On Friday 11 November the Suffolk team and their supporters travelled to Potters Leisure Resort at Hopton-on-sea for the National County Championships.

Ten other counties were also in the competition, Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Durham, Essex, Hertfordshire, Norfolk, Northumberland, North Tyneside, South Tyneside and Sunderland. Each county were represented by six rinks (fours), each rink playing one nine end game against all of the other counties, over three days of bowling.

With there being two further counties than previous years, the competition started on the Friday evening. Suffolk's first opposition were Norfolk, not the easiest games to kick off the weekend. It was a slow start from Suffolk rinks A, B and C but as the games progressed it was clear that the two would be shared, Suffolk's win was 10-4. The third game went to the final bowl, with the Suffolk rink securing a hard fought 8-7 win.

Rinks D, E and F started their weekend's bowling against North Tyneside. Three wins were hoped for here, but they would need to be earned. The Suffolk rinks all settled quickly and proceeded to comfortable wins, 15-4, 17-2 and 13-8. Ten points from twelve in the short evening session and Suffolk were satisfied with that.

The first opponents on Saturday morning for rinks A, B and C were Bedfordshire. Getting off to a better start than their Friday evening session, two of the Suffolk rinks ran away with easy 16-2 and 17-3 wins. The other game was far closer, but the Suffolk rink ground out a 7-4 win. A maximum six point return and a great start to Saturday.

Local rivals Essex faced rinks D, E and F in the next session and tough games were anticipated. After a tight start Suffolk controlled one game to ease away to a 13-2 win. The two other games remained close and when concluded the points had been shared, Suffolk scoring three shots on the final end to win 7-4 and losing the other 9-7.

Sunderland, the strongest of the northern counties faced A, B and C next. This session turned out to be Suffolk's worst so far, as they only managed the one win, 6-4 in a low scoring game. The other games were lost 8-2 and disappointingly a heavy 16-3.
After a break session for Suffolk, A, B and C had the opportunity to bounce back immediately against South Tyneside. They did just that, another maximum return, three wins with scores of 13-7, 10-8 and 12-4.

Hertfordshire provided the next opposition for D, E and F. Two of the games always looked like Suffolk wins and finished with a convincing 14-1 and a 10-4 victory. Unfortunately another maximum was missed, with the other game lost 11-4.

Rinks A, B and C were then on again, this time against the very experienced Durham team. Following up on their previous session they maintained their good form with another six point maximum return. None of the wins were comfortable though, 9-8, 10-4 and 9-6.

The final northern county, Northumberland were the opposition in the next session for D, E and F. Again the maximum proved elusive, with a game being lost. There were two comfortable wins though, 14-3 and 13-2, with a defeat of 7-4.

The penultimate games of the day were against reigning champions and Suffolk's main rivals Cambridgeshire. In a session of excellent bowls unfortunately rinks A, B and C were unable to come out on top. Only one win secured and that a last end thriller of 9-7.

In the final session of Saturday D, E and F had their games against Norfolk. This turned out to be a better set of games for Suffolk, winning two games 8-7 and 9-3 and stealing a last end single shot to draw the other 7-7.

Saturday had been a good day for Suffolk, overall the team had played well but there was certainly room for improvement. With 49 points Suffolk were sitting equal top with Cambridgeshire, both had a healthy ten point lead over Sunderland and Norfolk, with Essex and Hertfordshire a further three points back.

Sunday morning started disastrously for Suffolk when rinks D, E and F were fortunate to scrape just one win from their games against Bedfordshire. A poor performance all round gained a tight win of 8-7, with the other games lost disappointingly by 7-5 and 10-3.

North Tyneside were the next opposition for A, B and C. With an improved display Suffolk were back to winning ways with a maximum return. Convincing wins of 19-2 and 12-2, together with a 10-8 which needed a welcome five shot last end count to secure it.

A tricky session against Sunderland was next up for D, E and F who needed to find some better form. An improved performance followed but it was only good enough to share a quality session of bowls. Suffolk winning 11-7, drawing 8-8 and losing 8-5.

In the next session for A, B and C against Essex it was Suffolk who ran away with one game, winning well 17-1. The other two games were far closer, Suffolk edged one 9-5, but despite a terrific fight back the other was lost on the last end 11-9.

Against South Tyneside next, D, E and F were looking for maximum points. Their continued improvement in form resulted in the required six points. Controlling two games completely led to 11-1 and 13-3 wins, whilst the other was edged 8-7.

In the competition overall, as in recent years Cambridgeshire and Suffolk remained close at the top, with the former sitting top of the table. Suffolk then had their session break, which Cambridgeshire took full advantage of to extend their overall lead.

Durham faced Suffolk D, E and F. Whilst none of the Suffolk rinks could gain a significant advantage, three wins always looked likely. With confidence improving maximum points were secured with wins of 11-7, 10-4 and 10-6.

Rinks A, B and C were now looking to repeat that outcome against Hertfordshire. They came so close to doing so but unfortunately one game slipped away in the last few ends 9-7. However there were much needed wins in the other games by 10-3 and 11-6.

Cambridgeshire now had an overall six point advantage over Suffolk, before they faced each other in the penultimate session. To stand any chance of winning Suffolk really needed to win all three games and hope that Cambridgeshire slipped up in their final session. After some high quality games it was not to be, despite a great performance by D, E and F one game was lost 8-6, whilst the others were won 13-6 and 11-6.

Going into the final session of the event Cambridgeshire had a four point lead, but were expected to get maximum points against bottom team North Tyneside. Suffolk needed an upset there and for A, B and C to win their games against Northumberland. Suffolk were able to earn five points, with 11-3 and 10-3 wins and a drawn game of 6-6. Meanwhile there was not a bowls miracle, as Cambridgeshire won all of their games.

Despite being very disappointed to finish as runners-up again to Cambridgeshire, overall it had been a good weekend for the Suffolk team. There were some excellent individual and rink performances and their final points total would usually have been good enough to take first place.

The Suffolk team thank those who travelled to Potters and supported throughout a long weekend of bowls. They gave constant encouragement to the Suffolk bowlers and this was greatly appreciated.

Overall the finishing positions were:

Pts For Agst 1 Cambridgeshire 94 594 347 2 Suffolk 89 571 367 3 Norfolk 75 526 388 4 Essex 69 484 417 5 Sunderland 62 489 434 6 Hertfordshire 59 438 481 7 Durham 56 447 468 8 Bedfordshire 46 400 517 9 Northumberland 45 411 543 10 South Tyneside 37 382 537 11 North Tyneside 28 354 597

Neil Jolly (County Captain)