Norfolk retained the ESMBA Inter-County Championship title with a convincing win against Cheshire at the Melton & District Indoor Bowls Club in Melton Mowbray today. It has continued the superb run of success that Norfolk have enjoyed under the management team of Jack Pye and Gary Best that has already seen them become the first English county to win the Top Team title on Irish soil. This is the fourth time that Norfolk have won the I.C.C title and the first time that they have won it in successive years. It was felt that Norfolk went into the final as firm favourites, after beating West Mids and Dorset in the quarter-finals and semi-finals, and they established an early lead winning the first session 6-2. This was followed by four wins from four games in the second session to give Norfolk a superb 14-2 lead at halftime and it would have been difficult for any team to come back from that deficit. With one session to play the score was 22-6 in favour of Norfolk and their task had been completed. Maximum points were earned by Norfolk in both the pairs and fours disciplines. Debbie Sparham & Jack Pye won their games by 22-7 & 20-3 and Jack Marshall & Chris Willies won by 24-5 & 27-3. Kacy Suffolk, Simon Warnes, Jon Sparham & Keith Cooke won by 13-11 & 16-11 while the rink of Karl Newby, Chloe Suffolk, David Lamb & Gary Best won by 23-2 & 30-3. In the triples Jack Gray, Morgan Warnes & AJ Pye won 11-8 & 18-6 while Gavin Gary, Simon Willes & Jason Woods won their first game by 11-7 as Norfolk collected eight out the ten triples points on offer. Cheshire took six out of the ten points in the singles where Chris Mann won his second game by 15-11 and Ryan Fox won his first game by 14-7. The final score was 32-8 to Norfolk on points, 266-140 on shots. Pye and Best can now begin their plans for Norfolk to retain the Top Team title which is scheduled to be played in Wales later this year.
The Norfolk team pictured today in Melton Mowbray where they retained the ESMBA I.C.C title
Assistant Manager Gary Best and Norfolk Manager Jack Pye