ENGLISH SUMMER INTER-COUNTY CHAMPIONSHIPS
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SOMERSET ARE SUMMER INTER-COUNTY CHAMPIONS
The 2001 Summer Inter-county Championship Final was held at the Arrow Valley Social Club in Redditch. The two finalist were Somerset led by Peter Ferguson and West Sussex led by Jean Armour-Milne. The first session featured the Singles and Fours. Ron Booty of West Sussex met Somerset's Phil Atkins on mat 1. It was nip and tuck to start with and after eight of the fifteen ends the scores were eight across. At that point Ron got the bit between his teeth and took the last seven ends to run out a comfortable 18/7 winner. Ron's compatriot Ken Clark had a much tougher time on mat 2. Once again the scores were level after eight ends only at five across this time. Ken could never quite break away from Somerset's Ben Lainton but still managed to win the match by a single shot at 11/10.
In the first session of the Fours, Bernie Deeble of West Sussex skipped Yvonne Tolly, Rose Jalley and Seton Wood to a good 12/8 victory over Linder Glover, Eric Bussell, John Alford and Ben Barham. Somerset finally got a small measure of success when Keith and Eileen Zoers, John Thompson and John Gubbins beat Bryony Wood, Trevor Sparkes, Marc Lancaster and Barry Fitch by nine shots to five. The first session was a good one for West Sussex and it ended with them leading Somerset by 6 points to 2 and by 46 shots to 34.
Somerset steadied a little in the second of the day's four sessions although they still failed to close the gap. In the Pairs, Ken Glover and Trish Wadham went down 2/10 to Nigel Short and Brian Mills. The other Somerset pair of Dinah Routley and Carroll Bussell also lost out going down 7/16 to Ray Harding and Bob Cummings. Somerset did rally in the Triples when Amy Lee, David Attwood and Peter Ferguson (capt) beat the West Sussex trio of Pam Clark, Alex Ayre and Peter Doughty 14/7. The other Somerset triple of Jeff Richards, Justin Haskins and Alan Berry beat Jim Orman, Tony Hills and Jean Armour-Milne 16/8. At the halfway point West Sussex led by 10 points to 6 and 89 shots to 81.
The first of the two afternoon sessions saw Somerset's Phil Atkins lose the second of his two games, this time by five shots at 8/13. His Singles running mate Ben Lainton got revenge for his first session defeat by beating Ron Booty 16/7. In the Fours, Bernie Deeble's rink couldn't maintain their first session standard and went down 7/10 to the rink of John Gubbins. In the other Fours game, Ben Barham's rink raced to a 10/2 lead before Barry Fitch rallied his West Sussex rink to force a creditable 10/10 draw. At the end of the third session West Sussex still held a two point lead at 13 points to 11 but Somerset had closed the shots gap to 126/125. With everything to play for in the last session Somerset took their chance and went for the kill. In the Triples, Amy Lee, David Attwood and Peter Ferguson took a superb 18/5 win over Jim Orman, Tony Hills and Jean Armour-Milne.
Team-mates Jeff Richards, Justin Haskins and Alan Berry went two shots better, beating Pam Clark, Alex Ayre and Peter Doughty 18/3. The Somerset Pairs didn't want to be left out of this high scoring session and they too went to town. Ken Glover and Tris Wadham tore into the West Sussex pair of Ray Harding and Bob Cummings beating them easily 18/6. Dinah Routley and Carroll Bussell met the stouter defence that was put up by Nigel Short and Brian Mills but still managed to run out 14/10 winners. This last session charge gave Somerset a resounding victory to make them the Summer Inter-county Champions. The final result was Somerset 23 points and 193 shots, West Sussex 13 points and 150 shots. The ESMBA Umpires Director, David Bubb, presented the team trophies.
Bob Morgan