Warm sunshine greeted 18 teams of triples to Bungay Bowls Club to compete for the Secretary’s Shield.

For Waveney Windows this was the 10th consecutive year that they have sponsored the event in their 40th year of trading.

Three triples won their opening two games in the first qualifying group and the top two met in their third and final qualifying match. Alan Buck (Oulton Broad), playing with brother Terry (Bungay) and Richard Tuttle (Bungay), held on to win 10-6 against Arnold King, John Hardy (Bungay) and Doug Skilling (Bungay) to retain their winning record.

Arnold’s triple held onto second place in the group by just two shots as their nearest rivals, the Bungay trio of Gilly Angus, Marion Frost and Richard Welch, lost their last match by two shots.

Only two triples won their opening two games in the other qualifying. The Bungay triple of Richard Allen, Jim Caplin and Bob Plumb held an eight shot advantage on shot difference over the Beeches/Mettingham triple of Neil Day, Alfie Broughton and Michael Whyte.

In their final game Richard’s triple scored four shots on both the eighth and ninth ends, before dropping two on the final end to win 13-6. In their last game Neil’s triple met the in-form Bungay triple of Roger Bullen, Keith Patrick and James Gosling. The latter restricted Neil to scoring just three shots, while they scored 19 to leap past Neil’s triple in the group and claim second place and a spot on the third place final.

In the match for third place Roger’s triple kept their winning momentum by out-scoring Arnold’s triple on seven of the 10 ends to take third place with a score of 12-6.

The grand final saw a great tussle between the triples of Alan Buck and Richard Allen, with Alan twice running the jack out of rink to force a replay of the end. Like Roger, Alan’s triple scored on seven of the 10 ends to take the title by a score of 15-6.

Tournament co-organiser Dominic Belisario presented the prizes.

Bungay lost an enthralling Suffolk County Millennium Trophy match to Cornard. The hosts won the two-wood singles and fours rinks, but lost the pairs and triples rinks. The match was decided by the four-wood single which Cornard won by scoring three shots on the final end to win 21-20.