The day began with high hopes of success for Norfolk’s qualifiers in the England National Pairs with three powerful duos representing Nelson’s County. Disappointingly only one of those pairs made it through the group stages with Wymondham’s AJ Brown & Jack Pye the sole survivors. AJ & Jack reeled off three straight wins beating Hertfordshire’s Andrew Miles & Alan Hare 14-2, Wiltshire’s Bob Naylor & Ray Nethercott 10-7 and Surrey’s Terry Osgood & Rob Edwards 13-4 to top Group 16 with maximum points. Expendables Chris Willies & Wymondham’s Jack Marshall beat Jim Knowles & Joanne Millington of Herefordshire 10-4 and beat Paul Seaman & Glen Harvey of East Sussex 10-6 but an opening game defeat of 5-10 against Hampshire’s talented twosome Ben Pay & Jason McLean proved fatal to the Norfolk pairing in Group 4. The East Sussex, Hampshire and Norfolk pairs all finished on 4 points apiece but shot difference saw East Sussex win the group with Hampshire second. Group 2 saw Morgan Warnes & Gary Best of Bob Carter in a tough looking group. They were involved in three tight games but unfortunately finished on the wrong side of the scoreline in each one. They lost by just 7-8 against North Yorkshire’s David Newsome & Danny Langdon, by 8-10 against Hertfordshire’s Bev Stevenson & Jeff Branch and by 7-10 to Hampshire’s David White & George Cherry.
The knock-out stage began with AJ Brown & Jack Pye up against Devon’s Stewart Weighill & Dave Summers with the Norfolk lads racing to an 11-2 win. In the Last 16 stage they continued their run of success beating star Essex pair Mitchell Young & Craig Burgess by a heavy 12-1 margin. Another Essex pair stood in their way in the quarter-finals, in the shape of Rob & Greg Wade, but they were eliminated as AJ & Jack secured a place in the semi-finals with an 11-6 win. The semi-final line-up paired AJ & Jack with West Mids Craig Strong & Ross Dunkley and it was the West Mids pairing who clinched a place in the final with a 10-5 win against the Wymondham pair. In the other semi-final Ben Pay & Jason McLean of Hampshire beat Sam Harvey & Alex Kley of Dorset by 8-6. The final proved to be a close game with Ben Pay & Jason McLean lifting the National Pairs Championship title with a 7-6 win against the West Mids pair.
Jason McLean & Ben Pay of Hampshire with their trophies