The first National Finals event – the Mixed Fours – took place at Solihull on the 7th march. Three teams from the county competed – ( 1 ) Belinda Gibbs / Dave Grove / Maureen Tingle / Jim Tingle. ( 2 ) Yvonne Payne / Richard Rose / Sandra Felton / Richard Payne. ( 3 ) Jenny Gibbs / Trish Clifford / Alan Walters / Terry Clifford.
Belinda/Dave/Maureen/ Jim had tough opposition in the round robin series of matches and lost, – 5-7 against an East Sussex team, 5-11 against Norfolk, and 2-7 against Devon. They did not proceed to the knockout stages.
The two other teams did exceptionally well in the group stages, finishing top of their respective groups. Yvonne/Richard/Sandra/Richard narrowly lost to a team from Dorset 7-8, but won 8-0 against Northants and 10-3 against Hertfordshire. In the first of the knockout rounds they lost 3-9 to a team from Essex.
Jenny/Trish/Alan/Terry won all three of their group games – 14-6 against Surrey, 9-5 against North Yorkshire, and 7-4 against Cambridgeshire. In the first of the knockout rounds they lost 3-12 to a team from Avon.
The second National Finals event – the Over 55’s Pairs – took place on the 8th March, also at Solihull. Two teams from the county competed – Trish and Terry Clifford – and – Richard Rose and Richard Payne.
In the group series of matches, Trish and Terry lost 6-13 to a team from Norfolk, lost 6-8 to a team from Essex, but had a crushing 18-3 win over the team from Wiltshire. Unfortunately they did not make the knockout stages.
The two Richards had narrow defeats of 7-8 against a team from Buckinghamshire, and also Kent, but had a convincing win against a team from East Sussex by 12 shots to 7. Because of a superior shot difference they qualified for the knockout stages but in the first round of the knockouts were defeated by a team from North Yorkshire 4-14.
Because of the impact of the coronavirus epidemic, the remaining National Finals competitions have been re – scheduled for the beginning of September.
