Six Counties Charity Team Bowl 2010

Six Counties Charity Team Bowl 2009

On Sunday 27th September, Hertfordshire hosted the Six Counties Team Bowl, at the Ross Peers Sports Centre in Soham.

This annual event sees the 6 teams from the Eastern Counties playing one another in the Singles, Pairs and Triples, with each county putting up 4 teams in each discipline.

Round 1
The early leaders were Essex and Norfolk each of whom took 16 of the 24 points on offer from their respective opponents, Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire. Just behind were reigning champions Cambridgeshire who were also off to a strong start, taking a 14-10 victory over perenial rivals Suffolk.

Round 2
Essex continued their strong start with a 19-5 win over Bedfordshire, taking them onto 35 points, fully 8 points clear of Suffolk who were now second, following a 17-7 victory over Norfolk. Meanwhile Cambridgeshire were in third, just 1 point behing Suffolk, following a very impressive showing from their opponents, Hertfordshire.

Round 3
The third round of matches saw Essex stumble for the first time as the were soundly beaten 16-8 by Norfolk. The loss saw them drop all the way back to third place, albeit only 3 points off the lead which was now in the hands of Suffolk, following their 19-5 win over Hertfordshire. Meanwhile an 18-6 win for Cambridgeshire over Befordshire had brought them up to second place, just 2 points behind Suffolk.

The top 3 teams were now covered by a mere 3 points and following Norfolk's impressive win, it meant that the top 4 teams were all within 7 points of one another.

Round 4
The crucial match of the round was Cambridgeshire against Essex. A big win for either team was going to put the victor in a very strong overall position. And it all looked to be going Essex's way as they first won 3 of the 4 Singles games and then 3 of the 4 Pairs games, but Cambridgeshire made a remarkable come back to win all 4 Triples games and tie the match 12-12.

However that result gave the upper hand to Suffolk as they took on Bedfordshire and won 18-6, while Norfolk edged home 13-11 in front of Hertfordshire.

Round 5
Heading into the final round of games Suffolk were leading on 64 points, 8 ahead of Cambridgeshire and 9 ahead of Essex. However, with Suffolk and Essex playing one another it was possible that their positions could turn around while Cambridgeshire could still end up pipping both of them.

Bedfordshire were going to require a big win over Hertfordshire to be able to lift themselves off the bottom of the standings, but as it was the match was a 12-12 draw. Bedfordshire finished 6th with 37 points, while Hertfordshire were 5th on 48 points.

Cambridgeshire's chances rested on a big win against their final opponents Norfolk, and going into the final games for the triples they were still very much in with a chance, but they could only manage 3 points from that final set of games and although they won the match it was only by a score of 13-11. That result brought them up to their final tally of 69 points, but that wouldn't be enough to take the title and they would finish third while Norfolk were 4th on 63 points.

Meanwhile Essex went into their game with Suffolk knowing that they would need 17 points to take overall victory. They took 4 points from the Singles, followed by 6 points in the Pairs, leaving them needing to get 7 of the 8 points on offer in the Triples. In the end it was just too much to ask as Suffolk managed to get 3 points which was enough to win the event, despite Essex winning that final game 15-9.

As it was Essex finished second on 70 points, 3 behind Suffolk's final total of 73 points.

updated 3rd October 2009