Bungay Bowls Club surpassed their expectations by beating the Felixstowe & Suffolk club in the final of Suffolk’s Bert Edwards Cup.

The competition attracted over 30 clubs from across Suffolk with Bungay having a walkover against Marlborough before beating Norbridge, California and Stone Lodge to secure their place in the final. After losing last year’s final to Lowestoft Railway the club were determined not to repeat the poor showing so captain Roger Bullen and vice-captain David Sheppard carefully selected a strong team.

Played at the Melton green Bungay chances of winning were not looking good after the first few ends of the three rinks, 21 end, two wood match.

While two rinks were neck and neck the rink of Philip Wright, Richard Tuthill, Terry Buck and James Gosling were 11-0 down. However, with Phil’s rink scoring a five, four and a two on three successive ends they drew level and then outscored their opponents over the remaining ends to win 22-18.

Despite a reasonable two-thirds of a match the rink of Colin Powley, Dominic Belisario, Arnold King and Richard Brinded lost shots over their final half a dozen ends to go down 19-5.

The rink of Roger Bullen, Keith Patrick, Reg Brinded and David Sheppard were the last to finish and were winning 21-18 with one end to play. David cast the jack and then bowled an excellent first wood which stopped an inch away in front of the jack. After that all bowls went past the jack as Bungay bowled positional woods and Felixstowe attempted to take the shots to force an extra end or win the match outright. With just the skips to bowl, Roger’s first bowl finished in a covering position, while his opposing skip hit David’s shot wood out of the head to hold shot. Roger’s last bowl finished as another second wood for Bungay. With his last bowl the Felixstowe skip tried to move the jack for three match winning shots, but missed his target to give Bungay the Bert Edwards Cup win by 57 shots to 56.

Suffolk Vice-President Stuart Pope presented the cup to the Bungay team. After an excellent after match buffet both captains thanked the Melton club for their hospitality and excellent playing condition of the green. Thanks were also expressed to the officials and umpires for attending the final and to both teams for their good natured approached to the match.

For one Bungay player it was a momentous occasion. Dominic Belisario is the only club member to have played in two winning Bowls England county cup finals as he was also present in the 1990 final where Bungay beat Christchurch at Framlingham.