The revamped rules of the Norwich Cup produced an incredible finale to the Harling Blue v Connaught cup tie. Harling Blue played the last of their “wild cards” when they were 28-16 down with three ends to play and picked up five shots which counted as ten to cut the visitors lead to just 28-26. On the penultimate end Harling scored another three shots to take a 29-28 lead with one scheduled end left to play and one of the most incredible comebacks seemed to be on the cards. With just Connaught skip Paul McDonald to play his last wood Harling had a match winning lay but McDonald was the hero of the hour as he hit the head which moved the jack near to a Connaught wood to take a single and level the match at 29-29. Connaught won the toss for the extra sudden death end and elected to give Harling the jack. Once again Paul McDonald found himself with the last wood of the match with this time Harling holding two shots. Cool as ever McDonald drew onto the jack to win the match for Connaught by 30-29 in this fantastic cup tie. Connaught’s eight players for the one mat clash were David Aldous, David Quadling, Di Quadling, Roy Taylor, Richard Broad, Derek Lyles, Mike Minshull and of course Paul McDonald. Connaught now face a trip to Wortwell in the second round who have progressed without bowling a wood after Shropham conceded their first round tie. In the City League First Bus beat Horsford Heroes by just one shot to gain a 10-4 home win in an exciting encounter. Rex Cox, David Sharpe & Steve Hall achieved an excellent 15-4 win to earn the match points while Lesley Crowe’s triple backed them up with an 11-4 win. SNL action saw Hempnall win 8-2 at home to Hingham. There were three big wins for the home side with Paul Baker’s triple winning 30-8, Owen Cranston’s triple winning 22-9 & Keith Cooke’s triple winning 23-14. Will Townsend’s triple replied for Hingham with a superb 23-6 win. In the Bure League Halvergate began their campaign with a perfect 10-0 win at Hevingham where the home side failed to match the defending champions. The away skips were all in good form as Ryan Fox won 20-8, Jason Woods won 20-12, David Lamb won 16-10 and Keith Cooke won 15-12.
Paul McDonald match winner for Connaught