DESPITE clashing with the area finals at Thurlton, organiser Ian Gosling manage to attract 18 triples to compete for the Chairman's Shield three-wood triples tournament at Bungay Bowls Club.

DESPITE clashing with the area finals at Thurlton, organiser Ian Gosling manage to attract 18 triples to compete for the Chairman's Shield three-wood triples tournament at Bungay Bowls Club.

It was sponsored for the fifth time by the Harleston-based builder Graham Johnson.

After two of the three qualifying matches in the first group only one triple had won both their opening matches.

Costessey Crown's Steve Tayt, John Arthur and Jackie Lutkin were that triple and by taking a five on the eighth end of their final match they cruised to an 11-8 win and a place in the grand final.

Steve's club-mates Ray Lutkin, George Webster and Kath Arthur picked up a four on the last end to win their last match 12-8 and finish a point behind Steve, but it was not enough to stop the Lowestoft Railway triple of David Morton, Ann Wilkinson and Charlie Page to sneak into second place by a better shot difference of seven to make their first appearance in the finals of a Bungay tournament.

The grand final place from the second group would be decided by the match between the all-Bungay trio of Roger Bullen, Richard Tuthill and Ann Swanston and the Earl Soham triple of George Marsh, Paul Catton and Joy Parker.

George's triple looked in control as they led 9-3 at the halfway point of the match. However, over the next four ends Roger's triple rallied and were down by just one shot going into the final end.

With just the skips to bowl Roger managed to gain a second shot, which George narrowly missed to move to give Roger a 10-9 win.

George's defeat left three other triples in with a chance of an appearance in the third place final. By winning their first game 32-3 Lowestoft Railway's Peter and Sue Woodgate, playing with Sparrow's Nest's Gwen Pickess comfortably held on to second place by 12 shots.

Rain showers, which had affected matches all day, continued their appearance into the finals.

The third place final was a rather one-sided affair as Peter, Sue and Gwen only allowed David, Ann and Charlie to score singles on three ends while they scored 12 in other seven to take third place.

Another bad start by Roger, Richard and Ann saw them down 12-3 to Steve, John and Jackie at the halfway point on the grand final. However, this time there was to be no fight back as Steve's triple kept the screws on and took the title for the first time by winning 18-3.

Bungay Bowls Club member Roma Went presented the prizes to the finalist, whilst Bungay chairman Dominic Belisario thanked all those who had helped make the day a success.

Meanwhile, two Bungay members were involved in the Suffolk EBF Area A finals at Thurlton over the same weekend.

In the U25 singles James Gosling lost in the semi-finals 21-12 to Darren Mann of Halesworth. James teamed up with Jack Powley in the Open U25 pairs and beat Georgina Marwood and Craig Parfett in the semi-finals, before losing to Craddock and Allen in the final.