More trophies for champion

CHAMPION blind bowler Scott Vallance has picked up another trophy as his 2007-2008 indoor season comes to a close and battle commences in the open air from the end of April.

Vallance, 39, finished runner-up in the English National Association of Visually Handicapped Bowlers indoor triples contest, held in Bristol, writes Alex Hurrell.

The latest trophy will sit alongside a clutch of others at his home in Campingfield Lane, Stalham, including his award as last year's national outdoor pairs champion.

Vallance and his triples team mates, from Cornwall and Gloucestershire, won six games but lost 8-3 in the final to a trio from Somerset which included his regular pairs partner Pat Lovell, from Bridgwater.

They will be defending their pairs title in June at Skegness.

Vallance, who reached the quarter-finals in February at the national indoor pairs tournament in Scarborough, is also in training for Hastings in July when he and open pairs partner Gail Hepworth, from Lowestoft, hope to better the runners-up position they took last year.

North Norfolk rallied behind Vallance and his sighted helper Margaret Hannant last year when they flew out to Australia, thanks to a £7,000 fund-raising campaign, to take part in October's World Disabled Bowls Championships.

But Miss Hannant suffered a disabling stroke early in the visit and spent several weeks in Manly Hospital, near Sydney. She was able to fly back to Britain in December and is continuing to recover at home in North Walsham.

Both are members of the bowls club based at Rossi's Leisure Centre in North Walsham where Vallance plays in sighted teams.

When players go indoors again at the end of the summer, he will form his own team for the first time.

He said: “Without the tremendous support of Rossi's, my sponsors and my wife Sue, I wouldn't be able to do what I do. I've now played on the world stage and thoroughly enjoyed it.”