Cornwall, who last year won the national inter-county bowls championship for the first time in 100 years of trying, were celebrating again as they emerged victorious to retain the Middleton Cup .

The Duchy defeated Kent 111-108 in the semi-finals before going on to overcome Huntingdonshire 126-109 in the final at the weekend.

Afterwards, an ecstatic Bowls Cornwall president Michael Jennings, from St Austell, went on record to say: "That was a magnificent end to the four-weeks spell I've just spent supporting the county's bowlers at Leamington and Worthing.

"What a great team effort it was; I can't heap too much praise on Dave Perrin, the team manager, who has single-handedly dealt with team selection along the way and who has clearly made all the right decisions."

Although the Duchy's famous team spirit, which was exhibited in the form of grit and determination, plus a defiant refusal to surrender, were at the heart of this latest sporting triumph at Worthing, it was in reality an epic 'Tale of Two Rinks'.

Against Kent, Cornwall owed a great deal to the rink of David Drew, David Parr, Andrew Barron and Ian Drew (son of David), who laid the foundations for an impressive victory by returning a 35-9 scorecard against Mark Johnson's rink.

In the final, it was Mark Read's quartet – with Duncan Hayne, Roger Teague and David Roe at the front-end – who led the winning charge as they went on to inflict a crucial 39-10 defeat on Stuart Popple's men.

As in any team effort, when one rink is powering ahead it is the responsibility of the rest of the team to play defensively, with the intention of keeping the margin of any defeats at a modest level, and that is exactly how it worked out.

In the semi-final, John Stafford's rink posted a memorable 18-14 win over England's indoor team captain Andy Thomson while the rink skipped by Tim Phillips defeated that led by former England star Paul Barnicott 22-20.

Losses sustained by Norman Coad, Ian Ball and Mark Read were at a level that was containable and Cornwall held off a late Kent rally to win by three shots.

In the final itself, the Duchy were always in control, and at one stage led on five of the six rinks.

But in the end, however, they returned only two winning cards – that 39-10 landslide from Read's quartet, as well as the 18-11 win from Drew's rink.

Narrow defeats for Coad, Ball, Stafford and Phillips proved to be irrelevant: Cornwall took a 65-52 lead by the tenth end, raced ahead 99-72 with only six ends to play and then played time out successfully to win by 17 shots.

With expectations of a Devon-versus-Cornwall final, the weekend's big shock was the way Devon surrendered to Huntingdonshire in the semi- finals.

Rinks skipped by Rob Paxton, James Webber and Griff Sanders chalked up modest wins, but their 14-shots combined advantage could not cover the aggregate deficit of 19 shots on the rinks skipped by Sam Tolchard, Kevin Phillips and Phil Downs.

So, for the second year running, it was Cornwall who upstaged their neighbours in getting to the final, and went all the way to become national champions.

Cornwall bt Kent 111-108 (Cornwall skips first): J Stafford 18, A E Thomson 14; I Ball 11, G Charlton 23; N Coad 12, D Hanmore 20; I Drew 35, M Johnson 9; T Phillips 22, P Barnicott 20; M Read 13, A Dunn 22.

Huntingdonshire bt Devon 120-115 (Hunts skips first): S Popple 18, S Tolchard 15; R O'Flanagan 18, G Sanders 21; E Morton 25, P Downs 17; T Collins 19, K Phillips 12; T Morton 26, J Webber 31; N Brett 14, R Paxton 19.

Final: Cornwall bt Huntingdonshire 126-109 (Cornwall skips first): Ball 18, T Morton 22; Stafford 22, Brett 25; Read 39, Popple 10; Phillips 17, O'Flanagan 20; Drew 18, E Morton 11; Coad 12, Collins 21.

Cornwall: Rink 1: D Hayne, R Teague, D Roe, M Read. Rink 2: B Cotton, G Frost, C Binny, T Phillips. Rink 3: D Drew, D Parr, A Barron, I Drew. Rink 4: C Gay, A Laity, S Truscott, N Coad. Rink 5: I Powell, C Allen, N Stephens, I Ball. Rink 6: J Drew, G Matthews, S Lawer, J Stafford. Reserves: P Brooks, A Hawke, B Jenkins, D Prime.