The two Norfolk fours seeking National Fours Championship glory today both progressed safely through the group stages. Chris Willies, Simon Willies, Keith Cooke & Jack Marshall won all three games convincingly in Group 3 beating Surrey 11-3, Devon 14-3 and Worcestershire 21-5. Another big win followed in the Last 32 round as they defeated Paula D’Agostino, Mavis Jiggens, Andy Jiggens & Rob D’Agostino of Cornwall by 14-4. The Last 16 round saw them face their biggest test of the day yet against Kent’s Danny Hogben, Michael Doorey, Richard Stagg & Jody Frampton but they came through as winners by 7-5. After their semi-final defeat in the National Pairs yesterday Jack Pye & AJ Brown were now teamed up with Morgan Warnes & Gary Best to try and put their disappointment behind them. Jack Pye, AJ Brown, Morgan Warnes & Gary Best were drawn in Group 15 and came through as group winners. Their Last 32 opponents were Cheshire’s Paula Blackburn-Woods, David Blackburn-Woods, Ste Tinsley & Sean Moon but the Norfolk rink were too hot to handle winning the game by 12-3. In the Last 16 round Jack Pye, AJ Brown, Morgan Warnes & Gary Best faced Dave Almond, Annabelle Almond, Paul Norbury & Angela Norbury of Greater Manchester and won again, this time by 9-5. With both Norfolk rinks into the quarter-finals they were unfortunate to have to play each other for a semi-final place. A very tight low scoring game saw Jack Pye, AJ Brown, Morgan Warnes & Gary Best beat Chris Willies, Simon Willies, Keith Cooke & Jack Marshall by just 4-2 to set up a semi-final clash against Dorset’s Callum Beale, Alex Kley, Mark White & Sam Harvey. The other semi-final was between Hampshire’s Steve Buckett, Alistair McCrea, George Cherry & Ben Pay and Dorset’s Steve Stanton, Jack Knight, Ben Riley & Emily Thomas. Both semi-finals were tight and went to the wire but again proved to be the end of the road for Norfolk as Jack Pye, AJ Brown, Morgan Warnes & Gary Best suffered a narrow 6-7 defeat at the hands of the Dorset rink. In the other semi-final Steve Stanton, Jack Knight, Ben Riley & Emily Thomas took three shots on the last end to win 7-6 and make it an all Dorset final and Emily Thomas' four went on to win the National Fours title for the second year in a row.
Emily Thomas skipped her Dorset rink to victory
Alex Kley of Dorset - part of winning four against Norfolk