Acle Indoor Bowls Club

The ladies’ B team is going straight back into the top league by winning the Thurne League, after County Arts failed to score the eight points required to win the title. It left the Acle team champions by half-a-point.

The ladies’ A side will have to watch captain Margaret Rowsell and her team next season.

The men’s A team is now in a good position top the County League, and only a disaster will stop them retaining the championship.

The men’s C team is also on course for promotion to Division Three and points at Diss tomorrow should help their cause.

Acle IBC bowlers undertook a smash-and-grab raid on the county silverware at the weekend, collecting four Federation Championship trophies.

The ladies’ final was an all-Acle event, with Geraldine Reeve facing Melanie Haylett. Mel emerged the winner, then rushed off to another venue for yet another competition.

The mixed triples final saw John Colcombe, Roy Himpleman and Marion Himpleman representing Acle. On their way to the final they had disposed of the reigning national champions.

This was the best final from the spectators’ point of view, as the lead changed regularly, as did the players, but the final two ends went to the Acle trio and another trophy was boxed.

Soon, another trophy was collected as Ashley Smith of Acle easily disposed of his opponent from King’s Lynn in the U25 catergory.

The final match was the mixed pairs, with Barbara Meeks and Denis Goodley representing Acle against the North Walsham pairing of Samantha Coverdale and Ian Wones.

The Acle pair went into an early lead, forcing their opponents into a positional change which worked for a time.

Acle came back and went into the last ends three shots up, and then secured another two shots to again take the silverware for Acle.

Acle players were also prominent in the final match in the Southern Counties Federation against Lincolnshire, an historic occasion.

Half the county side was from the Acle club for the first time, and playing on their own green recorded a massive win to set up a first-ever victory over Lincs to take Norfolk to the national finals to face the north of England champions.

All the competition winners represent Norfolk in the National Federation Championships at Newark at the end of the month.