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It was a good day for Suffolk
at the Eastern Counties Champion of Champions which was held
at Needham Market on Sunday, 10th May. As well as taking 2 of
the 4 individual titles they also won the team trophy in what
was a good warm-up for next month's National Champion of Champions.
The event brings together the
champions in the Singles, Pairs, Triples and Fours disciplines,
from each of the six member counties of the ECCBA. Each team
plays the champions from each of the other counties on a round
robin basis, with the points in each discipline being accumulated
to find the top county overall.
Singles
Colin Fellingham was representing the county, having been this
year's runner-up, in place of Mick Watkins who had also won the
Pairs title.
It was a difficult start for
Colin as he lost his first two games, against Hertfordshire and
Cambridgeshire (by just a single shot). But he came back for
a convincing 11-3 win against Essex, after which he beat Bedfordshire
12-3 and rounded off the day with a third win, this time against
Norfolk, 10-5.
Colin's final tally of 6 points
was enough to give him an excellent 2nd place, just 2 points
behind winners Cambridgeshire.
Pairs
Mick Watkins & Andy Gilder were flying the flag for Suffolk
in the Pairs.
Their first game of the day
was a 13-8 win against Hertfordshire, which was perhaps as hard
as they were pushed all day, during the rest of which they were
only going to conceed another 9 shots in 4 games.
Their second game was also
a close one, but in a different way, an 8-1 win over Cambridgeshire,
just 9 shots scored over 9 ends. Game 3 saw them take an 8-3
win over Essex, while the 4th game saw them really being to stretch
their legs with a crushing 19-2 win over Bedfordshire, the biggest
win of the day for an team.
With the maximum 8 points in
the bag so far they went into their final game, against Norfolk,
who were now the only other team who could now take the title.
Despite knowing that they could afford to lose the game by a
couple of shots and still end up as champions, they went on to
run out 11-3 winners and finish with a perfect record.
Triples
The county were being represented by Paul, Rita & Mike Daniels,
who started the day with an 8-3 win over Bedfordshire and then
went on to play Norfolk, a game which started badly as they went
7-1 behind early in the game, but they managed to fight back
and finally edged the game 9-8.
The third and fourth games
also saw wins, over Hertfordshire and Essex, 10-5 and 12-2 respectively,
by which time they were out of reach of any of the other teams
and had the title won. The final game was another win, 10-6 over
Cambridgeshire, to secure a perfect record.
Fours
As with the Singles it was the runners-up from finals day who
were in as replacements. Chris & Shirley Tilbrook, Ken Drane
and Val Game were filling in for the champions, who were unable
to attend.
This was destined to be the
day's most closely contested competition and Suffolk were off
to a winning start with a 12-8 victory over Bedfordshire. However
they had to settle for a draw against Norfolk, which nonetheless
kept them in the hunt. Their 3rd game saw them beat Hertfordshire
9-6, but they followed that with a loss against Essex.
Heading into the final round
of games there was a four-way tie, including the Suffolk, with
each of the teams in contention playing one another. Unfortunately
the last game against Cambridgeshire was another loss which saw
them finish on 5 points, albeit just 2 points behind the winners,
Essex.
Overall
It was a good start for the Suffolk team, with 6 points from
the first round of 4 games, which saw them tied with Essex and
Hertfordshire. Meanwhile Cambridgeshire were left in last place
having lost all their games.
Just 5 points from the next
set of games saw Suffolk move onto a total of 11, now in second
place, 1 point behind Essex. But a perfect 4 wins out of 4 from
the 3rd round, coupled with Essex managing only 1 point, saw
them fly out to a 6 point lead over both Essex and Norfolk.
Another 6 points in the penultimate
round saw Suffolk extend the lead yet further, to 8 points, meaning
that they would need just a single point from their last 4 games,
to take the overall title. As it was they took 6 points to finish
on 31 points, well clear of Essex's final tally of 23 points,
and secured the team title for the first time since 2005.
You can find
the full results here. |