NO less than 10 teams from Dorset have qualified for this year’s Butcombe British Championships, which climaxes in the grand finals tomorrow in Torquay.

Biggest hopes rest on Dorset’s most successful team in the championships, the Skimmers, who were champions in 2004 and 2005 and runners-up last year, who are based at Dorchester’s Bulls Head.

Team secretary Sean Baker said they were taking a bigger squad this year including the original eight who played last time around, but qualifying for the finals was not all that easy.

He said: “We came third in our group but we knew it was going to be a tough group. Fortunately we came through in the end.”

Also in the men’s competition, the Colliton Club of Dorchester have qualified for the finals for the first time at their third attempt, and take their places alongside first-time qualifiers Mrs Brown’s Boys, also from the county town.

Completing the men’s team line-up are perennial Weymouth & Portland League champions, Pinups, who will be hoping for a luckier draw this year.

They went out in the first round to the eventual champions, the Highwaymen, last time around.

In the ladies’ competition, regulars the Oakettes from Dewlish have been twice quarter-finalists and semi-finalists, winning the plate competition two years ago.

Also through are the Motley Crew from Weymouth, who were last year’s plate runners-up. Meanwhile Dorchester’s Shot ‘o’ Clocks have qualified for the finals at their first attempt.

In the mixed competition, hopes rest on Motley Crew A and One Step Beyond, both from Weymouth, and Wool Misfits from Wareham.

This year’s competition, organised by Shoot Out Club of Torquay, has attracted 150 teams who embarked on a series of regional rounds.

The final 64 will be battling it out at Torquay’s Riviera Inter-national Conference Centre and Shoot Out Club’s Rachel Bourke predicts a closely-fought contest.

“There are several skittles records at stake,” she said. “We are hoping to set a world record for the largest number of skittlers in a competition.

“Plus we could see the first team ever to win four British Championship titles, and the first team to win three consecutive titles.

“There could be a lot of skittles history in the making.”