RIVALS Longhope and Coleford short mat bowling teams played high-quality home and away county premier league games.

In the first match at Bells Hotel, Longhope pulled back from an early deficit to take a narrow one shot lead going into the last end. The Forest team, who have lost at their last eight visits to Longhope, got off to a blistering start to lead 12-2 at the half way stage.

Longhope changed their skip for the second half moving young Rob Hulse from three. With two ends of the match to go the gap was still 10 shots and although Longhope picked up four at the end the winning margin for Forest of Dean was six shots.