Page 38 - Summer Issue 2018 Final

Norfolk 3:Layout 1 30/05/2018 07:09 Page 1

David Lamb retains Bure Singles title
38 David Lamb retains Bure Singles title
The Bure Singles Championship Finals Night produced a re-
peat of last year with Halvergate’s David Lamb & East Tud-
denham’s Chris Mann meeting in the final hosted by
Horsford BC. It was an impressive last eight line-up that had
qualified for the finals night.
After the quarter finals had been completed, it was semi-
final time and the match between Chris Mann & Melly Woods
saw them tied at 5-5 after six ends. But after that Chris Mann
did not drop another shot as he completed a 13-5 win and a
place in the final yet again.
The other semi-final between David Lamb & Simon
Willies went to the wire. Lamb scored singles on the first three
ends to lead 3-0 but Willies proved a tough opponent and with
nine ends played this low scoring game was level at 5-5. With
all to play for on the final end, and David Lamb holding shot,
Simon Willies was tempted into using weight to try and snatch
victory but the tactic failed and the defending champion David

Bure Singles Champion Lamb held on to his one shot to win 6-5 and set up a repeat of
David Lamb last year’s final.
The mat was then moved into a neutral position diago-
nally across the floor for the final. With both players attempting to find the line on the first end
David Lamb claimed a single. Lamb opened the second end by drawing a forehand bowl onto the
jack and added a second and third to put Chris Mann under pressure. Mann then ran at the jack
but hit the block and Lamb drew in to hold a full house. The head was still quite open but Chris
Mann was slightly heavy with his attempted draw and his bowl ran past the head leaving Lamb 5-
0 up. By the fourth end Lamb led 7 - 1.
Chris Mann was now playing more like his normal self and
came right back into the game taking three shots on the fifth end
to cut the deficit to 7-4. He looked set for another good end on
the sixth before David Lamb drew in a perfect final bowl to lead
8-4. On the seventh end Chris Mann settled for a single rejecting
a chance to push the jack back for a possible three and another
single followed on the eighth end to cut Lamb’s lead to 8-6.
An intriguing penultimate end saw both players having to
draw close to the ditch line with the jack just in the ditch. The re-
sult was Chris Mann emerging with two shots and the game was
level at 8-8 going into the final end.
David Lamb got the early advantage by drawing two bowls
to the jack which forced an attacking bowl from Chris Mann. Al-
though he ditched the jack the end was still wide open and a Singles Finalist
measure had to be called for to decide shot after all the bowls Chris Mann
had been played. This left David Lamb with shot wood and he
had retained the Bure Singles Championship title after an excellent final which also completed a
hat-trick of Bure titles for Halvergate on successive evenings in the Bure Championships.
Josh & Cookie on another level
Josh & Cookie on another level

The Finals Night of the Bure Pairs Championships were hosted by Windows and the evening
turned out to be the Josh & Cookie Show as the Halvergate pair put on a superb display of short
mat bowls to lift the title. Keith Cooke has been one of Norfolk’s most successful skips in recent
years and his unflappable nature and sheer consistency made life difficult for his opponents
throughout the evening.