Norfolk's men tenpin bowling team finished a highly creditable sixth at the Inter-Counties finals in Nottingham.

A squad of seven consisting of James Tidd, Matthew Giles, Paul Cunningham, Simon Wooden, Daniel Frazer, Steve Utting and Robert Cater took on the best bowlers in the country in an event Norfolk had not qualified for since 2007.

The five person event consisted of five games on the Saturday and six on the Sunday in a round robin format with an additional 100 pins bonus for each winning game.

Norfolk got off to a solid start but an 1100 game by eventual runners up Surrey and an 1114 game by local rivals Cambridgeshire meant Norfolk lost the opening two games and were sitting in 11th place.

Norfolk finally got a win in game three against Lancashire with a 1019 game, but were well beaten by a strong Warwickshire in game four. At this point Norfolk sat in 10th place and it looked like it was going to be very tough to finish any higher than this.

The final game of the day was a close but low scoring affair against Yorkshire, which Norfolk came from behind to win by 10 pins which got them up to a respectable eighth place overnight.

Day two saw Norfolk come out firing on all cylinders, with an 1112 game with Simon Wooden scoring 237, Robert Cater 235, Daniel Frazer 224 and Paul Cunningham and James Tidd both shooting over 200 too.

The next game was against runaway leaders Dorset. Norfolk bowled 1061 with Paul Cunningham topping with a 245 and James Tidd making 225 but they still went down by 74 pins to the eventual winners of the event.

That ended up being the only game Norfolk would lose all day as they turned on the style in defeating Northumberland, Essex, Derbyshire and finally Kent.

A great team performance with Norfolk winning seven out of 11 games over the two days as they finished in sixth place, beating several teams that consisted of England bowlers.

Paul Cunningham 215.1 average, Simon Wooden 214.78 and James Tidd 214.50 were Norfolk's highest scorers over the two days but all the others backed them up well throughout the weekend and they all had their moments at times which contributed heavily into Norfolk doing so well.

Norfolk hold their trials for all their teams for 2016 at Namco Norwich on Friday at 7pm, Sunday, November 15, Saturday, November 21 and Sunday, November 29.