History for Harris at the National Indoor Bowls Championships

He followed up his outdoor under 25 open pairs triumph with sister Louise at Skegness in August by winning 21-16 against fellow junior indoor international Ed Elmore (Hunts), who had already claimed the pairs and triples titles. It was revenge for Harris, who had lost in the semi-finals of the pairs with Wayne Morris against Albert Corn and Elmore.

It was the first time a Northants player had won this title, and so he bows out of the junior category with two national successes in the space of a few weeks.

Martyn Dolby, bidding to win a fourth national indoor title, was beaten 21-13 in the senior singles final by Cleveland having demolished Hunts 21-2 in the semi-finals.

The other finalist was Adam Warrington, who, having played well all week, was disappointed with his performance in the singles decider where he lost 21-5 to Notts.

For the ladies, only Joan Robinson reached a semi-final, where she lost 21-10 to Notts in the senior singles.

Northants hopes of retaining the English Bowling Federation’s Derbyshire Trophy, the indoor inter-county championship, for the first time in their history ended in disappointment at Newark where they were beaten 111-82 by Durham in the delayed 2020 final.

Northants had one winning rink out of the four, with Paul Dalliday, Michael Jeapes and Simon Law registering a 34-14 victory.

There were narrow defeats for the rinks of Michael Humphreys, Adam Warrington and Roger Martin, and Richard Allam, Stephen Harris and Martyn Dolby by four and six shots respectively.

However, the rink of Mike Robertson, team captain James Harford and Tristan Morton suffered one of those days as they crashed 46-7.