Norfolk proved far too strong for visitors Suffolk despite fielding a weakened side due to the unavailability of six of their top bowlers today at Hingham Sports Centre. The absence of bowlers of the quality of Gary Best, Morgan Warnes, Ryan Fox, David Lamb, Jon Sparham & Debbie Sparham would have proved fatal to the chances of many teams winning an I.C.C match but not Norfolk with a number of good back-up players available. This Norfolk team was still able to produce a solid 35-5 home win which summed up the gap in quality between the two sides. It clearly demonstrates the madness of the current I.C.C system with teams who previously played in the “A” Team section facing what are top Premier sides in some of the groups. Hopefully the new I.C.C system set to be implemented next season will do away with this happening and stop these so predictable and pointless matches taking place. Despite this Suffolk do have some excellent bowlers in their team like Michael Rice, Colin Sharpe and Bob Cousins etc for example but lack the overall strength to compete at this level. The maximum ten points were gained by Norfolk’s fours with Robin Amos, Ray Lamb, Karl Newby & Keith Cooke scoring 40 shots and conceding just 8 shots over their two games with wins of 16-2 and 24-6. Alfie Woods, a young man surely set to have a dazzling International future, Jack Gray, Chloe Suffolk & AJ Pye won their games by 14-9 & 12-5. The singles did almost as well earning nine points out of ten as Chris Mann won 21-4 & 15-7 and Neil Davidson winning a tight game 15-13 against the talented Colin Sharpe and drawing 12-12 with the always impressive Michael Rice. Both the Norfolk pairs and Norfolk triples collected eight points out of ten in their respective disciplines. Chris Willies & Jack Marshall scored big wins of 22-4 & 23-9 while impressive young Thetford bowler Kacy Suffolk and player-manager Jack Pye won their second game by 18-7 after losing their first game by 10-14. The triple of Will Townsend, Steve Easter & Melvyn Barker are more used to competing on these mats in Norfolk Over 60’s colours and that experience no doubt proved useful as they put together two wins of 16-3 & 11-7. The more familiar looking triple of Gavin Gray, Simon Willies & England international Jason Woods lost their opening game by 5-11 but returned to winning ways in their second game with an 18-6 win. In their next match Norfolk will be defending their British Isles Top Team title in Wales against Welsh champions Montgomery and Irish champions North West on the weekend of the 5th & 6th of December.
Wins of 21-4 & 15-7 for Norfolk Singles ace Chris Mann of Wymondham
Successful day at Hingham for Fours skip Keith Cooke