Norfolk Ladies deliver bowls final glory at Skegness
The English Bowls Federation National Championships held in Skegness were Norfolk's most successful for years with eight players qualifying for finals.
Sadly only two of those successes were translated into outright victories – Marion Himpleman winning the women's singles title for the third time while Linda Blake, Val Moore and Sue Lee won the two-bowl rinks.
Himpleman had previously won the title in 2007 and 2009, and she repeated those triumphs with a 21-17 final victory over Cleveland's I Gillespie in one of four Friday finals featuring Norfolk players.
It wasn't such a successful day for the other finalists as Linda Blake lost in the Champion of Champions Singles by 21-9 to V Corn of Huntingdonshire, Tony Elvin lost 21-16 in the Veterans Singles to K Hallam of Nottinghamshire and Steve Covell, Blake and Bryan Sadler were beaten 22-7 by the Cleveland trio.
It was third time luck for Blake on Saturday, however, as she teamed up with Moore and Lee to win the 2-bowl rinks by 20 shots to 16 against the representatives of Suffolk.
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In Saturday's other three finals involving Norfolk players Andy Sayer lost 21-13 in the 2-bowl singles, Wayne Burrage lost 21-16 in the Champion of Champions singles and Janet Morton and John Laskey lost 19-12 to Suffolk in the Senior Mixed Pairs.
As well as their eight weekend finals Norfolk also had losing semi-finalists on Saturday with Vernon Hudson going out at that stage in the Secretarties Singles while Matthew Sparrow and Daniel Mills just missed out the final of the Open U25 pairs.
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• The North Elmham & District Bowls League KO Cup Final, between Whissonsett and either Sculthorpe or Angel, Swanton Morley will be held on Sunday September 9 at 10.30am on Elmham Institute's Green.
