Norfolk make flying start to season

The county first team has made a flying start to this seasons campaign in the Victor Sports Inter County Championships by following up last weeks impressive 13-2 home win over Cambridgeshire with a 14-1 away victory against Warwickshire lll. Ian Murphy, Julie Pike, and Katherine Cooper opened the match with comfortable two set singles victories, whilst Grahame Wells fought back from a set down to win in three. In the mens doubles, Murphy and Wells won both their games in two sets, whilst Justin Gerrard and Alex Wyett shared, defeating the home teams second pair in three sets but narrowly losing to the first pair

The ladies won all four of their level doubles, with Cooper teaming up with Toni Sturgeon and Pike partnering Helen Newstead.The team then maintained their total dominance of the match by winning all three mixed doubles.Gerrard and Sturgeon and Wyett and Pike had comfortable two set victories, although Murphy and Cooper had an uphill battle, just managing to come out on top in the third set. The team now travel to Worcester next weekend, full of confidence to make it three in a row.

* There was a very strong field in the boys singles at the Norfolk Under 17s Championships, which gave the organisers a few seeding problems and led to some very closely contested games.There were only two points difference in all the quarter-finals, three of which were won by 21 points to 19 and the other by 22 points to 20. The top two seeds were knocked out in the semi-finals, leaving a final in which Andy Carrier beat Craig Thomas 21-14, although Thomas had earlier beaten Carrier 21-20 in a group game.The plate competition was won by Ed Allen.The boys doubles was played on a round robin format, with the deciding game being won by Mark Robinson and Luke Cox, who beat Dan Farrow and Adam Stubbing 21-18.

The girls singles also produced some unexpected results. In the first semi-final Charlotte Crosby beat Louise Thacker 21-14 whilst, in the other, Serena Verney beat Sophie Piper 21-16. The resulting final saw Verney overcome top seed, Crosby 21-16 to take the title.

The girls doubles was played in one group, which was clearly won by Thacker and Verney, leaving Crosby and Jess Carter and Amy Sharman and Lauren Read to battle it out for second place - a contest which was eventually won by Crosby and Carter 21-20.

The mixed doubles produced some of the most exciting matches of the day. In the semi-finals, Carrier and Piper beat Cox and Read, whilst Thomas and Crosby overcame Robinson and Verney, leading to the final which Thomas and Crosby won 21-16.

* The countys Over 45s team got their season off to a great start with a very convincing victory over Cambridgeshire 11-1. Norfolk took all ladies and mixed games, only dropping one mens match. The ladies pairings were Jane Sheldrake and Andrea Berger and Jenny Longmore and Sandra Robinson, whilst the men were represented by Eddie Simmons and Adrian Skipper and Krishna Kumar and Ryan Folkard. In the mixed doubles, Simmons paired up with Sheldrake, Kumar with Longmore, Skipper with Robinson and Folkard with Berger.