Eastern Counties Carpet Bowls Association

www.englishcarpetbowls.com/eastern

On Sunday 13th April, Bedfordshire hosted the 2014 Six Counties Championship, at Braintree Leisure Centre.

In the end it was Cambridgeshire who held on to take the win for the first time in 5 years, but it wasn't without a few scares along the way and indeed the title could have gone in any one of three directions right up until the final session.

After only a couple of sessions Cambridgeshire, Essex and Suffolk were clear at the top and it was already clear that this was going to be a three horse race.

Meanwhile the Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire and Norfolk were involved in a tussle every bit as intense as the fight for the lead.

Befordshire's highlight was a great session against Essex which catapulted them ahead of their closest opposition, unfortunately that was a highpoint as they went 3 sessions without scoring a point. And although they finally added to their score in the final session, by that time they were stuck at the bottom of the standings.

Hertfordshire and Norfolk fought tooth and nail over fourth place all day. The two teams were never separated by more than a few points with Norfolk's highlight a 12-0 whitewash of Bedfordshire, while Hertfordshire will have been delighted to have run Cambridgeshire so close, taking 5 of the 12 points on offer.

In the end it all came down to the final session as the two teams took one another on. Going into the final games they were separated by just a single point with 8 on offer. And it was Norfolk that had the best of the session, taking wins in 3 of the 4 games to secure fourth place.

Meanwhile it was nip at tuck at the top. Although Essex had suffered that early setback against Bedfordshire the other 2 teams had failed to capitalise and Essex had clawed their way back into the fight by taking 4 of the 6 games against Suffolk to move into second.

The final session saw Cambridgeshire start 3 points ahead of Essex, but with the 2 teams playing one another Essex could take the title by winning 3 of the last 4 games. And with Suffolk just a point behind Essex they were still in with a shout if they won all their games and Cambridgeshire and Essex shared the points.

However Suffolk failed to do what was necessary and while Essex came close they could only share the points with a Cambridgeshire team who held their nerve to share the final session points to hold Essex off, allowing Suffolk to sneak through into second.

While both Essex and Suffolk could, and they might be thinking, should have won the title, in the end it was Cambridgeshire's superior consistency which told as all the others faltered at one point or another during the day.

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