Page 13 - Winter 2017-18

Norfolk 4:Layout 1 21-Dec-17 8:45 PM Page 1

In the quarter-finals they were involved in a classic 13
match against 2016 champions Kerry Greenacre & Sel-
wyn Goldsmith, which went to the wire. Chris Mann
showed great composure snatching victory with a bril-
liant last wood of the match when facing defeat.
In the semi-finals Cranston & Mann beat Ottewell
& Smail 13-7 with an end to spare. Neil Davidson &
Jack Pye stormed to a 16-2 win against Wymondham’s
Debbie & Jon Sparham in the last 16 stage before beat-
ing Simon Warnes of Horsford BC & Keith Cooke of
Halvergate 8-6 in the quarter-finals.
Davidson & Pye earned their place in the final with
an 11-5 semi-final win against Willard & Woods with an
end to spare. Chris Mann had previously won the Nor-
folk County Pairs title in 2011 with Andrew Stratton but
for Owen Cranston it was his first Norfolk Pairs title. Pairs Finalists
Norfolk County Singles Neil Davidson & Jack Pye
Norfolk County Singles
Gary Best retained his Norfolk singles crown again after coming through some very tight group
games yesterday and ended up beating Simon Willies 12-
5 in the final. East Tuddenham bowler Simon Willies had
lead 3-2 after three ends but the class of Best started to
show with the mat providing a straight line one side and
a swinging one the other where the Bob Carter player
was more precise.
The last five ends Best reeled off with a series of
braces and finished with a single. The third fourth playoff
was between four time singles champion Neil Davidson
of Hempnall and John Jeffery of Wymondham with David-
son easing to a 14-7 win having lead 9-0 after four ends.
The semi finals provided what could of possible
been the final had the draw played out differently as Best
beat Davidson in a high quality match with Best again fin-
Singles Runner-up ishing strong having trailed 1-3 after four ends won four
Simon Willies and Champion of the remaining five ends by 8-1 meaning the last end
Gary Best was not played.
The other semi final saw Willies comfortably beat Jeffery
13-4. Quarter final action yet again saw Best having to come from 7-0 down against Robin Amos
of Deaf Sports to come through 12-7 having won the remaining six ends with no reply.
Rob Cranston of County Council looked to be going well having beat Jon Sparham of
Wymondham in the preliminary match but came up against an in form Simon Willies to go down
10-3. David Lamb of Halvergate having qualified in top spot to be in the last 16 was eliminated 7-
6 by John Jeffery in the closest match of the weekend.
The last quarter final match saw Steve Easter of Harling, who claimed the scalp of last sea-
son’s runner up Chris Mann of Wymondham in the prelim match's go down 15-7 but the Harling
man had produced some notable performances.
Major casualities from the group games on Saturday were one of this season's county premier
team singles players Jack Pye who went out on shot difference to Dave Blundell of Wortwell
with Mick Tarrant of Harling winning their group. Jamie Forster of Bob Carter who was expected
to go through in his group was also dumped out by Bob Oatway of First Bus and Elaine Willies of
East Tuddenham who both won two games apiece.
Selwyn Goldsmith