Page 28 - Winter 2017-18

Carpet 7:Layout 1 22-Dec-17 6:57 PM Page 1

Norfolk were under- COUNTIES
28 standably delighted with Pl Pts F A +/-
their second place finish, 1 Suffolk 48 77 437 275 162
their best ever showing in the 2 Norfolk 48 58 382 350 32
National Championships, so 3 Cambridgeshire 48 55 423 337 86
often we see them have a 4 Hertfordshire 48 54 393 342 51
good first day but fade away 5 Essex 48 50 384 353 31
on the Sunday, but not this 6 Sunderland 48 43 372 373 -1
time.
And with everything to 7 Durham 48 36 319 426 -107
play for in the final session of 8 Bedfordshire 48 34 282 399 -117
the weekend they held their 9 Northumberland 48 25 311 448 -137
nerve admirably.
But of course the winners by some margin and for the fifth consecutive year were Suffolk.
After a very strong Saturday, Sunday was not quite so good, but even so they outscored every-
one else on both days and had the title wrapped up with 3 sessions still to go. This is the tenth
time they have taken home the trophy, but even so they still have along way to go before they
match Cambridgeshire's tally of 15 wins.
Paul Daniels EBA Competition Secretary PHOTOS by Shirley Watkins

Carpet Bowls goes European
Carpet Bowls goes European

During a Festival of Carpet Bowls at Potters, along with the other folks who pop in from time
to time to see what's going on, there were some visitors from overseas. You may not be aware
that Carpet Bowls is a sport which is being played all around the world. And while it might not
be a huge surprise to hear that it is popular in places like Canada, Australia and New Zealand,
it is starting to get a foothold in countries a little closer to home.
In fact, countries like Norway, which is where the group in question had come from. They
were visiting for a couple of days as part of an ongoing dialogue with the ECBA which goes
back more than a year.
Norwegian Carpet Bowls

The original contact with us came from a representative of Bowls Sweden, Tommy Dahlgren,
who himself had been contacted by the Norwegians to help them get Carpet Bowls up and
running in their country. Although the game is widely played there is no universally accepted
set of rules, almost everyone has their own version. Even New Zealand and Australia, who
play each other at an international level, have different rules from one another. But Sweden
and now Norway have, importantly, chosen to adopt the English Carpet Bowls rules.
With the support of the Norwegian Directorate of Health the game had been introduced
with the aim of helping to improve physical health and, although it is still early days, they now
have several clubs and they have even played a match against Sweden.
Visiting England

Having contacted the ECBA Chairman, Mike Walker, the upshot was a visit to the UK where
they were able to get a look at the event and see how it was run. Following on from that, a
team of Norwegian bowlers came over to play against Bedfordshire. It was only a small group
and naturally they were a good deal less experienced than their opponents, but the fact that
they made the trip over here is remarkable in itself.
And so to this latest visit to Potters which was an opportunity to see the game being
played on a larger scale and comes back to the reason why the game was established in Nor-
way, because the group consisted mainly of officials from Norwegian Health. Their interest
comes from recognition that an ageing population needs opportunities to be more active and
ties in with an initiative from the World Health Organisation.