Double delight for Haywards Heath after Croft bows out of champions contest

After an indifferent run, their Tuesday-night rinks sides each enjoyed emphatic overall victories, earning both eight points out of the 10 on offer.

In the Mid Sussex League, they beat Haywards Heath rivals St Francis 56-41, thanks to big wins for Anne Bosman’s and John Box’s teams.

Meanwhile, down the road at Beech Hurst, their John Spriggs sides also won two of the three rinks to claim a 52-38 win over Horsham.

The highlight was Heath’s 22-6 win on Rowland Morris’s rink, where the visitors failed to score on any of the last eight ends.

The previous night they went agonisingly close to the lion’s share of the spoils against Saltdean in the Nicholas Soames Trophy, eventually going down 49-47.

In an even contest, much rested on the game between Andrew and Gwen Croft and Sheila Daring and Richard Denne, where the Crofts fought back from 5-16 to trail by one as they approached the final end.

But the Saltdean pair picked up the two shots to win by three and help their team to the extra four points for highest aggregate score.

In friendlies, Haywards Heath gave Buxted Park a run for their money on their own green, finally going down 65-55.

Nicola Coles crowned an exceptional week by leading her four to Haywards Heath’s sole victory in the rinks. But two of the other three went to the 18th end before the hosts clinched single-shot wins.

Heath scraped home by the narrowest of margins against Nutley, winning 64-63 after the two teams shared the four triples contests.

Andrew Croft’s run in the Mid Sussex Champion of Champions competition came to an end when he was beaten 21-4 by Burgess Hill’s Mick Christian.

*Haywards Heath’s second internal competition of the season ended in victory for the trio of Elsie Wilding, John Milsom and Phoom Saihom, who defeated David Leach, Ted Prince and Jennie Evans 7-1 in the five-end triples final of the Carrow Cup.

Results:

Buxted Park 65, HH&BH 55 (Neville Dalton, Eileen Waddingham, John Milsom and Andrew Croft lost 16-17; Nicola Coles, Mark Gooch, David Leach and Elsie Wilding won 20-13; John Box, Gwen Croft, Mike McQuillin and Graham Brown lost 7-22; Dorothy Glasby, Rowland Morris, Jill Hatfield and Gerald Firth lost 12-13)

Nicholas Soames Trophy: Saltdean 49, HH&BH 47 (Peter Huntley and Linda Huntley beat Jilly McAleese and David Riddell 22-10; John Box and Jill Hatfield lost to Debbie Clements and John Friend 9-20; Andrew Croft and Gwen Croft lost to Sheila Daring and Richard Denne 16-19)

Saltdean 8 points, HH&BH 2 points

Mid Sussex League: St Francis 41, HH&BH 56 (Neville Dalton, Judy Aldis, Graham Aldis and Andrew Croft lost 12-19; Anne Bosman, Mark Gooch, Jennie Evans and Elsie Wilding won 24-9; John Box, Stephen Banks, Graham Brown and Marge Breading won 20-13)

St Francis 2 points, HH&BH 8 points

John Spriggs League: HH&BH 52, Horsham 38 (Basil Larkins, Wendy Alexander, Peter Burman and Phoom Saihom lost 15-18; Dorothy Glasby, Doug Cowell, Jill Hatfield and Clive Thomas won 15-14; Rowland Morris, Jacquie Kelly, Ken Starnes and Mark Howell won 22-6)

HH&BH 8 points, Horsham 2 points

HHBH 64, Nutley 63 (Bob Sutton, Paul Palmer and Jennie Evans won 25-7; Linda Huntley, Graham Aldis and Ted Prince lost 13-22; Neville Dalton, Judy Aldis and Bill Mann lost 11-22; Graham Brown, Jacquie Kelly and Marge Breading won 15-12)