Sunday 21st July saw the eighth running of the annual Heritage v South Norfolk match, this year hosted by South Norfolk at Wortwell.

Once again this year the Heritage team was not as representative as we would have hoped owing to other commitments. The team consisted of 3 blocks from Knodishall, 2 from Wissett and one each from Darsham, Kelsale and Middleton.

The opening session saw wins for Kelsale, Knodishall 1 and Wissett while the other 3 games were lost. The overall score sat at 6-6 with Heritage holding a small shot advantage.

The second session didn't go so well. Only Knodishall 2 were able to win while the other 5 were lost, three of them fairly emphatically. So halfway through the day andgoing into the lunch break South Norfolk held a comfortable 16-8 lead.

Heritage would need to win the next session to have any chance of rescuing the situation and that was exactly what they did. There were wins in 4 of the 6 games, for Middleton, Kelsale, Knodishall 2 and Knodishall 3 to bring the score back to a 20-16 lead for South Norfolk going into the final session.

This set of games were generally closer than what we had seen so far, unfortunately that wasn't so good for Heritage. Darsham and Kelsale were winners, Wissett 1 and Wissett 2 both drew, but unfortunately the other 2 games were lost, leaving the final score 26-22 (200-185) to South Norfolk to see them win for the first time since 2015 and take the trophy for the 5th time.

Only one team on either side won all their games, Kelsale and Old Buckenham, but while two of the South Norfolk teams lost all their games, everyone on the Heritage team contributed at least one point.

We'd like to thank South Norfolk for their hospitality and look forward to seeing them same time nest year.

Despite the Sports Centre out of commission for the entire duration of the season it was felt important that we should get at least one competition played.

Happily the Waterloo Centre was available, although with space for a maximum of 6 carpets it was decided that the Fours was the best choice.

Unfortunately the first available date was very late in the season which meant a limited entry of 12 teams, but that was enough for the venue and gave us the opportunity to give everyone plenty of games.

So the teams were split into 2 groups of 6 with the top two from each group going into the Knockout games.

Group A
With one game still to go played Kelsale were already through with 4 wins out of 4 but the remaining spot was still up for grabs.

Middleton B were second on 6 points and would play Kelsale in their final game. Two points behind were Knodishall A who would need to win while Middleton need do no more than match Knodishall’s shots, win lose or draw and they would still be through.

Although there were off to a good start Middleton eventually fell behind in their game, however Knodishall were also struggling and in desperate need of shots took the jack off on the last end and lost meaning that Middleton were through despite recording a loss.

Kelsale finished with the maximum 10 points, Middleton B finished on 6 points with Leiston St Margarets FC in a respectable third place.

Group B
With 3 games played Knodishall B were out in front on 6 points, Wissett B were on 5 and Wissett A on 3.

However the fourth round of games produced an upset as Knodishall lost to Wissett A. Meanwhile Wissett B won to go top on 7 points, leaving Knodishall B still on 6 and Wissett A moving on to 5. Two of those three would be going through and as with Group A the top two would be playing one another.

After a tight first couple of ends Knodishall picked up a 5 and then stormed away to a convincing win. However, while Wissett A won their final game they couldn't pick up enough shots to quite make second place.

Knodishall B finished the group top on 8 points, Wissett B were second on 7 points and 31 shots with Wissett A just 3 shots behind in third.

Semi-Finals
The random draw produced replays of both of the final group games and gave the runners-up a chance at revenge.

Knodishall B v Wissett B
Knodishall pretty much picked up where they had left off against Wissett, 4 shots on the first end gave them a great start and they never looked back. At 5-2 with 3 ends to go Wissett were still in with a chance but Knodishall won all three and finished winners 9-2.

Kelsale v Middleton
After Middleton picked up 2 on the first end Kelsael immediately hit back with a 3 and followed that up with a 5 to lead 8-2 after 3 ends. It looked like it was job done but Middleton had other ideas, they took one on the 4th, 2 more on the 5th and Kelsale were lucky to keep them down to only 3 on the 6th. All square at 8-8 with one end to go.

And it looked very much as if they would complete their comeback as they held one shot that was going to be very difficult to beat, however Peter produced exactly the shot that was called for, playing with a little extra weight to get a nick into the head to go 2 up. After that it was a question of blocking and Kelsale rescued the game with a 10-8 win.

Final
Knodishall (Chris & Shirley Tilbrook, Val Game and Ken Drane) v Kelsale (Mike & Paul Daniels and Kay & Peter Masters)
Knodishall were out to make it 3 Fours titles in a row in a near repeat of last year's final which saw them take a comprehensive win.

If was however a closer affair this time. Kelsale edged one on the first end, took 2 more on the second and one each on the thrid and fourth ends to take a significant, if not that comfortable 5-0 lead.

But with 3 ends to go Knodishall hit back. They were off the mark with one on the 5th and 2 on the sixth end meant they were not just 2 shots behind and very much in with a chance.

And as the end went on it looked like they were going to take best advantage of that chance as they had the 3 best woods. Kelsale needed to be into the head and again it was Peter to the rescue, a positive shot into the Knodishall woods sent the jack out and back down the mat to hold 2. Val replied with a draw across for shot but as Chris came to play his final wood that was still all they had with Kelsale holding 2nd and 3rd a foot behind the jack.

Unfortunately Chris couldn't get the second shot to force Kelsale to play their final wood as they settled for one down to win the game 5-4.

The day's full results can be found here.