Sunday 15th July saw the 7th running of the annual Heritage v South Norfolk match.

Unfortunately outdoor bowling commitments meant that the Heritage team wasn't as representative of the league as we would have hoped and once again it fell upon Knodishall to take up the slack, which Kelsale, Darsham and Middleton made up the rest of the team.

The first round of games saw Heritage get off to a good start, winning four of the six games to lead 8-4, however in the next session South Norfolk hit back in no uncertain terms, winning 5 out of 6 and only just missing out in the other game which ended up at 6-3 after 9 ends.

That meant that going into the lunch break South Norfolk were 14-10 ahead.

But after the break Heritage dragged themselves back into the game, winning four games which meant that heading into the final session the game was tied 18-18, however while 3 of the games had been close, the other 3 had gone substantially the way of Heritage, wins of 11-2, 16-4 and 17-1 meant that Heritage held a 33 shot advantage, so 3 wins would probably be enough.

But they weren't going to need to rely on shots as they ticked off 4 wins and a draw, with the other game being a narrow loss.

As a result Heritage finished winners by 27 points to 21 (204-155) to take the trophy for the third year running, although South Norfolk are still ahead overall, having won it for the first 4 years.

Many thanks to everyone for another good day's bowling and particular congratulations to the 2 teams who came through the day having won all three games, Knodishall 3 and Roydon.

Although 20 teams were entered into the competition there were a couple of last minute drop outs which meant that we were down to 18 teams, but still playing in 4 groups with the winners and runners-up going through to the knockout games.

Group 1
Knodishall B, with just one dropped point finished top while Middleton A made it through despite losing their last game, as they finished on 5 points.

Group 2
Kelsale A and Knodishall A both dropped just one point (against each other) as they comfortably topped the group.

Group 3
Darsham won their first 3 games to qualify before their final match. Knodishall F went into that last game knowing that all they would need to go through was 5 shots and they got just that, with a 3 on the last end to secure a draw.

Group 4
Knodishall D had qualified before their final game, having secured 3 wins. And having played all their games Kelsale B sat in second in the group with the other 3 teams needing to win and get a decent number of shots in their final games. Although Knodishall C won their last game they fell 4 shots short of qualification.

Knockout Rounds
Quarter Finals
Knodishall F already had 9 on the board before Knodishall A broke their duck and by then it was too late, it finished 9-2 in favour of F.

Kelsale A picked up a 4 on the 3rd end against Darsham to put them in front, a lead which they further extended over the next 2 ends, finishing 12-2 ahead.

Having led until end 3 Kelsale B fell behind Middleton A and went into the final end 2 shots behind, but a Kelsale's final wood snatched victory as they moved the jack to take a 3 and win 7-6.

The first half of the game between Knodishall B and Knodishall D was closely fought with B just in front, but a 3 and a 2 saw D go into the last end 4 up and they did what they needed to, dropping just 1 to win 7-4.

Semi-Finals
Knodishall D tore away from Kelsale B, they were 9-0 up after 4 ends and the game finished with an end to spare with Knodishall 13-1 winners.

It was a similar story in the game between Kelsale A and Knodishall F with Kelsale running out to a 14-1 win.

Final
Kelsale A (Paul, Rita & Mike Daniels and Doug Adamson) v Knodishall D (Chris & Shirley Tilbrook, Val Game and Ken Drane)
Knodishall had just the better of the early part of the game, taking 1 on the first end, 2 on the second and 1 on the third, with a wood from each side touching on the 4th. Still, at 4-0 after 4 ends there was still plenty to play for. But Knodishall just kept getting better while Kelsale struggled more and more with the carpet. The final 3 ends saw Knodishall rack up the shots to finish comfortable and well deserving 11-0 winners as they retained the title.

The day's full results can be found here.

There were 20 ladies taking part in this year's competition. The top two from each group would go through to the Knockout Rounds.

Group 1
Clare Nessling won all her games to finish top of the group and Sheila Mann came through in second despite only winning two games.

Group 2
Julie Hurr won her first three games which was enough to see her through and still topped the group despite losing her last game to Mona Goldsmith who also qualified.

Group 3
Shirley Tilbrook comfortably topped the group by winning all her games with Jane Evans coming in as the runner-up on 6 points.

Group 4
Valerie Game was another one to finish on maximum points while Margaret Branton's two wins and a draw was enough for second.

Knockout Rounds
Quarter Finals
Julie Hurr was 4 up over Val Game after 2 ends and maintained the lead to win 8-3.

Jane Evans didn't let Claire Nessling get a look in, winning 10-0.

Margaret Branton led Mona Goldsmith 6-1 after 4 ends but Mona took 7 shots over the next 2 ends and held on to win 8-7.

Sheila Mann won the first couple of ends against Shirley Tilbrook, but Shirley took 10 shots over the next 4 ends to finish the game off with an end to go.

Semi-Finals
After dropping the first end Julie Hurr had the better of her game against Jane Evans, finishing 8-2 up.

Shirley Tilbrook edged away from Mona Goldsmith early on and although Mona got back to within a point Shirley took the last 2 to win 6-3.

Final
Shirley Tilbrook (Knodishall) v Julie Hurr (Knodishall)
This game was all about the first 2 ends as Julie picked up the carpet early on scoring 3 twice to lead 6-0. Although the game wasn't technically over already it was going to be a touch mountain for Shirley to climb.

The next 3 ends went to Shirley as she came to terms with the mat, but it was only 1 shot on each end and just as she was getting close Julie picked 1 up to head into the last end 7-3 up.

That lest end did go to Shirley but getting all four was an almost impossible task and in the end the best she could do was one as Julie won 7-4, taking her first singles title.

The day's full results can be found here.

There were 34 entries this year, played across 7 groups, with the winners, runners-up and two best third placed players going through to the Knockout Stages.

Group 1
Robert Giblin came through undefeated, dropping just one point while Chris Tilbrook made it through with 2 wins and a draw.

Group 2
Ken Drane won four out of four to finish top of the group, John Whiting came in second with 6 points and Mike Daniels, with 4 points and 31 shots qualified as one of the 2 best third placed players.

Group 3
Peter Masters finished undefeated with two wins and two draws to top the group and with the remaining 4 players in the group covered by just 1 point, Basil Baker made it through with two wins and two losses.

Group 4
Brian Denny won all four of his games to finish in first place with Cedric Bennett taking the runner-up spot with 5 points.

Group 5
Paul Daniels, with one dropped point finished top and despite a heavy loss in his final game Ron Remblance's 5 points was enough for second.

Group 10
Craig Alexander and Billy Thurston had both qualified, having won their first 3 games, when they came to play each other in the last game, Billy won to finish top. Cameron MacGregor with 4 points and 38 shots made it through in third.

Group 11
Terry Davis dropped only one point as he finished top, with David Hurr finishing second on 6 points.

Knockout Rounds
First Round
Paul Daniels was off to the better start against John Whiting, 4-0 up after 2 he went on to win 10-3.

Cameron MacGregor was off to a flier against Billy Thurston and won 9-2 with an end to spare.

Robert Giblin against Basil Baker was as close as you would like, one shot per end Robert edged it 4-3 on the last.

Ken Drane dominated against Craig Alexander, winning 14-2 with an end left.

Terry Davis ran away from Cedric Bennett early on, winning 10-3.

David Hurr moved away from Mike Daniels bit by bit to win 7-3.

Brian Denny picked up 3 on the first end against Ron Remblance, but that was it for him as Ron won the rest of the ends to finish 9-3 up.

Peter Masters was always ahead against Chris Tilbrook but it was still only 6-2 by the end.

Quarter Finals
Again it was only 1 shot per end for Robert Giblin, this time against Ken Drane. Once again he won, relatively comfortably, 5-2.

David Hurr got revenge for an earlier group game loss against Terry Davis, winning 10-1.

Paul Daniels galloped away from Cameron MacGregor, 11-0 after 4 ends, Cameron got 1 back on the 5th but the game was over.

Ron Remblance got a good start against Peter Masters who the came back but at 5 ends Ron was 5-4 up. However 6 shots over the last 2 ends for Peter meant he won 10-5.

Semi-Finals
David Hurr raced away from Robert Giblin, 7 ahead after 3 ends he took an impressive 14-1 win.

Paul Daniels picked up the carpet quicker than Peter Masters, 8-0 up after 4 ends, it was 9-1 after 6 and the game was over.

Final
David Hurr (Knodishall) v Paul Daniels (Kelsale)
Paul was quicker to pick the mat up and was 3-0 up after 2, but David chipped the jack away on the third to take 2 and from then on he was pretty much in control. Getting the the jack early on was all important and Paul was left trying to push David's woods away, which never worked.

David took ends 3 to 6 to lead 6-3 and again trying to move the jack away from David's shot Paul went down 4 on the last to lose 10-3, giving David his first title and a double for the Hurrs.

The day's full results can be found here.

With 38 teams entered everyone was put into one big group to make sure that all the teams got 4 games.

From that the top 16 would go through to the Knockout Stages.

Round 1
Wenhaston led the way with a 15-0 win in their opening game. One shot behind were Knodishall G and a further shot back were Riverside B while Middleton E, Kelsale C and Kelsale A had 12 shots and Middleton C were the other team who had made it to double figures with 10 shots.

Round 2
13 teams won for a second time. Wenhaston were still leading the way, now with 26 shots. Middleton A & Knodishall G were two shots back while Kelsale A had 22 shots and Middleton E had 20. One more win for all those teams on 4 points would be good enough to see them through.

Round 3
Just 8 teams made it through the third round of games with maximum points. Middleton A led with 40 shots, Kelsale A had 39 and Wenhaston had 38. Further back Knodishalls G, C & D had 31, 29 and 26 respectively, Kelsale C had 23 and Knodishall I 22. These teams were all pretty much guaranteed to have made it through.

Round 4
In the end 5 teams finished with the maximum 8 points, Wenhaston, Kelsale A and Knodishalls G, D & I. Knodishall C were also unbeaten, having dropped just 1 point.

Through on 6 points were Middleton A & G, Knodishall A & K and Kelsale C.

Knodishall E, Wissett D and Orford all qualified on 5 points and the final qualifiers, both on 4 points, 36 shots for and 22 against were Darsham & Knodishall F.

Knockout Rounds
Round 1
Kelsale C and Wissett D were 3-3 after 5 ends, but Wissett took the last 2 to win 7-3.

Knodishall A picked up 2 maximums as they beat Knodishall K 15-1.

Darsham and Knodishall D was super tight all the way through, but Darsham edged it 4-2.

Halfway through it was close between Knodishall I & F but F edged away and took 5 on the last to win 11-2.

Kelsale A and Knodishall G never had much between them but Kelsale had just enough of a lead that they could afford to drop 2 on the last and still win 6-5.

Knodishall E moved away from club mates C in the middle part of the game and won 8-2.

Wenhaston continued to dominate their opposition, beating Middleton A 13-3.

Middleton G needed an extra end to beat Orford, which they did 8-7.

Quarter Finals
Knodishall F ran away from Darsham, notching up 10 shots in 3 ends to win 11-4.

Knodishall A and Wissett had to go to an extra end which Knodishall won for a 6-5 victory.

Yet another big win for Wenhaston as they hit Middleton G for an 18-1 win.

Kelsale A went out to a 5-0 lead after 3 ends, but Knodishall E fought back, outdrawing their opponents to pick up 5 shots on the last 2 ends and win 8-6.

Semi-Finals
Knodishall A (John Whiting & Gordon Bloomfield) v Knodishall F (Chris & Shirley Tilbrook)
A are off to a good start, picking up 5 on the 2nd end. 8-0 up after 3 ends means that they are able to control the game thereafter to win 12-4.

Knodishall E (Ken Drane & John Thredkell) v Wenhaston (Jon Jordan & David Hambling)
For the first time today Wenhaston get a run for their money. There's never much in it and Jon needs to punch one of his woods into the head to make an extra end of it, which he does and then takes one on the extra end as Wenhaston win 5-4.

Final
Wenhaston (Jon Jordan & David Hambling) v Knodishall F (Chris & Shirley Tilbrook)
The team that qualified first against the team that qualified equal last!
End 1 – Shirley finds the jack with her first. Jon can't get into the head and it's 3 to Knodishall.
End 2 – Same start for Shirley, but after that it's a but scrappy. Chris is 2 down and manages to turn one out and that's the way it stays. 3-1.
End 3 – Again Shirley starts well, while David is short on a long jack. At 2 up Chris' blocker is too wide but even than Jon can only get second with his last wood. 4-1.
End 4 – The first Knodishall wood is on the jack again. Although the jack gets moved that wood stays with it. Again Chris blocks but does a better job this time and they take 2. 6-1.
End 5 – Wenhaston desperately need to win the end. And with one wood to go they are holding 1, maybe 2. Although Jon doesn't get in it is indeed 2, the games not over yet. 6-3.
End 6 – Shirley again makes the better start but David plays it out with his last to hold 2. Jon makes it 3, Chris brings it back to 2, Jon gets back to 3 and that's the way it stays, all square, 6-6.
Final End – This time David starts well and Shirley is short. But she does exactly what she needs to do with her last, pushing the jack through to the back to hold. Jon's first two are just a bit too heavy and off the back of the mat. Chris musters an excellent blocker to take Jon's draw away, forcing him underneath and hitting the middle. Chris & Shirley retain the title with an 8-6 win.

The day's full results can be found here.

The 20th running saw another good turnout with 34 teams supporting the event, with plenty of teams from across Suffolk as well as ones from Norfolk and Essex to help us to raise money in aid of East Anglia Air Ambulance.

All the teams were placed in a single group, playing 4 times, with the top 16 qualifying for the Knockout Stages later in the day.

Round Robin
Only 2 teams won all of their games, Knodishall A and Knodishall E. Four other teams dropped just a single point, Kelsale B, Bealings B, Belstead/Snape and Stanningfield.

One other team was undefeated, Old Felixstowe, who won 2 and drew 2. They were one of 6 teams who finished on 6 points, the rest were Reepham Robins, Copdock & Washbrook, Knodishall B, Tithe Barn and Thurston.

URC Felixstowe were the only team to end up on 5 points and the final three teams to qualify each won 2 and lost 2 but had enough shots to sneak in, they were Middleton B, Knodishall F and finally Occold.

First Round
Knodishall E ran away from Copdock & Washbrook in the latter part of the game to win 11-3.

Belstead/Snape were ahead of Knodishall F by a couple of shots, but dropped 5 in 2 ends to lose 7-4.

URC Felixstowe were similarly ahead but lost the last 3 ends to Thurston who finished 6-4 winners.

Knodishall A and Stanningfield were all square when the whistle blew so they needed an extra end which went to Stanningfield who won the game 5-3.

Kelsale B were ahead of Knodishall B early on but Knodishall won the last 3 ends to take the game 6-3.

Reepham Robins and Tithe Barn were level 5 ends in but Tithe Barn took 3 on the 6th end and won the game 6-4.

Bealings B took a comfortable win over Occold, finishing 8-2 up.

Old Felixstowe finished up with a 11-2 win over Middleton B.

Quarter Finals
Stanningfield moved away from Thurston on ends 5 and 6 to take a 7-3 win.

Knodishall E took 3 on the first end against Knodishall F and won comfortably, 7-1.

Bealings B only dropped one end to Old Felixstowe, winning 12-4.

Knodishall B let Tithe Barn get a 4 shot start before drawing level only to immediately drop 5 shots and lose the game 10-4.

Semi-Finals
Bealings B were comfortably ahead of Tithe Barn after 4 ends and although Tithe Barn were strong in the last 3 ends Bealings had already done enough and finished 8-6 winners.

Although Knodishall E were off to the better start against Stanningfield on paper, in reality it was Stanningfield who were often in a better position. However a combination of not blocking when perhaps they should have and trying to block when they didn't need to meant that they didn't make the most of good positions. Although it was all square after 4 ends Knodishall took the next 2 and were able to control the last end to win 6-4.

Final
Bealings B v Knodishall E
Struggling to find line and weight on the first end nothing was particularly near but Knodishall just got one shot. The second end was an improvement with Don nudging the jack with his last wood to go from 1 down to 2 up.

The 3rd end saw Bealings holding one with the skips still to bowl, Don's first dropped a few inches in front, Chris couldn't better it and it was 2 to Bealings putting them 4-1 ahead. The 4th end started badly for Knodishall and got progressively worse, when Chris came to bowl his final wood he was all 8 down, so cutting it back to 3 was relatively good, but at 7-1 down the writing was on the wall.

With the jack edging further back Knodishall were holding one, maybe two as Chris came to bowl his first. A risky shot to send another of his woods in was decided upon, but he hit the wrong one, and sent the jack off to put Bealings 9-1 up.

Knodishall would need a big score but Bealings were happy to just get lots of seconds and restrict their opposition to just the one. 9-2 to Bealings.

The final end started messily with Bealings perhaps trying a little too hard to push the jack back, but in the end they did it and with half the woods still to be bowled it was all over. Bealings drove the jack into the corner and added another 5 to finish 14-2 winners.

The day's full results can be found here.

Many thanks to everyone who joined us and helped us with our fundraising efforts which this year raised £672.44.