West Mids Premier and West Mids “A” teams visited Hingham to take on Norfolk’s county teams in their respective Inter-County Championship games. Manager Jack Pye was pleased with the overall results, despite Norfolk Premier suffering a narrow defeat, as it should mean that Norfolk Premier will qualify for the main knockouts and Norfolk “A” should qualify with ease ahead of their fixture against Shropshire. Norfolk Premier went down by just 22-18 on points, 210-180 on shots, to the defending champions. In the singles East Tuddenham’s Chris Willies collected two wins winning by 20-10 and 14-11 while Carter’s Trevor Brown won his first game 14-11 before suffering a 23-2 defeat in his second game with Norfolk taking six of the ten points on offer. West Mids had the edge in the pairs where Neil Davidson & Jack Pye won their second game by 20-14 after losing their opening game by 13-11. Morgan Warnes & Gary Best contested two close games but lost them both by 13-12 & 15-13. Norfolk edged the triples section with both triples winning one game apiece and with better shots collected the bonus points as well. Simon Warnes, Debbie Sparham & Keith Cooke won their first game by 21-6 and lost their second by 17-8 while Melvin Woods, Robin Amos & Simon Willies lost their first game 14-6 but won their second by 14-8. The rinks proved to be the difference between the two teams as West Mids Premier earned eight of the ten points up for grabs. Jack Gray, Karl Newby, David Lamb & Jon Sparham’s 9-8 win in their second game proved to be Norfolk’s only win in that discipline following an 8-7 loss in their first game. Jack Marshall, Ryan Fox, Robbie Lamb & Jason Woods lost their first game by 22-1 and their second game by 17-8. Norfolk “A” brushed aside the challenge of West Mids “A” as they collected maximum points in both the triples and fours to win the match 30-10 on points, 225-163 on shots. In the fours Elaine Willies, Kacy Suffolk, Terry Newby & Melvyn Barker won by 14-3 & 16-5 while Donna Lamb, Chloe Suffolk, Steve Hall & Ray Lamb won by 13-7 & 16-10. The triples followed suit as Tony Ottewell, Graham Mobbs & Joy Townsend won by 12-5 & 14-12 and Billie Barker, David Blundell & George Hume won by 15-13 & 13-10. In the pairs Norfolk earned six of the ten points on offer with both pairs winning one game apiece but outscoring West Mids to collect the two bonus points. Jenny Walker & Mike Smail won their first game 15-11 but lost their second one by 15-12. Robert Howlett & Steven Lamb lost their first game by just one shot but won their second by 13-11. The singles was the only discipline that West Mids “A” came out on top in winning three games to take six of the ten points. Jason Martin lost his games by 13-11 & 14-10 while Peter Harvey lost his first game 18-10 but produced a superb 29-3 win in his second to earn the bonus points.
Chris Willies won both his singles games against his old county