The first day of the National Championships saw the coveted singles crown up for grabs and AJ Pye & Chris Mann of Wymondham and Ryan Fox of Halvergate all made great starts by winning their groups to qualify for the knock-out stages. AJ Pye beat Oxfordshire’s Shaun Morley 13-3, Greater Manchester’s Peter Thompson 17-2 and Wiltshire’s Andy Neal by 9-6 to finish with maximum points in Group 4. Chris Mann did likewise in a tough looking Group 7 beating Kent and England’s Jody Frampton 9-8, Cheshire’s Adam Smith 11-10 and Surrey’s Steve Tuttle 9-5. Ryan Fox was drawn in Group 14 where he began with a fabulous 18-1 win against Oxfordshire’s Neil Prior and then beat Rose Morrison of Devon 15-4. Despite losing his third game by 14-6 to Luke Jolly of Cornwall he had done enough to top his group. The first knock-out round, featuring the last 32 players, saw Ryan Fox exit the competition losing by 10-9 against East Sussex bowler Edward Law. But there was success for Norfolk’s other two qualifiers as AJ Pye stormed to a 16-1 win against Suffolk’s Colin Sharpe while Chris Mann beat William Clarke of the West Mids by 15-4. That took them into the Last 16 round where Chris Mann faced Craig Burgess of Essex who lifted the National Singles crown back in 2012. It proved to be a very close game that went down to the last end with Craig Burgess edging through by just 10-8. Afterwards Chris Mann commented that it was “small margins but that’s the way it is.” AJ Pye was up against John Mills of Herefordshire and he progressed through with a 10-7 win. AJ Pye then faced the defending English Singles Champion Matty Worden of Cheshire in the quarter-finals with many keen to watch this encounter. But it proved to be the end of the road for Wymondham’s talented bowler as he was defeated 14-6 with Worden in determined mood keen to hold on to his title. In the semi-finals Matty Worden defeated Matt Sifford of Essex by 11-2 while Nathan Caines of West Mids beat Craig Burgess 10-9. Matty Worden then completed a successful defence of his title by beating Nathan Caines 12-5 in the final.
Matty Worden of Cheshire retained his England Singles title