final 21 ends of each game as they took wins in the triples and fours and drew the pairs to claim their place in the semi-finals.

RESULTS: Pairs: Silver End 18 Braintree (Malcolm Stark/Eddie Hawkins) 18; Triples: Silver End 27 Braintree (Olive Hawkins/Peter Chesley/Martin Law) 9; Fours: Silver End 21 Braintree (Derek Hardy/Rob Doleman/Dave Hart/Dave Barker) 16.