THERE was further disappointment for Suffolk yesterday as county champion and England international Mark Royal lost his second round match in the Yoplait EBA National Singles at Worthing.

THERE was further disappointment for Suffolk yesterday as county champion and England international Mark Royal lost his second round match in the Yoplait EBA National Singles at Worthing.

A well respected and fiercely competitive exponent of the singles game, Royal was tipped to progress to the latter stages.

However, in the inclement conditions he failed to find his best form, losing to Paul Vamvokopoulous of Surrey.

In the first round Royal (pictured above) and 16-year-old Northumberland star Robert Chisholm were engaged in a crowd-pleasing exhibition of top draw play, the Rookery Stowmarket player winning a close encounter 21-19.

With hopes high of maintaining his form, Royal moved onto the slower C green where the conditions favoured the former international trialist from Cheam Village.

Vamvokopoulous, a determined and self-confident competitor with a reputation for knocking out big names, found more swing with his bowls on a damp surface and put Royal under pressure in a one sided second half.

With the score at 10-9 to Royal, the Surrey man's self belief became evident, taking a 13-10 lead before surging to 18-11.

Royal responded by narrowing the margin to 14-18, but in the rain could not prevent the eventual 21-15 defeat.

Royal was not the only surprise defeat as one by one the fancied few were despatched.

Twice world singles champion Tony Allcock was beaten 21-11 by Buckinghamshire's Les Richardson in round one, while current British Isles pairs champion Paul Barlow of Cumbria was also the victim of a surprise defeat at the hands of Peterborough's Rob Maplethorpe.

Normality was restored as most of the remaining internationals prevailed in the second round.

However, the third game of the day was to spring another surprise, England skip Danny Dennison of Devon was given his marching orders by Gary Morphet, the Wiltshire champion, winning 21-11.

Fellow current international Simon Skelton, now representing Derbyshire, lost to the experienced Julian Haines and in the biggest surprise in the last 16, triples champion Nick Cammock fell to Harry Brownsdon of the Isle of Wight.

Greg Moon, who won the indoor national singles two seasons ago, is the only current England star remaining in the competition which reaches its conclusion this afternoon.