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» 2014 ECBA Champion of Champions

The weekend of 7th-8th June saw Suffolk's representatives competing in the ECBA Champion of Champions against players from Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Durham, Essex, Hertfordshire, Norfolk, Northumberland, South Tyneside and Sunderland.

This year the event was moved to Wolsingham, County Durham which, as anyone who has ever played at the Norbreck in Blackpool will be unsurprised to hear, provided vastly superior playing conditions.

The team were as follows:
Singles: Trevor Cain
Pairs: Steven Cain & David Ford
Triples: Tom Runnacles, Sam Runnacles & Clint Watling
Rinks: David Mettel, Andy Pooley, Jenny Soilleux & Don Allum

Singles
Sadly for Trevor he was up against some fearsome opposition who were all in excellent form.

Saturday was a particularly difficult day and he was only able to pick up the one win, although there was some satisfaction to be gained from the fact that it did come at the expense of Cambridgeshire.

Happily Sunday was a better day and two wins out of his four games saw him secure a creditable 7th place overall.

Pairs
For Steven and David in the Pairs it was a story of what might have been. Saturday went well with wins over Bedfordshire, Essex, Norfolk and South Tyneside, their only loss a narrow 6-7 defeat at the hands of Hertfordshire.

That was, however, enough to give them an overnight tie for the lead with Sunderland, although Cambridgeshire and Durham were close behind.

The fact that they would have to play all three of their closest competitors on Sunday was both a blessing and a curse. The oppostion would be strong, but on the other hand they knew that their fate would be in their own hands.

Unfortunately Sunday started badly as they lost to Sunderland, dropping them down to fourth place. But a big win over Northumberland, followed by a decisive victory over Cambridgeshire meant that they went into their final game against leaders Durham one point in arrears and knowing that a win would give them the title.

However the game did not begin well for them and by the time they got going it was too late. Suffolk lost the first 6 ends to trail 8-0 and although they got a few shots back at the end they could not do enough.

It was not all bad though, as their superior shots meant that they were able to finish as runners-up as the best of three teams tied on 12 points.

Triples
This was by far and away the closest fought of all the competitions and in all probability the closest in the history of the competition.

The lads started off in blistering form, tearing their way through their first three games with wins of 16-1, 15-2 and 12-2 against Hertfordshire, Norfolk and South Tyneside respectively, leaving them tied for top spot with Essex.

However Bedfordshire and Sunderland proved to be sterner opposition and resulted in narrow losses which left them in a four way tie for third at the end of Saturday, two points behind Sunderland and Bedfordshire.

Sunday morning saw a return to form as they thrashed Northumberland 16-2, followed by a 13-4 defeat of Essex which brought them back up to a three way tie for the lead as Sunderland and Bedfordshire both lost.

However their stay at the top was short-lived as they suffered another narrow loss, this time at the hands of Cambridgeshire, leaving Bedfordshire 2 points clear of a group of 5 teams, including Suffolk, all of whom were on 10 points.

Bedfordshire needed just a point from their final game against Sunderland to take the title. And it ws close, but they fell to a 7-8 loss and they finished on 12 points, along with Sunderland. Meanwhile Cambridgeshire won to take them on to 12 points as well, as did Essex and Suffolk.

Five teams all on 12 points and so it came down to shots and it went Suffolk's way, thanks to big wins early on Saturday and Sunday they finished 13 shots ahead of second placed Essex to keep the title in Suffolk.

Rinks
Much like the Pairs this might easily have gone Suffolk's way and perhaps should have.

Saturday was something of a disappointment, although they took 2 wins, including one over Cambridgeshire, the other 3 games were close but did not go their way. An 8-8 draw over Herfordshire and two losses, each 6-7 against Northumberland and Sunderland meant that they finished the day in fifth place, 3 points adrift of the leaders Cambridgeshire who had only lost that one game.

Sunday then was a day where the team could only win their own games and hope that somehow the other results went their way, just as it had for the Triples.

As it was they took three wins out of four, not enough to trouble the eventual winners Cambridgeshire, but it was enough to lift them up to the runner-up spot which they took ahead of Sunderland on shots.

Cambridgeshire finished 5 points clear having won all but one of their games, the one against Suffolk who would have been left thinking that having been the only team good enough to beat the winners they ought to have been able to gather a few more points across the weekend.

Team
Suffolk were never really in contention for the team trophy, spending the entire weekend slap bang in the middle of the standings. A better performance on Sunday saw them get to within a couple of points of the lead, but even then there were three teams above them and that was as close as they got.

In the end it was Cambridgeshire who took the spoils on 49 points, ahead of Sunderland (46) and Bedfordshire (42) with Suffolk finishing fourth on 41.


Clint Watling, Tom Runnacles & Sam Runnacles