It brings me great sadness to announce the passing of Mr Bill Hutley at the age of 83. Bill was one of the founder members of Great Amwell carpet bowls club and was also their former club captain.

Bill competed to a very high standard at carpet bowls within Hertfordshire, competing for the county for many years and also winning the county singles title in 1999.

Bill's funeral service will take place at Harlow Crematorium at 1pm on Tuesday 27th May

Hertfordshire competed in the ECCBA Champion of Champions event at Hingham Sports Centre in Norfolk on Sunday 11th May 2014. Unfortunately none of the competing teams were successful.

For full report of the teams performance on the day visit;

Results & Stats > County Game Reports

For results from the days event go to;

Tournament Archive > ECCBA Tournament Archive > ECCBA Champion of Champions

For list of previous winners go to;

Results & Stats > ECCBA Tournaments > ECCBA Previous Winners

Congratulations to Little Hadham who defeated Symonds Green 6-2 (points) (29-36) shots at Saturday nights presentation evening. In a high quality tense final they managed to come out on top to win the title for the very first time preventing Symonds Green winning the event for the 3rd year in a row and 7th time in total.

A summary of each game is detailed below;

Triples

Little Hadham got off to a great start, they dropped a single on the 1st end but responded with a single on the 2nd and four shots in the 3rd end to open up an early 5-1 advantage. Symonds Green responded positively and reduced the deficit to 5-3 with a score of two on the 4th end. Singles were exchanged over the next two ends to leave Little Hadham leading 6-4 after 6 ends. A score of two on the 7th end and a single on the 8th end put Symonds Green into the lead for the first time since the 1st end of the match. Needing a single for a draw and two shots to take victory the Little Hadham skip had last bowl but Symonds Green held match lie. With all the back bowls the Hadham skip played a positive shot on his backhand to force the jack through and pick up three shots to take the match 9-7.

Fours

As in the Triples, Little Hadham started well with a single on the 1st end and two shots on the 2nd end to open up a 3-0 lead. Three consecutive singles on ends 3-5 pulled Symonds Green level at 3-3 after the 5th end. A crucial 6th end saw Little Hadham pick up three shots to open up a 6-3 lead. Two more singles for Symonds Green on ends 7 & 8 saw them reduce the deficit to a single shot going in to the last end. As in the triples the Hadham skip had last bowl but found themselves match lie down. Unfortunately for Symonds Green the outcome was the same as the Hadham skip was bale to turn in their wood for shot and take the match 7-5.

Going in to the singles and pairs Hadham lead 4-0 but only had a four shot advantage. Victory for Symonds Green in the singles and pairs and they would probably retain their title.

Singles

The Symonds Green singles bowler got off to a flying start picking up a three and a four on the first two ends to open up a 7-0 advantage. Hadham got on the scoreboard on the 3rd end when they picked up a single. However, another maximum count of four for Symonds Green on the 4th end all but ended the contest as they now lead 11-1. They continued to largely dominate the match and ended up winning the match 21-4. This result had kept them in the match and had crucially overturned the shots deficit form the triples and fours which just meant the pairs had to win.

Pairs

Hadham once again were fastest out the traps picking up three shots on the 1st end. Symonds Green responded with a score of two on the 2nd end to reduce the deficit to one. Four consecutive singles for Hadham on end 3,4,5 & 6 put them in a commanding position with a 7-2 lead. They secured the 7th end too with two shots to open up a 9-2 lead with just two ends to play. needing at least two shots to ensure that the last end was required the Symonds Green skip was only able to score a single making the score 9-3 with an end to play. Although they could have still drawn the match with a maximum count of six on the final end it would not have been enough to win the tie so the two skips shook hands and Hadham were crowned the champions.

Congratulations to Hadham who deservedly win the title for the 1st time (31st year tournament had been held). The previous winners can be found in Results & Stats > Hertfordshire Club League > SCAPA Cup : Previous Winners

This Sunday (May 11th 2014) Hertfordshire will compete against the other Eastern Counties (Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Norfolk & Suffolk) in the Eastern Counties Champion of Champions. The even is being hosted by Norfolk and is being played at The Sports Centre, Watton Road, Hingham NR9 4NN.

 The event sees the winners of singles, pairs, triples & fours from all six Eastern Counties compete against each other in a round robin format to determine who is the Eastern Counties Champion of Champions. Somewhat surprisingly we have had less success in this competition then we have in the English equivalent. We have only won four previous titles in this event (out of a possible 45). Our first two titles both came in 2006 when Neil Tuckey won the singles and Mick Cook, Shirley Davidson, Marilyn Cook & Pete Cook won the fours. In 2008 Rebecca Hearn & Neil Tuckey won the pairs. Neil repeated his 2006 singles success in 2011 when he took the title.

 The Hertfordshire Team who will be looking to add to the four previous titles is detailed below;

 Singles

Craig Hearn

 Pairs

Marilyn Cook

Pete Cook

 Triples

Andy Cobbold

Mick Cook

Rebecca Hearn

 Fours

Paul Harris

Jacqui Harris

Jim Forrest

Margaret Forrest

 What do you think are the chances of any of the above teams being successful on the day? Report/Results from the tournament will appear on the website later in the week.

Bedmond have secured the 2nd division title and propmtion to division 1 after beating Little Hadham 6-2 (+1 shots) in the final game of the season.

Congratulations to Bedmond who will be joined by Great Amwell in the 1st Division next season.

We now know the two finalists for the SCAPA Cup final which will be held on presentation night on Saturday 10th May.

Little Hadham who will be attempting to win the trophy for the very first time face Symonds Green who are looking to defend their title.

Little Hadham had to get past higher opposition in Braughing in the quarter final. They won the home leg 8-0 (38-24) and were able to score the point required in the second leg as they lost 6-2 (37-26) to advance to the semi final 10-6 (64-61) on aggregate. In the semi final they faced Shenley who were having a really promising second half to the season. They managed to secure a 12-4 (64-50) victory over the two legs and advanced through to the final.

Symonds Green faced Stanstead Abbotts who they defeated in last years final in the last 8. They lost the first leg 6-2 (46-17) but managed to battle back in the return leg taking it 7-1 (37-23) to secure on aggregate victory of 9-7 (54-69). In the semi final they faced Essendon and after a 4-4 draw away from home secured an 8-0 victory at home to win 12-4 (76-43) overall and advance to the final again.

You would have to say that Symonds Green go in to the match as favourites as they are the 1st division while Little Hadham are in the 2nd. However, Symonds Green struggled for league form this year and are arguably not as strong in previous seasons. Little Hadham narrowly missed out on promotion from the 2nd division and have already beaten higher opposition this season. Lets hope for a competitive match to get the presentation evening off to a good start.

The results of the SCAPA Cup semi finals are now in and are shown below;

Symonds Green 12 (76) - 4 (43) Essendon

Little Hadham 12 (64) - 4 (50) Shenley

After completion of the least county game the final season points total is now available to view under Results & Stats > County Season Performance

Rebecca & Craig Hearn both finished on 34 points (from 33 games) for the season. Rebecca just edged it on shots (+8) compared to Craig's (+/- 0). Congratulations on a good season. Also special mention to Jonathon Carter who finished in 4th place with 31 points, although this was from only 25 games as he was unable to play against Suffolk and in the 6 counties.

Hertfordshire competed in the ECCBA Six Counties Tournament at Braintree Leisure Centre (Hosted by Bedfordshire) on Sunday 13th April 2014.

After such a great league season we were confident of securing a higher finish then normal. A rather disappointing day saw us finish on 23 points in 5th position. The event was won by Cambridgeshire.

For a match report visit Results & Stats > County Game Reports

If you want to start playing more bowls and getting involved in some open tournaments then details of some up and coming ones are listed below;

Competition Venue Date

Over Fours Over Community Centre Sunday 18th May

Charity 4's Competition  Needham Market Sunday 15th June

Essex Carpet Bowls Weekend Potters Leisure Resort 30/01/15-02/02/15

Entry forms for the first two competitions can be found in the documents section on the website. For further details regarding the Essex Carpet Bowls weekend please contact Peter Orrin at [email protected]