The four qualifying heats of the Bure Singles Championships have been completed and produced a strong finals night line-up to look forward to. At the Windows heat defending champion David Lamb of Halvergate made it through as the runner-up after a bad start saw him lose 11-3 to Melly Woods representing East Tuddenham. Woods had also lost his opening game by 10-5 against Robbie Lamb of Halvergate but like David Lamb recovered well to clinch first place with 6 points and a +20 shot difference while David Lamb finished with 6 points and +11 shots. Just missing out was Robbie Lamb after losing his last game of the night to his brother David by just 11-10 when a win would have seen him progress instead of his brother. Hevingham’s David Sharpe enjoyed the best start of the evening beating George Clarke of Thorpe Marriott 12-6 followed by his 14-7 win against Robbie Lamb but defeats in his last two games cooked his goose. George Clarke of Thorpe Marriott finished without a point after defeats of 12-6, 16-3, 13-8 & 11-2. At the Thorpe Marriott heat last season’s runner-up Chris Mann of East Tuddenham completed a perfect evening with four straight wins. Peter Jablonowski of Woodbastwick won three games and lost just the one against Mann and finished in second place. David Claxton of Horsford Heroes was third with four points, Keith Halford of Windows third with two points and Piero Cognetti of Horsford BC failed to collect a point. Keith Cooke of Halvergate took no prisoners at the Woodbastwick heat collecting maximum points. Cooke opened with a fantastic 22-4 win against Thorpe Marriott’s Ted Redwood, then beat Hevingham’s Steve Hall 11-7, East Tuddenham’s Simon Willies by 11-4 and Mike Boswell of Windows by 10-4. Simon Willies won his three remaining games to qualify as runner-up with six points. Steve Hall finished with 4 points, Ted Redwood with 2 points while Mike Boswell lost his four games. Hevingham hosted the remaining heat where East Tuddenham’s Gary Best blew away the opposition with wins of 11-5, 13-4, 14-2 & 15-4. Two players finished level on points with four apiece but Peter Fox of Horsford Heroes had the best shot difference of +7 while Paul Isgate of Horsford BC finished with a shot difference of -6. Both Andy Drummie of Windows and Willie Jefferies of Woodbastwick collected two points apiece with Drummie’s shot difference -16 and Jefferies shot difference – 23. The complete list of Bure Singles Finals night qualifiers are Gary Best, Chris Mann, Melvin Woods & Simon Willies of East Tuddenham. Keith Cooke & David Lamb of Halvergate. Peter Fox of Horsford Heroes. Peter Jablonowski of Woodbastwick. Chris Mann & David Lamb are pictured with their trophies at last season's Bure Singles Final's Night.
