IT was a red-letter day for Steve Tuohy's defending men's fours champions at the Great Yarmouth Bowls Festival - in more ways than one.Having returned to the final with an emphatic 30-18 thrashing of the Essex County team skipped by A Lyons, they were spurred by their young lead, Daniel Seabourne, into taking the rink with hair dyed the same bright red as their shirts.

IT was a red-letter day for Steve Tuohy's defending men's fours champions at the Great Yarmouth Bowls Festival - in more ways than one.

Having returned to the final with an emphatic 30-18 thrashing of the Essex County team skipped by A Lyons, they were spurred by their young lead, Daniel Seabourne, into taking the rink with hair dyed the same bright red as their shirts.

And any fears that they might have ended with their faces a similar colour were allayed as Tuohy's team, also featuring Daniel's father Tony and Lee Dickson, won by four shots against Cawston's Richard Dodds, Nigal Coverdale, Danny Page and Mark Riches.

A large crowd saw a high quality game evenly contested until the Acle father and son and their London team-mates grabbed a five in the 19th end to take an 18-11 lead.

It looked to be all over, but the men from Cawston responded with a four on the 20th end to trail by just two shots with one to play. But Tuohy's men held their nerve to pick up two shots on the last to retain their title, a fine achievement for Daniel at just 14 years old. In the semi-finals the Cawston men had defeated Bruce Hubbard, Tony Goodson, John Hunter and Kenny Breame 21-14.

There is a new name on the ladies singles trophy after last season's losing finalist Melanie Haylett of Caister defeated Downham Market's Ann Chambers 21-13.

To get there she had to beat two-times winner Chrissie Wadlow of St Lawrance, who failed to recover from trailing 7-1 after five ends and to lose 21-12.

In the other semi-final Chambers beat defending champion Liz Shorter (North Walsham) 21-10.

Action for the next two days features the men's pairs and the men's under-25 singles. Both competitions reach their climax tomorrow afternoon.