Over the weekend of 4 and 5 August, the SCBA hosted the visit of the Durham county team.
On the Saturday afternoon there was a pairs competition at Needham Market, with every Durham bowler being paired with a bowler from Suffolk. Twenty eight pairs were randomly drawn into seven groups of four and there followed friendly, yet competitive group and quarter-final knockout games.

In the semi-finals Peter Wood (Durham) and Andy Pooley edged out John T Leonard (Durham) and David Mittell 7-4, and Shirley Watkins and Ian Clark (Durham) beat Carl Pearson (Durham) and Andrew Cooper 6-2.

The final started very well for Shirley and Ian, with four shots on the first end. Peter and Andy were unable to recover from that as Shirley and Ian controlled the game losing only two ends on their way to a worthy win by 8-2.

On the Saturday evening many of the Suffolk bowlers joined Durham at The Cedars Hotel, Stowmarket for an enjoyable meal.

On the Sunday the two counties met again at Needham Market for the county match.
Both were represented by six rinks, each rink playing four nine end games.

The team selected to represent Suffolk was:

S1: Sally Goodrich, Ann Hathaway, Jim Goodrich, Andrew Cooper
S2: Sue Jones, John Varden, Ralph Sadgrove, Sue Gilder
S3: David Ford, Trevor Bean, Mick Watkins, David Mittell
S4: Andy Pooley, Rita Runnacles, Ellen Grube, Tom Runnacles
S5: Peter Runnacles, Don Allum, Colin Fellingham, Steven Cain
S6: Sue Davey, Peter Fellingham, Andy Gilder, Neil Jolly

In the first session the Suffolk team got off to a great start and were all leading their games with five ends played. For S1, S2 and S4 those advantages were protected and they won 10-2, 12-9 and 10-4 respectively. S3 whilst losing the last few ends kept Suffolk unbeaten by drawing 7-7.

The second session didn’t start well for Suffolk. It was only S5 that took an early lead and despite losing some of the later ends they held on to win 11-8. S6 were involved in a close game but took control from the sixth end onwards to secure another win, 11-4. Unfortunately S1 and S2 were unable to recover from poor starts and they lost 10-9 and 10-6 respectively.

It was a far better start to the third session for Suffolk, particularly for S4 who shot into an early 10-0 lead. Impressively they didn’t concede a shot on their way to a 21-0 win. The other three games concluded with mixed results, S6 were comfortable 15-3 winners, S3 drew another game (8-8) and S5 were very unlucky to lose by the odd shot 10-9.

At the halfway stage Suffolk had an overall 16-8 lead.

The fourth session was another good one for the Suffolk team. S4 again led the way with another convincing win of 13-3. There were also wins for S3 (12-7) and S2 (13-7) who led early and never looked back. S1 were not able to complete the maximum return, getting off to a poor start and losing 12-7.

The penultimate session turned out to be Durham’s best of the day. In three of the games their rinks played the early ends well and led from start to finish. Three Suffolk defeats, S2 (12-2), S1 (10-4) and S5 (9-6). The home team’s solitary win was provided by S6 by 10-6.

With Suffolk’s overall lead back to eight points, Durham could still steal a draw by winning all of the last session games. The home rinks didn’t get off to the quickest starts but as the games progressed they all began to exert some control. The session and match concluded with a clean sweep of Suffolk wins, S6 (8-7), S5 (9-6), S4 (14-4) and S3 (11-6).

After a competitive and friendly day of high quality bowls Suffolk had won the match 32-16 (shots: 238-174), winning the Raymond White Challenge Shield for the eighth consecutive time.

All of the Suffolk rinks had performed well and contributed to a good win against an experienced Durham team. A particular well done to S3, S4 and S6 who were unbeaten on the day.

It had been an enjoyable weekend of bowls for all those that had taken part and it is hoped that Suffolk will make the return visit to Durham in August 2014.

Neil Jolly (County Captain)