On Sunday 28th September 2008 the SCBA hosted the Eastern Counties Carpet Bowls Association Charity Teambowl at East Bergholt.

The SCBA's chosen charity was the East Anglian Air Ambulance.

The competition involved the six Eastern Counties, Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Norfolk and Suffolk.

Each county were represented by four singles bowlers, four pairs and four triples, each playing one seven end game against each of the other counties.

The Suffolk team were looking to retain the trophy they had won last year at Braintree.

In the first session Suffolk opponents were last years runners-up Essex, it would be a testing start. After four close games Suffolk's singles bowlers secured two wins 7-6 and 5-4, a draw 6-6 and the other game was lost 7-5. Unfortunately the pairs could not follow up the good start, winning just the one game 8-7 and drawing a game 5-5. Last on were the triples and in these games the points were shared, Suffolk winning 12-3 and 7-6 and losing 10-6 and 7-4.

Overall the points had been shared with Essex, twelve each. A fair reflection of the games played, but a disappointing return from a Suffolk perspective.

Next up for Suffolk were Cambridgeshire, this was likely to be the toughest session of the day. Again the Suffolk singles bowlers got the team off to a great start, winning three of the four games, 8-4, 9-2 and 10-3. However again the pairs could not capitalise, with the outcome reversed. Suffolk winning just the one game 10-2 and losing the others. Finally, as with their first games the Suffolk triples shared the points with their opposition, winning twice 9-7 and 4-3 and losing twice.

Again overall the points with Cambridgeshire had been shared. A satisfactory outcome for Suffolk, but generally performances would need to improve in the last three sessions.

Norfolk were Suffolk's next opponents and true to form Suffolk's singles got the team off to a promising start. All four were unbeaten, winning two games 7-2 and 5-2 and drawing twice 44. Unfortunately the pattern of the earlier sessions was then repeated. Despite a number of close games only one pair and one triple were able to secure wins.

Suffolk overall had only scored ten points against Norfolk. As a result both Essex and Cambridgeshire now had healthy advantages over Suffolk, with only two sessions to play.

Hertfordshire were the next opposition. As with the previous session the Suffolk singles bowlers stayed unbeaten, but this time all four games were won, 7-2, 6-5, 13-1 and 12-3. In the pairs games that followed performances picked up and three games were won 6-3, 9-2 and 8-6. This seemed to inspire the Suffolk triples as they repeated that result, winning 8-7, 8-4 and 8-4 .

Suffolk had achieved an excellent twenty points against Hertfordshire.

However Cambridgeshire still had an overall lead in the competition.

In the final session Suffolk would probably need twenty plus points against Bedfordshire and they would also be hoping that Cambridgeshire would slip up against Essex.

Against Bedfordshire Suffolk's singles bowlers had their poorest session of the day, winning only two games, 9-3 and 8-5. However the pairs then went on and with improved performances, had their best session, winning all four games, 10-3, 11-1, 11-5 and 7-3. In the last games of the day the also improving triples were able to win three games, 7-2, 13-3 and 11-6.

To finish Suffolk had taken eighteen points from Bedfordshire.

Unfortunately that was not enough to earn first place, as Cambridgeshire had also finished well against Essex.

The final points and placings were:

Cambridgeshire	78
Suffolk	72
Norfolk	65
Essex	64
Hertfordshire	47
Bedfordshire	34

It had been a disappointing day for the Suffolk team, too many individual below par performances and dropped points against Essex and Norfolk in particular had proved costly. Whilst the last two sessions had been encouraging, the team had left themselves too much to recover and Cambridgeshire's early lead had proved to be enough for them to retain first place.

The Suffolk team are now looking forward to the National County Championships at Blackpool in November.

Neil Jolly (County Captain)

click here for more photographs

Suffolk County Team: Supported by Portmak Joinery