National Championships 2008
The 2008 National Championships were held at the Norbreck Castle Hotel, Blackpool, over the weekend of 8th - 9th November.

At the end of Day 1, last year's runners-up, Suffolk, held relatively comfortable 5 point lead over Norfolk, who headed a tightly packed group of 4 teams who were covered by a mere 3 points.

It did not take long for Cambridge to overcome their overnight deficit and by mid-morning on Day 2 they were back at the top of the standings, although only by a single point over Suffolk, in what was quickly becoming a two horse race.

As the day wore on there was never much more than a point between the two counties as the lead swapped back and forth and going into the last round of games it was Suffolk that held a single point advantage.

In the end it all came down not just to that final set of games, but as each game finished it was going to be the final ends and indeed the final woods. Suffolk were first to finish their final game as they overcame a 3 shot deficit on the last end to take what had looked to be an unlikely win, finishing with 5 out of 6 points from their last round of games. At the same time Cambridgeshire had won 2 and were trailing in their final game but with their final shot turned the whole thing around with a draw that meant that they would tie Suffolk on points, but take the overall title, for the third year in succession, by virtue of their 626 shots to Suffolk's 608, an incredibly close finish after a schedule which had seen each team playing 54 games over the course of the weekend.

Elsewhere the final standings bore a remarkable similarity to that of the 2007 Championships, the only difference being Northumberland's 7th place finish at the expense of Hertfordshire.

Final Standings Pts 1 Cambridgeshire 76 2 Suffolk 76 3 Essex 65 4 Norfolk 62 5 Durham 59 6 Sunderland 58 7 Northumberland 53 8 Hertfordshire 45 9 North Tyneside 31 10 South Tyneside 15 Winners Cambridgeshire Photograph courtesy of Shirley Watkins