Record haul of English National titles for Northants bowlers
Northants bowlers returned from Lincoln at the weekend with a record haul of three individual titles from the English Bowling Federation National Indoor Finals.
Ollie Jeapes and Martyn Dolby both retained their respective singles titles, while Paul Dalliday, Simon Law and Tristan Morton won the rinks championship. Law and Morton also won it in 2015 with Neil Wright.
Dalliday and Law were close to achieving a title double, losing in the final of the mixed rinks with Louise Harris.
Rising star Jeapes has now won the junior indoor singles title three times in the past four years and he is also the current under 25 outdoor champion.
He was imperious once again in defeating Lincs 21-17, Norfolk 21-8, Northumberland 21-11 and then Derbyshire 21-16 in the final.
Dolby had two nail-biting 21-20 victories en route to the final where he defeated host club manager Danny Brown 21-13.
In the rinks, Northants had close fought wins against Cleveland (18-16) and Suffolk (23-16) before running away with the final against Notts, winning 26-8.
Apart from those three titles and one beaten finalist, Northants also reached two other semi-finals via Stephen Harris in the singles and Liz Hext and Tom Newman-Borrett in mixed pairs.
Spare a thought for Yvonne Monaghan who qualified in three events, but ended up playing all the opening rounds on the same day and so fatigue was certainly a factor as she bowed out of all three during a marathon stint on the green.
With Northants having retained the Eversley Trophy two weeks earlier, it means they matched last year's haul of four which included two team competitions.