Norfolk Premier’s travels begin with victory at Guildford

Norfolk Premier bowler Jack Pye. Picture: Teresa Goldsmith (Image: Archant)

In the singles both Jack Pye and Gary Best were in excellent form, collecting all 10 points. Pye won his games 19-8 and 11-10 while Best returned wins of 17-15 and 13-9, despite Surrey singles players Mark Jones and Rob Edwards keeping up the pressure throughout.

In the pairs, Simon Warnes and Jon Sparham were in no mood to take prisoners as they swept to an 18-4 win against Jan and Peter Smith in their first game and followed that with a 23-7 win against Paula Tilley and Richard Nicoll. John Turner and David Lamb added a 14-9 win in their second game to ensure Norfolk earned eight of the 10 pairs points on offer.

The only loss in the pairs was a 15-10 defeat of Turner and Lamb by Paula Tilley and Richard Nicoll.

The Norfolk fours also took eight out of 10 points, with Lewis Cranston, Robbie Lamb and Jason and Melly Woods winning their games 10-9 and 11-9, although Surrey skip Del Johns must still be asking himself how he did not earn at least a draw after the gods smiled on Woods when he delivered his final bowl on the last end of their encounter.

Owen Cranston, John Jarvis, Bob Oatway and Selwyn Goldsmith won their first game 13-8 and, despite losing their second, kept the game tight to ensure the bonus points came Norfolk's way.

The triples was the only discipline where Surrey earned the bonus points but Mark Linsdell, Morgan Warnes and Simon Willies won their second game 10-6 against Terry Osgood's triple while Kerry Greenacre, Debbie Sparham and Keith Cooke took five shots over the last two ends against Nigel Goss' triple to snatch a 13-13 draw.

Norfolk A had a bad day at the office as they were beaten 29-11 away to Cambridgeshire at March IBC. With key players John Jarvis and Robbie Lamb needed for Norfolk Premier duty at Surrey the previous day, changes had to made to the team, but at a venue where Norfolk normally have the upper-hand a win was still expected.

With Robert Elmore making a rare appearance for his home county in the singles, Norfolk A captain Mike Boswell of Windows knew he would be in for a hard opening game and Elmore showed his class as he impressively strode to a 20-10 win. In the other singles game Colin Coman of First Bus, brought in to replace Robbie Lamb, went down 22-12.

With both Norfolk pairs also losing in the first session Cambs took maximum points leaving Norfolk with a mountain to climb. Donna, Ray and Steven Lamb of Halvergate beat John Goff's triple in the next session but with all the other mats going Cambs' way Norfolk found themselves 14-2 down on points at the interval.

The third session again saw just one Norfolk win as Mike Boswell beat Charlie Waling 12-9 and Cambs took a 20-4 lead into the final session. That proved to be Norfolk's best session of the day as the Lamb triple won their second game of the day 12-11 and Joan Costello, Roger Steele and Graham Tweed won 17-7 against Goff's triple.

In the fours Jenny Walker, Roy Walker, Trevor Pinchen and Peter Walker were 10-2 down after six ends, but staged an amazing recovery winning the last five ends to snatch a 10-10 draw. Hayley Stratton, Terry Newby, Jean Woods and Karl Newby looked to be on their way to a win, leading Joe Peters' rink 12-4 after seven ends, but a complete collapse saw them concede 11 shots over the last four ends to lose by 15-12.