The Inter-Regional Championship took place at Brean Sands and the Eastern Counties Region finished in 6th place in the 1st Division, missing out on 5th place by just 1 point to Chiltern.
In glorious sunshine, over 1000 players took part from sixteen regions around the UK. Southern region finished top with Kent squeezing into second place on points difference over Northern.
Welsh PA & W. Midlands were relegated to Division 2 while I.O.W & London were promoted to Division 1.
Best performance of the weekend was by Graham McDougall, Matt Tarbun & Frank Britt who were Team 8. They went through the whole weekend unbeaten winning all 12 games and were the top team of the championships.
The ECR region had a poor start on the Saturday, winning only 3 games out of 9 against the eventual champions Southern. Best performance on the first day was against Wales with 7 wins. Other than Team 8, Team 2, Chris Allen, Nessie Webb & Kim Lachani had the best team result with 6 wins out of 7.
Sunday saw another slow start with just 3 wins against East Midlands but the region picked up the pace with 7 wins against a strong Kent squad and scored another 7 wins against the Welsh. Unfortunately they couldn't maintain their momentum and faded in the afternoon sun to finish in 6th place overall.
Again, other than the unbeatable Team 8, Team 1, Sofiane Lachani, Simon Bird & Michelle Tarbun & Team 5, Matt Smith, Dean Little & Keith Flack had a good second day with 4 wins out of 5.
Charlie Littleton & James Hardy teamed up Daniel Baker from Southern region and bonded well to give some good performances. In fact their best game was a 13-11 win against the strong Southern region who had Great Britain juniors in their team. They also defeated the Welsh twice, 13-11 & 13-9. Well done boys!
In the Challenge Cup Adam Buxton, Lee Dodge & Colin Sams, Team 3, had an excellent tournament winning 8 games out of 11, helping the region to finish in 6th place out of 12. They won 5 of their 7 games on the Saturday, next best was Team 4, John Cartwright, Bob Lawrence & Charles Atkinson who got off to a bad start losing their first 3 games but rallied and won the next 4.
On Sunday Team 2, Bill Eve, Vince Schofield & Simon Doble matched Team 3 with 3 wins out of 4.
Well done to everyone who took part.
Thanks to Trevor Turner who did a sterling job as Team Manager and thanks to all the umpires & organizers for a well run tournament.