Bowls City of Ely’s dream of a national club treble this season ended on Saturday when the men’s team suffered defeat in the Denny Cup at the hands of holders Wey Valley.

At this stage of the Denny Cup last year, Ely faced Wey Valley for the third consecutive year as holders of the trophy and lost their title with defeat by six shots. This year the story was much the same. In spite of Andy Easy securing a convincing 29-14 win, Ely lost the remaining three rinks and the match overall by seven shots.

There was delight for the club’s women, however, with a win against Riverain in quarter final of the Yetton Trophy.

And the men then combined with their female colleagues on Sunday in a quarter final tie against Desborough in the Egham Trophy.

The Berkshire club had won this competition for the last three years and had defeated Ely for the past two years at this stage but it was a different story on Sunday with Ely determined to put an end to Desborough’s long unbeaten run.

Ely were always in command and had moved into a substantial 24-9 lead after five ends. The lead was extended to 21 shots after 10 ends, with all four rinks ahead. Desborough rallied to reduce the deficit to 15 shots after 15 ends but Ely were in no mood to be denied and, with Nicky Brett in dominant form away and Andy Easy scoring heavily in the closing stages, Ely secured victory with a convincing score line of 83-57.

In the Yetton Trophy, Ely’s women were involved in a highly competitive match with Riverain. Neither team were able to exert an advantage of any substance throughout the match and in the closing stages the lead changed hands on several occasions.

With the home rinks having completed their matches - Sarah Seymour taking a win by five shots and Catherine Popple losing by two - it fell to the away rinks. Sarah Matthews suffered defeat by 20-13 in spite of a great individual performance. The scores were level with Ellen Falkner playing her last end and holding a narrow four-shot advantage. With the last bowl of the match, Falkner secured victory for Ely by a single shot to take the overall score to 68-67.

The ladies travel to Darlington on April 20 for a semi-final against York.