May 24, 20232 min read

Suffolk Success At Eastern Counties Finals

Suffolk Success At Eastern Counties Finals

The 2022 Eastern Counties finals, held over from last year due to the Commonwealth Games, were held at Linslade BC and Bletchley Town BC on Sunday 21 May 2023 and, we are pleased to say, a full contingent of Suffolk players took part.

The Eastern Counties Finals are open to the respective County BA Championship Finalists in the Singles, Pairs, Triples, Fours, Junior Singles and Two Wood Singles categories.

The Suffolk team comprised Mark Betts, in for the injured Adrian Beecroft, (Singles), Mark Royal and Mark Euston (Pairs), Ryan Claxton, Mark Cole and Shaun Cook (Triples), David Brown, Paul Bugg, Andrew Pulford & Aidan Riches (Fours), Eddie Addison (Junior Singles) and Ali Leeks (Two Wood Singles).

With some counties lacking representation, Mark Betts and the Triples team from Thurlton BC were straight through to the afternoon Finals. The morning session at Bletchley Town BC had Ali Leeks unfortunately losing to Mark Amos from Bedfordshire and Eddie Addison being beaten by the eventual winner of the Junior Singles Championship, Norfolk’s Dan Mills.

The morning semi-finals at Linslade BC saw Mark Royal and Mark Euston come from behind to overcome the Hertfordshire pairing of Charter and Kilford 25 – 12 and the Rookery boys besting Mark Plume and his Hertfordshire team 19 – 10.

The afternoon Finals were all at Linslade BC and the first to finish was Mark Betts, who went down to the 2021 champion and England international Ed Morris of Essex. Mark held his own up to the halfway mark before finally finishing 21 – 10 down.

Next off the green were the Thurlton BC team who kept the Triples title in the county by edging a tight game 16 – 15 over a Hertfordshire team lead by Glen Williams.

The two Marks were under pressure throughout their Pairs final and, despite a late comeback, eventually lost out 15 – 21 to Chris Muir and Andy Swann of Essex.

The last Suffolk game to finish was the Fours final against an Essex team led by Steve Mitchison. This was nip and tuck all the way through to the final stages when the Rookery set eased away finally winning 19 – 14

Congratulations to everyone involved and we hope we can continue and improve on this success in the 2023 Championships.

For more scoring details and the results of the games not involving Suffolk players, please go to http://www.ecba.online/