Reports

Match Reports

Friday 2nd May

So here it is. Our final match of the season. We needed to win this match 14 points to 0 to stand any chance of promotion into the second division. So how did we do? - Read on and see.....Our first set consisted of Andy M., Dixie and ‘edgehog. To begin with our teams were fairly well matched across the card. There were not many scores worth giving a mention to here except Dixie’s who managed to score a good 43 without a spare. This helped our cause greatly because we managed to win the first set by 9 pins and gaining 2 points for our promotion dream. Up next in the second set was Clive, Vice and Doug. This alas was not the set that Captain Woody wanted to play on such a crucial game, but this was due to about 3 of our players having a motorcycle meet on in Paignton (some people get all the luck!!). Both Clive and Vice just could not cut it so their scores were not quite as high as they would have liked - but hay, this happens in such a strange game! Doug, on the other hand, played well to hit a 13 spare on his final hand to ensure he ended up with our teams highest score of the night of 47 so well done to him. The REA fought on and stole the set from us by 7 pins and robbed us of 2 points. Thanks to B. Davis scoring 44 without a spare - this was their teams highest score of the night. So now we were both even on points, but we had a slight upper hand due to the fact that we were still 2 pins ahead in the game. Could we hang on to them and secure the needed victory? Our third set consisted of Kev, John C. and Grandad. This set was quite different to some we have played in the past because at the end of the set both of our teams had scored 105 to give us a draw on the set. This meant that we still had the same amount of points and we were still winning the game by just 2 pins. Alas we then felt that the game could be stolen from under our noses when we found that we were a player short so had to play a Low Score. This was ‘egehogs score from the first set, it was only 29 - it would be tough. So our final set consisted of Dave and Captain Woody. They both seemed to match each others score across the board. Captain Woody just had the upper hand to score a good 43 without a spare. Dave on the other hand scored 42 also without a spare. Our final set total was 114. Could this be enough to take the set and the game? The game could have gone either way, especially with our low score, but R. Crandon suffered a bit on his second hand down when he only managed to hit a single pin. Their set total came to 102. Yes! We had won the set by 12 pins. This meant that we ended the game with 11 points and a profit of 14 pins overall.

This meant that our team had amassed 212 points over the season. Unfortunately this was not enough for us to rise up into the second division. But it does mean that we should end up in the top part of the table overall. This means that depending on how the other teams do within the division will determine just where we end the season.

So that just about wraps this site up for this season. Remember to swing by later in the year for the start of the 2008 - 2009 season. During the break I will give the site a makeover and add one or two different items. I will not mention what these are in case I cannot get it to work.

So many thanks for your support in assisting with this sites popularity. See you in a few months - this will probably be near the end of August or the beginning of September.

Friday 25th April

So here it is. The penultimate match of the current season. We found ourselves playing against The Double Six. Last time we played against them at their alley we managed to score a good 12 points to 2 victory over them. Could we do the same again? Or could we do better? Read on and see...

We had to change round the first set a little from the norm of other matches due to Kev having to go to work. Rather than have him play in the second/third set he was up in the opening set. Our first set consisted of Andy M, Kev, and ‘edgehog. We just could not find the spot so our scores were a little on the low side ranging from 34 up to 37. Andy M. managed 37 which was good for him on our home alley. Kev, being on second, only managed 34. Our set total was only 106. P. Kendrick, A. Sweeting and J. Goldsworthy were our valiant opponents. They seemed to have the upper hand with them managing to score a rough average of 7 pins per hand. This ensured that they took the set from us and 2 valuable points. Their set total was 117. Due to this score they were 11 pins ahead. We were now being faced with what could almost be described as an uphill struggle. Our Second set consisted of Grandad, Doug and Andy G. They all played better than the first set. Their set totals were 45, 43 and 43 respectively . Our set total was 131. Playing against us was T. Webb, C. Ager and M. Vowles. I think that their victory on the first set was still ringing in their ears because they only managed to hit 36, 36 and 37 respectively. We thought that it could have gone the other way on the 4th hand where T. Webb hit a good 13 spare so well done to him. Those of you who are good on the old maths have probably gathered that we managed to win this set by a fantastic 22 pins. Totally changing the outlook on the match because we were now in the lead by 11 pins and we too had 2 points to our credit. Was this how it was going to go for the rest of the match? Up next was Dave, John C. and Dixie. Their scores were 42, 39 and 40. Again neither of them could muster a spare of any sort. They all came close on various hands but this was not quite enough. Our set total was 121. For the Double Six our opponents were J. McKenstry, R. Sweeting and R. Harris. They played a little better. Their scores were 33, 43 and 32. Surprisingly none of them scored a spare. This ensured that we again had a victory on this set by a fantastic 13 pins. Another 2 points and we were now ahead on the game by 24 pins. Could we smell success? Or was it something fouler? Read on and see. Our final set consisted of Lee, Vice and Captain Woody. This had to be the best set of the lot as far as we were concerned when Captain Woody hit a good 16 spare in his first hand down. He went on to score a good 44. Vice on the other hand had the best score of the night for our side and his personal highest score for the team this season when he hit a good 14 spare in his fourth hand down. His final total was an excellent 52 so very well done to him. Alas the Double Six had a player short so had to play a low score. Unfortunately for them it was only 32. The other two players played well. The highest score of the night and the set went to A. Matthews. He hit a 13 spare on his first hand down and a 16 spare on his fifth. He went on to score an excellent 55. Their set total was 121. Ours on the other hand was an very good 134. This as you can tell by now gave us the victory we so desperately needed by winning the game by 37 pins and securing again 12 valuable points overall.

It would have been nice to have a 14 - 0 win but we were happy with the 12 - 2 we did get.. This leaves it still very close at the top of the table for promotion. Our final match next week is to be played away at the Devonshire Road Social Club against Rea. When we played them last on our alley they walloped us 10 points to 4!! We should have won that one - but we were at home - so that probably had something to do with it!

Friday 18th April

So near to the end of the season and it is all still worth fighting for. Our opponents this week were the Division 3 champions, The Wanderers. They have only lost a few matches throughout the entire season too, we knew it would be tough, especially when we were playing on their alley. We did beat them back in a cup match in January so we knew that tensions could run high.

Up first was Biker, Andy M and ‘edgehog. We matched their scores on hand totals across the card until we had a stroke of bad luck when Des (aka Biker) only scored a 3 in his final two hands to give him a score of 28, this being a far cry from his excellent performance from last week where he scored a good 49. The Wanderers went on to win the set by 7 pins. Up next was Grandad, Dixie and Andy G. Again it was fairly evenly matched but Dixie hit a fantastic 13 spare on his second hand down to give him our teams highest score of the night of 50 so well done to him. Alas this was not enough to secure any sort of a victory due to P. Milsom hitting a good 12 spare in his third hand and a 15 spare in his final one. This powered him on to score their teams highest score of 53 so well done to him. Not wishing to be out done P. Mcadams hit a good 14 spare in his fourth hand down and he went on to hit a good 49. It was thanks to these good scores that they won this set by 11 pins to give them now a lead of 18 pins and now 4 points. Things did not look good. Into the third set and Kev, John C and Vince took the stand. John C played a good game to hit a good 43 without a spare. Vince on the other hand hit a good 13 spare on his first hand down and went on to score only 41. This proves that there is no justice in the game of skittles. P. Doughty fought back well and he too scored a good spare on his first hand of 15 and went on to score 45. D. Milsom also hit 45 without a spare and J. Milsom hit 46 again without a spare. We lost the third set by 13 pins. By now their lead on the match was a massive 31 pins. Could the anchor set pull the rabbit out of the hat? The Anchor set took the guise of Dave, Vice and Captain Woody. Dave played really well and managed to score a good 13 spare on his final hand down and went on to score a good 47. Captain Woody also scored 47 but his was without a spare. Our final set total was 131. Was this enough? We were up against A. Sherwood, B. Jenkins and S. Milsom. They all played very well indeed. The accolade for their teams highest score goes to A. Sherwood because he hit good 13 spare in his third hand and a 15 spare on his final hand. He went on to score a superb 60, B. Jenkins did not quite manage a spare but he went on to hit a good 48. Due to these fantastic scores we just could not make any dent in the lead that The Wanderers already had. They pulled another 17 pins from us to win the match by a huge 48 pins. Yes they also added the full 14 points to their already vast points cache from the rest of the season.

Friday 11th April

Licking our wounds from the last two matches we knew that we needed to play well if we wanted to stand any chance for highly sought after promotion into the second division along with the Wanderers. For our first set we welcomed back our Fred to play his first game of the season. He was supported with excellent efforts from Des aka ‘Biker’ and ‘edgehog. Des played very well indeed especially on his 5th hand down where he hit a good 15 spare which was our teams first spare for the last two weeks. He went on to score 49 which was one of our teams highest scores of the evening. Fred hit a respectable 44 and ‘edgehog hit 41. The Dambusters were not quite as lucky and only managed 108 between them. This gave us a nice early lead of 26 pins and two valuable points. Andy M, Andy G and Doug took to the alley for the second set. The weakest link on this set was Andy M who failed to score above 39. Doug on the other hand played really well and managed to score 2 spares, one on his first hand and the other on his 3rd. He went on to score a good 48 which was just 1 pin away from our teams highest score. Our set total was a good 129. The Dambusters, on the other hand, still did not fare so well. They could only manage a set total of 112. This gave us 17 more pins to add to our total and two more points. So we now had an impressive lead of 43 pins and 4 points going into the third set.. Up next were Lee, Vice and Vince. They all seemed to be fairly evenly matched over this set until in the 5th hand down Vice managed to get a good 12 spare. This helped him to get our teams second highest score of the match. He went on to score 49 which was only one pin away from his highest score so far this season so well done to him. Vince managed to score a good 41. We went on to score a good 128 for this set. The Dambusters fought back when M. Howard scored a good 44 without a spare and S. Dewey also scored 44 but his was helped by the fact he managed to score an excellent 16 spare on his 3rd hand. Alas this was not enough for them to ensure victory on this set either. They only scored a set total of 118. So once more we added 2 more points to our total and another 10 pins to our already large total. We were now 53 pins ahead in the game. What a fantastic comeback after the previous two weeks. How would the final set pan out? Dixie, Dave and Captain Woody took to the alley. Both Dixie and Dave seemed to be a little off the pace and only scored 36 each so it was left to Captain Woody to do the magic. He managed to score a good 12 spare in his second hand down and went on to score 45. Our final set total was 117. The Dambusters tried very hard to make an effort but alas they were a player short so were forced to play a low score, which was only 30, they had to conjure up some sort of assistance. A Turner came to the rescue when he hit a good 11 spare in his 2nd hand down and went on to score their teams highest score of 45. This was not enough to secure any sort of victory. Their set total was only 112. Ours on the other hand was only 117. This did not matter at all because we could add yet another 5 pins to our total profit and more valuable points. Our overall win was a victory of 58 pins. So we were, for this week, certainly, back on winning form.

Friday 4th April

As we move into the final five matches of the season, and being out of the running for any of the major cups we now find ourselves set to do battle for promotion into the second division to join the already promoted “Wanderers”. We were faced with The Tornadoes at their alley in the Bristol House Hotel. We felt fairly confident this week especially as we beat them last time at home, 12 points to 2 and were hoping to do the double to help keep our dream alive. Andy M, Andy G and ‘edghog were up first. Andy M. managed to score his best score of the season of 47 without a spare which was good because it turned out to be our teams highest score of the night. Could the others follow suite? Unfortunately this was not possible and we slipped to a set defeat of 14 pins and losing 2 points. All three of the Tornadoes hit spares which helped them to win this set.. The Tornados highest score was thanks to M. Doble with a 15 spare on his 4th hand. His final score was 52 - well done. Into the second set, Kev, Doug and Dixie took to the floor. Kev looked to be on good form when he managed 9 pins on each of his first three hands. Again there were no spares forthcoming for us but all of our team hit good 46’s. R. Withers of The Tornadoes hit a good 14 spare in his 4th hand down and went of to score a good 47. It was through our teams effort that we clawed back some pins and points to win the set. We managed to reduce the deficit of the first set down to a mere 8 pins and to gain 2 most welcome points. Into the third set Grandad, John C and Vice took the floor. Could they fare better? Again not a single spare was forthcoming for us, but surprisingly all three of our players scored 40! Alas this again was not enough to give us the edge when Adam Crawford managed a good 13 spare in his final hand down and went on to hit a very good 48. It was largely thanks to this that they won the set by 5 pins to increase their lead now to 13 pins. They now had 4 points to our 2. Things just did not look good. Into the final set, Vince, Dave and Captain Woody were ready and willing, could they manage to bring us back from the jaws of defeat? Once more they just could not find the mark to get a spare, although Captain Woody tried hard and managed to score a good 46. G. Horler of the Tornadoes was not going to let us have victory and spoilt our chances by hitting 2 spares, his first came in his second hand down when he hit 13 and the other came in the final hand when he hit a good 14 spare. This launched his score to a massive 51. They went on to win the set by 9 pins and another 2 points. They beat us by a rather large 22 pins. One thing that was quite impressive was that they had a total of 10 spares between them and only went on to win by 22 pins. We, on the other hand, did not hit any spares at all for the second week on the trot and another defeat. Our promotion hopes were now beginning to look slightly rocky. We are not downhearted, just committed harder to do better next week against The Dambusters on our alley.