ENGLAND ARE CHAMPIONS

This morning as we awoke in Bridgend it was beginning to rain but nonetheless we arrived early at the greens hoping that the morning's results would go in England's favour. To retain the title, England needed Scotland to defeat unbeaten Wales and themselves had to beat Ireland by a large score. England retained the team that had lost narrowly to Wales, meaning Nicole continued as a reserve, but there were some positional changes at skip and 3. With Wales playing their third successive game on the same green and a vociferous home support the odds were in their favour but English hopes were raised as Scotland took an early lead whilst England were piling up the shots against a much less experienced Irish team. Wales, however, rallied and by half way trailed by just 1 shot. It was now very much out of England's hands but fortunately the Scots had title hopes of their own and ran out winners by 20 shots giving them 4 points and a shot difference of +56 compared to Wales' 4 points and +3 shots. This, however, proved insufficient as England roared to a massive 84 shots win (over just 4 rinks) against Ireland and their 4 points and shots difference of +97 saw them to the title.

After a rainy morning the closing ceremony was curtailed but this did not lessen the pleasure for the team and their supporters at snatching a victory which ensured President Michael Jennings was able to collect the trophy and be photograhed with a rather wet bunch of young ladies.