County crushed by Norfolk power; BOWLS:Warwickshire are beaten on all six rinks in Liberty Trophy championships.

Byline: Harry Reynolds

WARWICKSHIRE were no match for defending champions Norfolk in the first round of the national Liberty Trophy intercounty championship as they lost on all six rinks to go down 155-87.

The match was played at the neutral venue of St Neots Indoor BC and the individual rink scores (Warwickshire names first) resulted as follows: Mario Rosso, Nick Ward, Mick Woodward, Bill Ward 22, J Howlett, T Dunton, M Riches, R Mason 24. This was the nearest that Warwickshire came to a rink win for after 13 ends they were well placed with a 17-11 lead. Things then went pearshaped for the Ward team as they lost the next six ends.

Chris Chapman, Paul Dale, Alex Lewis, Lou Whitehouse 17, W Pitt, N Moulton, R Norman, P Barr 20. Leading by the odd shot at 17-16 after 19 ends Warwickshire missed out on a result when they lost the last two ends with doubles.

Peter Day, Phil Chester, Tom Millership, Andy Smith 13, G Mallett, M Brown, J Roope, J Chesney 30. The Smith quartet's final tally was made up of one four, three twos and three singles against the two fives, one four, one three, three twos and seven singles of their opposite numbers.

Tom Saunders, Derek Vyse, Dave Sands, Ernie Over 14, J Ottoway, B Sadler, D Page, B Taylor 29. A tenth end seven and 13th end six against themwas the deciding factor.

Craig Carter, Graham Howes, Andy Bailey, Steve Smith 13, S King, P Shackloth, W Willgress, W Graves 26. Smith and his colleagues were in with a shout when with 17 ends until four losing ends of 3, 1, 1, 4 against them cost them the game.

Fred Coleman, Chris Allen, Brian Lever, Howard Wilkins 8, G Tubby, R Parker, M Turner, B Perrett 26. The Wilkins team's only score after 12 ends was a seventh end two against the opposition's one four, one three, two twos and seven singles which put them 18-2 ahead. Warwickshire ladies lined up against their Lincolnshire counterparts in the first round of the national Atherley Trophy inter-county championship at Solihull Indoor BC and although honours were shared with three winning rinks apiece it was Lincolnshire's higher wins that sealed their 130-112 victory.

Margaret Andrew, Yvonne Brom-field, Viv Hall and Joan Parfitt won 25-15 against G Harvey and partners; Thelma Maskell, Elaine Taylor, Joan Garner and Di Green won 23-14 against C Smith; and Di Wilkinson, Christine Thompson, Gill Cliff and Chris Griggwon 27-21 against O Wells.

On the debit side Mary Entwistle, Helen Slimm, Rita Gough and Jacqui Cook lost 26-16 against P Strong; Jean Petty, Di Thurlbeck, Maureen Edwards and Maureen Tims lost 25-7 against A Monkhouse; and Kirsty Richards, Chris Woolhead, Pat Humpage and Barbara Tew lost 29-14 against S King.

The national indoor championships got under waywith the bulk of the action provided by the first round of themixed pairs.

Erdington Court's Jean and Clive Smith were made to pull out all of the stops in gaining an extra end win over Welford's Liz and Ken Chedgzoy. Smiths were 16-10 ahead at 13 ends but the Chedgzoys recovered well to leave at 19 across after 21, only to lose a single and the game on a tense deciding exchange.

Another Erdington Court team who were hard pressed to gain a win were Beryl Cox and Brian Lees in their away tie against Coventry's Ros and Steve Taylor. With 18 ends played the Birmingham duo were hanging in with a 17-16 lead before checking out with a three and two singles to win 22-16.

Coventry's Helen Harris and Greg Sampson registered a remarkable away victory over the strong Thorn-field pair of Maureen Edwards and MickWoodard. Leading 5-3 at seven ends Helen and Greg then weighed in with seven winning ends to lead 21-3 and at that point the Thornfield team conceded.

In an all Welford match Christine Woolhead and Chris Pearce led 11-10 at 11 ends and thenwon six of the last seven to finish 25-11 ahead of Maria Rosso and Barrie Tyrrell.

Three Thornfield pairs to make further progress with home wins were Julie and Steve Smith, Beverley and Dave Sands and Joanne Sands and Brian Lever.

In the opening rounds of the national singles Coventry's Steve Tate won 21-18 away to Thornfield's Chris Allen, Tamworth's Paul Mason was a 21-15 away winner against Thorn-field's Roy Scott, and in an all-Solihull clash Gerry Magan beat Elliott Jude 21-6. Avon Valley's Greg Moon and Martin Timms turned on the style in their away first round pairs game against Thornfield's Liam Pearcey and Trevor Wells winning 28-11.

In an all-Thornfield tie in the over-60s fours Roy Scott, Mick Woodward, Dave Sands and Brian Lever lost the first four ends to trail 6-0 and thenwon all but four of the next 16 ends played to finish 22-14 ahead of Trevor Wells, John White, Dave Murley and Graham Howes.

Thornfield ladies met their Coventry counterparts in the first round of the national Mason Trophy double rink championship and came out on top 45-38.

Played at Coventry, Thornfield won on both rinks with Trudy Windsor, Joan Nicholson, Terri Hitchcox and Jean Dean finishing 24-18 up against Lil Glenn, Angie Shilton, Joyce Thompson and Norma Willey while Mary Entwistle, Janet Arkell, Yvonne Bromfield and Maureen Edwards beat Doreen Carron, Ann Kelly, June Ward and Pat Moore 21-20.