The first leg of the Breckland League 5 Pairs semi-final between Connaught “A” and Wymondham was played at Connaught’s Attleborough venue with the visitors, as expected, taking a shots advantage back to their North Wymondham home for the second leg. But the all-conquering Wymondham side did not have it all their own way as Connaught won two of the five games and drew a third while restricting the shots deficit to just nine shots on the night. Connaught’s Jenny Moon & Bob Oatway got the home side off to a winning start beating Melvyn Barker & Debbie Sparham by 12-4 and Derek Lyles & Mike Minshull raised home hopes even higher beating Jack Marshall & Chris Mann 7-5. But the visitors hit back with Hayley Osborne & AJ Pye beating Elaine & Simon Willies 10-3 while Billie Barker & Jack Pye held the home pairing of Graham Etteridge & Roy Taylor to an 8-8 draw. But Wymondham kept their best till last as Steve Easter & Jon Sparham racked up a 13-1 win against S Pickett & Pat McDonald to establish a 40-31 shots lead to take back to Wymondham where this semi-final will conclude and decide which of them will face Harling in the final. Wymondham played their penultimate Breckland League match entertaining visitors Hingham with the league title already safely secured by Wymondham for yet another season. The home side were untroubled as they racked up another 100+ shots scoreline to improve their shots difference even further. Robin Frost, Jack Marshall & Debbie Sparham opened for Wymondham with a 31-4 win against John Chapman’s triple while Mary Fisher, John Jeffery & Chris Mann produced an identical 31-4 score on the other mat against Graham Tweed’s triple. Another 27 shots win was recorded after the break as Val Vardy, Simon Warnes & Jon Sparham beat Will Townsend’s triple 29-2 while David Chadwick, Steve Easter & Melvyn Barker won by 20-4 against Joy Townsend’s triple to complete a 10-0 win on points and 111-14 on shots. Hingham can only be relieved that neither World Championship Triples champions AJ Pye & Jack Pye were included in Wymondham’s line-up for the match or the shots for totals would have been even more damaging on the night. In the South Norfolk League Forncett won 8-2 away to Saxlingham in a close match where only three shots separated the teams at the finish. There was nothing to play for except pride between two teams near the foot of the table but it proved to be a competitive night of short mat bowls producing four close games. Rebecca Humphreys’ triple won 12-9, Joe LiRocchi’s triple won 12-11 and Tony Ottewell’s triple won 13-12 for Forncett while John Torbitt, David Beamish & Peter Cook scored Saxlingham Nethergate’s only win by 15-13. Hempnall sit top of the South Norfolk League on 96 points having completed all their fixtures. The only team with a chance of finishing above Hampnall are new SNL team Watton Expendables who have three games still outstanding. But Expendables will need to collect 29 points from the 30 on offer in those games to make sure of the title and after only collecting 10-0 wins in two of their nine games played so far this season that looks a difficult task.
Wymondham skip Chris Mann