Eastern Counties Carpet Bowls Association

www.englishcarpetbowls.com/eastern

On Sunday 15th April, Suffolk hosted the Six Counties Championship, at Braintree Leisure Centre.

From the second session onwards it was clear that the day was going to be an epic battle between Cambridgeshire and Suffolk.

Having come so close to the runner-up spot last year Norfolk will be disappointed to have finished 6th. Hertfordshire looked set to finish in 4th place, but their final game against Bedfordshire ended in a loss that dropped them to 5th and elevated Bedfordshire into 4th, a result which quite rightly left them overjoyed.

Meanwhile the reigning champions Essex finished well clear of the teams behind them, but some way off the leading two teams in a rather lonely 3rd place.

The first session of the day had seen Cambridgeshire pick up a maximum 8 points, while Suffolk had managed only one win from their 4 games against Essex. But Cambridgeshire's 6 point lead was the furthest apart the two teams were all day and it was a lead which did not last long.

The second session saw Suffolk pick up 8 points which Cambridgeshire could only manage 4. That brought Cambridgeshire's lead down to just 2 points and that was as far apart as the two teams were for the rest of the day.

The lead bounced back and forth between the two leaders session by session and by the time it came down to the last 4 games they were tied on points, although Cambridgeshire held an 11 shot advantage. And those last games were going to be between the same two counties.

That narrow shot advantage meant that, unless something remarkable happened Cambridgeshire would be able to take the title by winning two of the games, while Suffolk would need to get two wins and a draw to guarantee victory.

Early on the advantage seemed to lie with Suffolk as they held comfortable leads in 2 of the games and a narrow advantage in the third, while the other game looked to be going Cambridgeshire's way. However Cambridgeshire clawed their way back in all of the games in which they trailed while they headed towards victory in the remaining game.

In the end Suffolk held on for an 11-8 win and an even tighter 8-7 win in the games which they had led from the start and with the final game heading for what would be a 9-5 Cambridgeshire win, everything hinged on the one remaining game. Suffolk went into the final end 2 shots up but despite Cambridgeshire's best efforts they could only manage to pull the game back to a 7-7 draw which was enough to secure the final point which Suffolk needed to secure the overall victory.

A copy of all the day's results can be downloaded here.