City Of Ely Through To Egham Final

City of Ely 97

North Walsham 82

THE City of Ely's unstoppable march to Egham Trophy glory continued unabated at the weekend as they scored victory over North Walsham in a tense semi-final.

In their toughest encounter to date, Ely were made to battle hard for the win, with the Norfolk side producing some sublime bowls to ensure Ely had to fight for every point.

The two home rinks made a steady start, skip Andrew Easy leading his team to a single shot advantage after five ends at 4-3, whilst newly crowned World Champion, Greg Harlow, and his team trailed by a narrow 4-2 margin.

Away from home however, it was an altogether different story as Nicky Brett and his rink of Carolyn Day, Sara Matthews and Wayne Bailey stormed into an astonishing lead of 13 shots without reply.

As the game progressed Ely began to take command, eventually opening up leads on three of the four rinks.

After 10 ends the scoreboard showed Ely 45-31 ahead and although playing well, North Walsham were not giving up without a fight.

After 15 ends Ely had opened the gap further by 77 shots to 45 and it looked as if the Cambridgeshire side were beginning to cruise to victory, North Walsham though, had other ideas.

They fought back hard with North Walsham skip Ian Wones, closing the gap fast on his rink. From being 13-0 down after five ends, he had pulled back to trail by only two after 18 ends, with his rink score at 23-21.

At one stage, the gap was reduced to a mere 12 shots across the four rinks, a nailbiting finish seemed inevitable as Ely were beginning to hang on. Then news came through from the away teams that Nicky Brett had collected six shots on his last end and with Jamie Reynolds scoring a four on his penultimate end, North Walshams' flame was extinguished and Ely were through to the final.

Ely now meet Torquay United in the final at Desborough, Northants on March 7.