The last Coastal Competition of the 2019-2020 season was the Coastal Triples, held at Hemsby Village Hall on Sunday March 15th. It followed the usual format of a Round Robin on four mats. But with some teams pulling out of the Competition, two mats had three blocks, playing extra ends. The other two mats had four teams competing.
On Mat 1, Hemsby Beachcombers’ Vera Bowman, Mick Rose and Alan Marker were the winners, after three teams finished on 4 points. Second were Christine Steggles, Graham Edwards and Derek Humphries from Bradwell Acorns. Mat 2’s result was extremely close, both the Bradwell Dynamos team of Christine Cooper, Ron Beardall and Mike Tate and the Bradwell Robins team of Carol Illingsworth, Brian McKinna and Jackie Fortescue ending up with four points, and having the exact same shot difference. The winners had to be decided on ends won, seeing the Dynamos through to the semi-finals having won 11 ends to the opposition’s 9. On Mat 3 the Woodbastwick Owls/Eagles trio of Doreen Scarff and Norma and Peter Jablonowski were runaway winners with maximum points, joint seconds were Robins Phil Fiske, Jean Moore and Roger Squires and Hemsby Harvesters Tom Gourlay, Trish Wooden and David Wooden. All three teams on Mat 4 gained 2 points, thus it went down to shot difference, a family team of Lianne and Matthew Mills with Elaine Cole coming out on top, second were Gail and Mike Hodgson playing with Ray Stanniford of Hemsby Beachcombers.
The first semi-final was a close affair, the Dynamos just beating the Beachcombers by 2 shots. On the other mat Peter Jablonowski’s triple triumphed over their Woodbastwick rivals by 10 shots to 3. One of the closest finals seen in recent years ensued with both teams playing excellent bowls. Christine Cooper, Mike Tate, Ron Beardall, Doreen Scarff, Norma Jablonowski and Peter Jablonowski were not in the slightest fazed by the diagonal mat. The two leads led the way in great fashion and often it was up to the skips to sort each end out. After the seventh end, the Woodbastwick triple were three shots up and it looked all over, but Skip Ron Beardall played a brilliant last bowl on end 8 to draw level necessitating an extra end. Finally Woodbastwick won by one shot, after the spectators had enjoyed an absorbing and thrilling match.
Thanks to Jenny Walker for supplying this report