A tremendous run by Wymondham’s Simon Warnes, Trevor Brown, Debbie Sparham & Jon Sparham took them to the brink of a National Fours Final appearance before they suffered the heartbreak of a single shot defeat against Hampshire’s Steve Buckett, David White, Alistair McCrea & Ben Pay in the semi-finals. In the group stages Sparham's rink beat Devon 8-7 and Essex 16-4 to qualify for the knock-out stages. In the last 32 stage they beat Kent 7-6 followed by a convincing 9-4 win against Worcestershire in the last 16 stage. A huge hurdle was overcome in the quarter-finals when they beat the talented West Mids rink comprising of Josh Hale, Scott Follis, Peter Dunkley & Liam Lowery by 6-5. A tight semi-final clash saw the Hampshire rink lead by 6-3 at one stage and they held on to beat the Wymondham rink by just 7-6. In the other semi-final Dorset’s Steve Stanton, Jack Knight, Ben Riley & Emily Thomas beat North Yorks 7-6. In the final the Dorset four led 4-0 after two ends against Hampshire and ran out winners by 8-3 to lift the title. Chris Willies of East Tuddenham, Keith Cooke of Halvergate and Carter’s Gary Best & Jason Woods qualified from their group with wins of 11-2 against Surrey and 18-4 against North Yorkshire. An easy 10-2 win followed against West Sussex in the last 32 round. A tough match was expected against Steve McAlister’s Northants rink in the last 16 round but the Norfolk rink produced an impressive 8-1 victory. That proved to be their final win though as they lost by 10-7 in a competitive quarter-final match against Dorset’s Steve Stanton, Jack Knight, Ben Riley & Emily Thomas. Norfolk’s other rink suffered a group stage exit as Karl Newby, Robbie Lamb, Ryan Fox & David Lamb lost all three games in Group 7 but to be fair the draw had put them into possibly the toughest group in the competition.
Dorset's four being presented with the National Fours trophy by Barry Hedges
Norfolk's Trevor Brown, Simon Warnes, Debs Sparham & Jon Sparham