Saturday saw the Essex Short Mat Bowls 'B' team travelling to play East Sussex in Midhurst looking to get back on the winning trail after two defeats against Kent and London.

With the first half going to Essex by 11 points to five a tight finish was in prospect,but Essex had other ideas and powered their way to a second half win of 14-2 to record an impressive victory andsee confidence restored look good for the return fixture at East Hanningfield this Saturday.

The Essex points scorers were D.Pammant. 15-15 and 15-9, D. Mace 13-7 and 20-8 singles. B. Neil, R. Coster. 18-14 and 15-9. J. Orpin, K.Kidd. 9-17 and 22-10. pairs. P. Pammant, J. Hayes, S. Jackson. 10-6 and 9-7. R. Wills, J. Rix, A.Wills. 14-4 and 8-9. triples. L.Gregory, D.Gregory, R.Chisholm, B.Jackson. 5-10 and 17-2. T .Kidd, J. Mace, P. North, L. Franks. 10-6 and 12-5 in the fours .

On Sunday the Premier team entertained Suffolk looking not only for a win but as many points as possible due to the changes made in the League structure.

Essex faced two of the strongest teams in the country in Kent and Norfolk in their group and with Kent looking assured of first place it will be points that decide second place and progress to the knockout stages.

The first half duly went the way of Essex by virtue of winning both singles,both triples and both fours, but losing out on both pairs to leave Essex 12-4 ahead.

The second half was almost a carbon copy of the first with Essex winning with both singles and triples and one fours but again losing both pairs again and one fours to make it 10-6 to the hosts.

The final score was Essex 26 points (232 shots), Suffolk 10 points (143 shots).

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.