Friday 28th March

 

The first match after Easter.  I think we must all have been suffering with the after effects of a chocolate overload from all those yummy Easter Eggs our players consumed last  weekend.  All I can really say to this weeks match as far as we were concerned is “What a Disaster!” We were playing against “The Nutters”, who, certainly up until this match, were floundering in the bottom position of the table.  We had beaten them, twice, previously this season and were looking forward to a resounding triple.  Sorry to say it just did not happen.  We had an ‘ok’ first set but without ‘edgehog being present we had to change round the sets a bit.  So, as you can imagine, the inevitable happened, yes, we lost!  But only by 9 pins!  S. Davis of The Nutters managed a good 10 spare on his final hand and went on to score a good 41.  So going into the second set with a 9 pin deficit and zero points, we needed help, and fast.  Doug, Vince and Andy G. took  the stand for the second.  Doug was suffering again and could not get the angle he wanted.  The saviour for our side in this set was Andy G. who went on to score a good 43 without a spare.  The Nutters just blew us away when they played, S. Hodgkins who played very well to hit 3 good spares of 11, 9, and 13 on his 2nd, 4th and final hand.  He went on to score a good 51.  This was bettered by S. Fletcher who hit a superb 17 spare on his first hand down and went on to score a fantastic 52.  This clinced the set by 18 pins.  They were now 27 pins ahead, and now had 4 points.  Onto the third set, could we redeem ourselves, ummmm don’t think so!  Kev, John, and Steve C were next up.  They could not hit the mark either so we only scored 107.  The Nutters on the other hand fared slightly better and score 109.  This gave them yet another 2 pins which brought their total profit to 29 and yep 2 more points.  The final set consisted of Dixie, Dave and Captain Woody.  They all played well with fairly matched scores across the card.  Dave just had the upper hand for our side and managed to score a good 45 which was our sides highest score and without a spare, so well done to him.  The Nutters also played well as a unit by matching almost pin for pin.  They again went on to win this set by 2 pins too.  So as you can see we were well and truly thrashed 14 points to 0. And they had 31 pins profit over us.

 

Wednesday 19th March

Knock-Out Cup Semi Final

 

We were looking forward to this match especially as we were in a fairly good position being in second place in the table and having beaten The Fortyniners in other matches.  The problem was that we had not played at The Hornets Rugby Club for such a long time so knew it would be tough.  So enough of the preliminaries and onto the report....

We were up first, wow did the balls seem small and the gaps between the pins look large!  Des, aka ‘Biker’ could not find the mark and suffered to score one of his lowest of the season which was a shame.  Andy M. managed slightly better to hit a reasonable score of 40.  Martin aka ‘edgehog managed a reasonable score of 35, but he clearly was not happy with it.  But it is only a game after all.  L. McDowell of The Fortyniners gave us a bit of a scare in his second hand down when he hit a good 16 spare and went on to score a superb 45 in total.  Not wanting to be out done W. Jenkins hit a good 11 spare on his fourth hand and went on to hit a good 40.  Alas this meant that they  won the set by 20 pins.  So we needed to play catch up - fast.  The second set  was going to prove even tougher.  Doug was not on his usual form which was a shame.  We desperately needed some good scores.  Alas the pressure was just too much and Doug also hit one of his lowest scores of the season.  Andy G. and Dixie both had bad sets.  But with all things being equal The Fortyniners also had a bad set.  I think that they began to feel sorry for us.  This did not help because they still won the set by 4 pins to bring their lead to 24.  Could we recover?  Read on to see...  Kev began with a 5 on his first hand, perhaps not the best possible start, but we could build on it.  John C. and Vince played well.  On Kev’s second hand he recovered well and managed to score a good 12  spare which put us back into contention.  He went on to score a good 44.  This was our teams highest score of the evening so well done.  On the other side of the fence R. Williams of The Fortyniners suffered a VC on his fourth hand down.  After the match their captain said that in previous rounds of this cup at least one of their team players had hit a VC which was strange.  It was thanks to Kev’s spare and the VC that we managed to win the set by 12 pins, slashing the deficit  to 12 pins.  This meant we had it all to play for.  How would it end?  Dave, Vice and Captain Woody came to the frame and battled on valiantly.  Dave managed to hit a good 10 spare on his second hand  which was only our second spare of the evening and one of our 4 higher scores of 40 so well done.  Unfortunately these scores were just not enough.  The Fortyniners seemed to match our scores fairly well.  We managed to pull back 2 pins on this set but it came too late.  If we’d had a fifth set then things might have turned our differently.  So our Knock-Out Cup run for this season is over.  We wish all the best to The Fortyniners in the final.  We need now to keep focused for the rest of the league games if we want to stand the chance of promotion into the second division.   

 

Friday 7th March 2008

 

This was set to be a fairly tough match this week bearing in mind the Electric Sports beat us last time we met them by 8 points to 6 way back at the end of October last year.  We had two players short on that match so we could well have won it.  How did this match go?  Read on to see....

It all began rather friendly with both of our teams being fairly evenly matched.  T. Allen  upset the apple cart slightly when he scored a good 12 spare in his second hand down.  He went on to finish with a score of 44.  Des aka ‘Biker’ came back with a 17 spare on his fourth hand down to put us back into contention.  He also scored a good 44.  We went on to win the set by 3 pins.  This gave us our first 2 points of the match.  How would the second set unfold?  Well we couldn’t seem to find the mark so did not have a very good set at all.  The Electric Sports on the other hand saw an opportunity and went for it.  This was done thanks to the good playing of C. West and M. Baines.  In the 5th hand down M. Baines managed an excellent 13 spare in his 5th hand down to romp away with their highest score of 50.  C. West managed a 12 spare in his final hand down.  He went on to score a good 49.  This was the clinching of the set.  They scored an overall set total of 140.  We on the other hand only managed 122.  They had struck gold and won the set by 18 pins and scored 2 points.  This ensured they were now 15 pins up to enter into the third set..  Could another victory be slipping away?  I think that The Electric Sports began to feel sorry for us because neither side managed to get any mentionable scores.  Kev managed to keep a focus to score a good 40 without a spare and Vince managed to scrape a 39 again without a spare.  The fortune cookie smiled on us and we managed to win the set by 9 pins.  This cut The Electric Sports lead down to just 6 pins.  We on the other hand had managed to secure a further 2 points to now give us 4 points.  None of us could have predicted what happened next..  To our surprise The Electric Sports could not make a final set due to one of their players being taken ill during the evening and had to go off.  This meant that they had to play two low scores.  These amounted to two lots of 30 to give them a final set total of 60.  We on the other hand had a full complement of players so played on.  Our anchor set consisted of Dave, Vice and Captain Woody.  Dave  played an excellent match to score a good 13 spare on his 5th hand down to go on and score 49.  Captain Woody must have caught second wind when in his 3rd hand down fired off a superb 18 spare to take our 18 spare pot.  He went on to get our teams highest score of 50.  It was all thanks to this we hammered the set to score an excellent 132.  This meant that we won this set by a huge 72 pins.  Due to The Electric Sports being 6 pins up on the game this slashed our proffit to a very respectable 66 pins.  We finished the game with a win over The Electric Sports and 12 points to our credit.  This made it 7 league wins in a row and 2 cup matches.  We were equal second in the CSL table so this victory ensured that we would stay there for at least another week or so.  Could promotion to the Second Division be on the cards?  We’ll just have to wait and see.

 

 

Friday 29th February

 

Wow, two matches in one week!  There is nothing like making me work for a living keeping this going!  Well with it being 29th February and it being traditional for women to ask their partners to marry them (if they weren’t already married that is!), I wonder how many did just that?  Anyway on with the show.  Still feeling tired from our victory on Wednesday and wanting to do well in this match because points make prizes so to speak, we needed to play well.  A. Quantock of The Persuaders began to dent our confidence when he hit  a good 13 spare on his second hand down to give him a good score of 43.  Our side were a little off the boil with only very few mediocre scores.  ‘Edgehog, seemed to be a little off the pace and suffered one of his lowest scores in a few matches which was a shame.  We managed to hold on to a little dignity to only lose the set by 4 pins and 2 valuable points.  Could our run of victories be over?  On to the second set and just where were we supposed to go?  A. Leonard of the Persuaders shocked us when he hit a fantastic 16 spare on his first hand.  Most of his other scores were of a good standard and he managed to go on to score an excellent 50 which was their highest score of the evening.  Lee played well in this set to end up with a good 44 with a 12 spare on his final hand down.  This was one of our teams highest scores of tonight's match which was a little low compared to other games we have played.  Thanks to Lee’s efforts we managed to hang on by a thread to secure a victory in this set by 4 pins and 2 most welcome points, which just happened to be the deficit from the first set, so now we were all level on the match at the midway point.  On now to the third set, this game could now go any way.  Tensions mounted with each ball bowled, who would be the victor?  R. Clark managed to keep a level head to end his set with a good 43 without a spare.  But D. Read on the other hand suffered greatly to end up with a score of 29.  Unfortunately they could only manage a score of 102 on the set.  Our side, on the other hand, held on to the job in hand to end up with a total of 121.  This meant that we were now a good 19 pins up on the game.  Could this be a repeat of the scores from the cup match on Wednesday?  Read on to find out.  The final set could be the make or break time of the entire match.  Dave, Vince and Captain Woody were again in the frame.  They all played well with a good average number of pins per hand.  Vince just had the upper hand to score our second highest score of the night of 44.  This assisted our set total of 123.  Alas the Persuaders were not as lucky.  The pins would just not fall for them and they slumped to a set total of just 90.  We were now 33 pins up on the set, so add this to the 19 on the last set, we were now a huge 52  pins up on the game.  Once more we had won the match and gained in total a huge 12 points.  If we keep up this form then we may end up near the top of the division and joining the Wanderers who are likely to gain promotion to the second division.  

 

Wednesday 27th February

Knock Out Cup Round 2

 

Well what can I say about this match?

 

We were already on a high thanks to the previous 6 wins!  The First set looked to us to be a whitewash when S. Davies from The Nutters hit a 13 spare in his third hand to romp on to score a fantastic 54, which turned out to be their highest score, not to be out done R. Harper also managed a spare on his third hand down but only managed a score of 47.  Martin, aka ‘edgehog managed to hit a spare in his fourth hand but alas it was not fruitful it only gave him a hand total of 9.  He managed to go on to get a good 45 to keep our dream alive.  It was only a dream because we just could not match the pace and suffered a set defeat of 18 pins.  Rather a large deficit so early in the game.  It has been known for us to turn things around.  Onto the second set.  Doug was on good form in the anchor position of this set.  He began cooking on his final hand down when he hit an excellent 13 spare which thrust him forward to a fantastic score of 54 which was our teams highest score of the night so well done to him.  The Nutters on the other hand seemed to lose a bit of focus and were defeated on the set by 26 pins to cut their profit almost in half to only 8 pins!  Could this be the turning point of the match?  Kev, John C. And Vince took the stand on the third.  Kev could not get his eye in, perhaps it was because it was Wednesday, but all pins count in this crucial match.  John C. played extremely well on his final hand to hit an excellent 14 spare to cruise on to a good 48, Vince on the other hand managed to get a 15 spare on his fifth hand to score an excellent 53 which was his personal best of the season.  The set total was a huge 140!  The Nutters could only manage 129.  This meant we stole 11 more pins to give us a good lead of 19 pins.  This meant that the game had been totally turned round.  How would it pan out?  Dixie, Dave and Captain Woody were in the driving seat for this final set.  Dave began well to hit a fantastic 15 spare on his first hand which  gave him a commanding position to end with a good score of 51.  R. Dunn of the Nutters fought back in his fourth hand down to score a good 15 spare to end on a good 52.  On our final hand we needed an 8 to draw the set and 9 or more to win.  Captain Woody did just what he needed and we drew the final set 131 pins each.  This meant that we were still 19 pins up at the end of the game.  So once more victory was ours and we were going on to play the next round in this cup.

 

Friday 22nd February

 

We knew that the Balmoral Steamers were a strong side to contend with, especially because we only just beat them last time we met on their alley way back in October last year.  To begin with there was not much that could be split among the teams with  similar ball by ball progress.  Martin aka ‘edgehog began the set well but lost a small amount of focus near the midway point.  He soon regained it and pulled it back.  Andy M. was on slightly better form than he had been to score one of his better ones of the season.  He skittled on to bag an average hand total of 7 to give him a score of 42 without a spare (sounds a bit like that classic book ‘The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’ where the ultimate answer is ‘42’ - anyway back to the story line!)  D. Avery of The Balmoral played well to score 37.  We went on to storm the set to win it by 12 pins.  This gave us 2 initial well earned points.  So moving into the second set.  Kev got off to a shaky start but managed to pull a small spark out of the bag when he managed a 12 spare on his final hand.  This gave him an overall set total of 39.  Doug followed suit to also score 39 but he did this without a spare - see there is just no knowing just how these games pan out.  Dixie also played well and he scored a good 40 overall, again without a spare.  B. Garn and D. Longden had better luck on our alley when they both managed to score 44 without spares.  This was enough for them to secure victory on the set by only 3 pins.  This reduced our cushion of pins to 9 and robbed us of 2 possible points.  Onto the third set where this game began to heat up.  Lee and John C. just could not find the mark, but just when we thought our time was up Steve C. Aka ‘Grandad’ hammered through an excellent 14 spare on his second hand down.  This gave him a fantastic score of 49 which also gave him our teams highest score of the night.  Alas this was not quite enough to secure any further points on this set because J. Warren, D. Blackwell and C. Murray all played well to all score above 40 without any spares.  Accreditation goes to C. Murray for scoring their teams highest score of  45 so well done.  This helped them to rob a further 7 pins from our already depleted profit to now give us a cushion of 2 pins to take us into the final set.  So now we needed to get some luck from somewhere because if we didn’t then all we could get from this match would be a measly 2 points - but we did not want that, we wanted victory!  Dave, Vince and Captain Woody entered into the frame, but the pins decided they would not be friendly so most of the time would not budge.  Dave, however, did manage to get a good 13 pin spare on his fifth hand down, but this still only gave him an overall set total of 36.  Unfortunately Vince and Captain Woody could not do much better.  Our overall set total was only 102 - was this enough?  I think that The Balmoral Steamers began to smell a victory and dropped their guard a little.  This was just a tad too much because it all seemed to fall apart for them towards the end when Tony D. suffered  greatly to slump to a score of 29 and a set total of 98!  Yes!!! - this gave us a win on the set by 4 pins giving us an overall win of just 6 pins.   At the end we had a fantastic well deserved win to give us 10 points overall.  So well done to all concerned.

 

 

Friday 15th February

 

I think that The Lamb Shanks were still getting over their valentine celebrations from the previous night.  When I looked at the main CSL site and saw that they had scored a 14 0 victory last week I thought how would we fayre this time against them on their alley.  Back in October last year near the start of the season they trashed us 14 0.  Could this be our downfall after a few good wins and being currently equal 5th in the table?  The match was slow to get going as far as I was concerned.  B. Pearce of The Lamb Shanks suffered greatly to only score 18 which was a shame because he put so much effort into his game.  Martin aka ‘edgehog was on good form to romp on to score an excellent 43 without a spare.  On the last hand of the set P. Croom suffered as well with a vc.  This gave us a clear sight of the victory for the set and went on to win it by 24 pins and score 2 valuable points.  Going into the second set things began warming up nicely despite the cold outside.  Neither team had anything that was worthy of a mention until Doug powered on to score a good 45 without a spare - this was not even our teams highest score, that was to come later.  With this score it was enough to secure another set victory.  This time it was a profit of 19 pins and a fantastic 43 pins ahead on the game and 2 more valuable points.  On now to the third set with a handsome profit in the bag, we knew that we had a chance of victory all be it slim because with this game being so unpredictable it could go either way at any stage of the proceedings.  C. Taylor of The Lamb Shanks had a really good set especially when he managed an excellent 16 spare on his final hand which catapulted him to a score of 48 which was their teams highest score.  Kev played well to score an excellent 43 greatly assisted with his 11 spare on his second hand.  Vince on the other hand played a blinder when he scored a fantastic 14 spare on his first and final hand to give him his highest score of the season and our teams highest score of the game of 49.   Well done.  This gave us another victory set and a further 14 pins to our profit, making our overall profit at this stage in the game of 57 pins and now 6 points.  Where was this game going? I don’t recall a game that we have played where we have been so far in front going into the final set.  How would this end??  Could we turn the tables or crash at the final hurdle?  On now to the final set.  Both sides were fairly well matched hand for hand until J. Snook  scored an excellent 11 spare on his 4th hand to give him an overall score of 45 so well done to him.  Captain Woody, Vice and Dave had their work cut out, but the pins had cooled off somewhat and would not fall.  S. Debruin of The Lamb Shanks seemed to have a stroke of bad luck on his final hand to score a 3.  This gave them a set total of 112.  Could we beat this? On the final hand down we needed an average of 6 pins to draw the set or 7 to win.  Tensions ran high as Captain Woody took the alley for his final hand.  He needed 8 to draw and the entire 9 pins to win the set.  The pressure mounted, the ball was bowled.  Pins scattered and fell.  The ball left his hand to make contact with the remaining pins.  He scored 8 with the three balls.  Yes! This was enough to draw the set.  Alas we only gained 1 point from this set, but with the 57 pins already in the bag we secured a well deserved victory over The Lamb Shanks of 13 points to 1.  A very respectable score indeed.  So well done to all who played and supported the team.  Next week we will be back on our home alley against The Balmoral Steamers, last time we met on 12th October 2007 it was so close we only just beat them 8 points to 6.  Can we do better?  

 

 

 

Friday 8th February

 

After our victory last week the team were still on a high with visions of being able to pull off a victory over the Reptiles.  Last time we met them towards the beginning of the season we suffered a crushing defeat so we knew we needed some magic.  The match began well with us having the upper hand and managing to keep the edge on things with slightly higher scores per hand than The Reptiles.  C. Hase tried in vain to upset the apple cart on his final hand to score an excellent 12 spare.  This was still not sufficient for them to secure a victory in this set.  We pulled it off by winning the set by 5 pins and 2 valuable points.  Into the second set.  Could we continue our fortunes?  Kev was on the attack in his second hand to score a fantastic 17 spare to almost win the pot for the 18 spare fund.  He strived on to a huge final score of 52 which not only was his highest score this season but our teams highest - Well done.  Alas this was just not enough for victory in this set and they stole it from us by 7 pins.  This made them now 2 pins up on the game and 2 points to their credit.  Where could this game go?  Into the third.  It all began fairly evenly matched without many high scores to speak about, except a fairly even split of players getting the 9 pins down with their 3 balls.  John C. tried hard to maintain the status quo by scoring an excellent 48 without a spare.  This was unfortunately just not enough so they pulled forward to take the set by 6 more pins and another 2 points.  This now gave them an 8 pin lead and now 4 points - was this going to be a repeat of the last time we met?  On now to the final set.  It again began fairly evenly matched until Captain Woody scored a vc on his third hand - could this be the nail in our coffin?  T. Cattle of The Reptiles could not seem to find the mark to slump to a score of 25.  Dave, however, kept on an even keel to score an impressive 43.  This helped our cause greatly to power us on to a set total of 118.  The Reptiles on the other hand crashed and burned scoring only 104.  This meant that we won the set by an excellent 14 pins.  This gained us another 2 points and won us the game by 6 pins.  So the tables were well and truly turned with roles reversed giving us 10 points as opposed to the dismal 4 we scored last time we met.

 

So three wins in three weeks.  The tide seems to be coming in for us.  What will happen next week at the Lamb against the Lamb Shanks - last time we met them we were hammered to a 14 - 0 defeat.

 

 

Friday 1st February

 

Due to me being away for the weekend and missing this match I cannot give too much insight into the way the match went, except it was a good match Dave managed an excellent 52 to give him our teams highest score of the night so well done.  He was well supported by Vice and Captain Woody who both hit spares and both ended up with 45 each.  We managed to secure an excellent victory scoring a fantastic total pin score of 508 and stealing 12 points from The Airways.  See the Average sheet on the Averages page for the rest of the players performance and scores.

 

The report will be back to normal next week.

 

Friday 25th January 2008

 

Knock-Out Cup Round 1

 

The match got off to a good start against the current division leaders The Wanderers.  We knew we would have a match on our hands so focus was the aim.  Martin aka ‘edgehog was on fighting form and began the ball rolling with an excellent score of 41.  Andy G supported him well to hit a fantastic 45 without a spare.  Dixie followed  with another 41 to give us a fantastic 127 pins on this set.  The pins just did not seem to want to fall for The Wanderers until R. Plumley hit an excellent 44.  Alas this was not enough for them to win the set so we were thrust forward to a 9 pin lead.  Not an awful lot but enough to give us a small edge.  Onto the second set.  Andy M. got off to a shaky start with a disappointing 4 but like Tigger bounced back in the second hand to score his only spare this season so far of 14.  Then powering on to end with a good 46 (not our teams highest score of the match!)  In supporting rolls on this set (a bit like the Oscars this!) were Grandad and Doug.  Thanks to their valiant efforts we again romped to victory with a fantastic set total of 129.  The Wanderers fought on but alas they just could not steal this set from us either.  So now we were a fantastic 17 pins up on the match going into the third set.  Could we hold onto them?  The set began nice and steady with both teams being well matched.  John C. began to turn the set to our advantage when in his third hand down managed an impressive 12 spare.  This greatly assisted his cause to power him on to one of our teams highest scores of 47.  Not to be outdone The Wanderers upped the anti and fought back.  P. Cox played an absolute blinder on his final hand down to smash through with a 17 spare to give him their teams highest score of 50! - (Well done)  This meant that the game for them was very much alive to steal back from us 10 pins from our lead where they hit a fantastic set total of 136.  What was going to happen in the final set?  When the names went on the board we noticed that they were a player short which meant that they had to play a low score.  For them this was 35 which was a shame for them.  With the pressure mounting Captain Woody got off to a good start with a spare on his first hand, but alas it did not bear fruit to be proud of.  Still keeping up the pressure he powered on to hit our second highest score of the match of 47 so well don to him too.  He was supported well with Dave and Vice to give us a set total of 124.  A. Milsom battled on and managed an excellent 14 spare to get an impressive 49.  It was very close towards the end of the match, especially as this match was solely on total number of pins.  We could barely look  as the balls were sent cannoning down the alley.  On the final hand to be played The Wanderers needed 9 pins to draw the match or 10 to win.  We watched with bated breath as the ball left A. Milsom’s hand, alas it was not to be, he hit a 7.  Victory was ours by 2 pins which gave The Wanderers their second defeat of the season.  We look forward to playing them again on our alley later in the season.  So watch the Cup News page for details of the next round of the cup due to be played on Wednesday 27th February.

 

Phew!! - What a match, I need a drink after that!!

 

 

Friday 11th January 2008

 

So we are finally here at the half-way point in the season and ready to try and turn our fortunes around.

 

The first set was fairly well matched with like for like scores from both us and The Fortyniners, until Lee from our side had a couple of rough hands and got a less than average score of 29.  P. Kinsley  of the Fortyniners had a good game overall which started well with a good 14 spare.  Alas this was short lived when he suffered with a v/c on his second hand.  But he went on to score a good 41.  We drifted out to sea a little with a deficit of 9 pins at the end of the set and losing 2 valuable points.  Could this be a repeat of the first game of the season where we only scored 4 points, even when they were two players short?  Onto the second set.  I think the cavalry must have arrived with this set when Steve C. aka ‘Grandad’ played a superb hand with 2 spares over the set with scores of 10 and 12 respectively.  This powered him on to an excellent overall score of 49 - our highest score of the night (Well done).  He was supported in this victory with Doug also hitting a good 10 spare to power him onto a good score of 42.  Not to be out done Dixie also had a good spare, this time his was a good one of 12.  He went on to power through with a score of 48 - one pin short of Steve.  V. Brooks of the Fortyniners tried in vain to salvage what he could to score 38, with J. Snelling trying to catch up with a score of 30.  Alas for the Fortyniners this was not enough to win the set.  We on the other hand smashed to a victory of 45 pins which now gave us the upper hand of being 36 pins up - almost unheard of for us!  Into the third set with tensions running high.  Kev  fought well to score a good 42 without a spare so well done to him, John tried to emulate his score but fell slightly short with 38.  T. Jarvis of the Fortyniners just could not hold on so just skittled to a good 41.  He was valiantly supported by J. Link and J. Gebler but this was not enough so they lost 5 pins on the set to give us a fantastic 41 pin lead to go into the final set.  I think that something must’ve been done to the heating or put in the sandwiches, the pins and balls had cooled so decided not to fall for us during this set.  Dave tried to keep it alive with a good score of 44 without a spare.  The Fortyniners caught us napping (literally!), they all scored over 40!  M. Southwood hit a good 42 without a spare, this was followed up by J. Main smashing through with a good 14 spare to hit their teams highest score of 45.  Not to be outdone, A. Wright supported with 44 without a spare.  The Fortyniners slashed our lead by winning the final set by 21 pins to get their other 2 points to give us a much needed win with 21 pins overall on the game and 10 most welcome points.

 

 

Friday 4th January 2008

 

First I’d like to wish our readers a Happy New Year.

 

This being the first week back on the alley since before Christmas, we had to get those joints loosened up and our minds focused on the game ahead.

 

The most positive thing I can say this week is that despite the many illnesses that are currently going round, we had almost every one in our team present giving Captain Woody a bit of a headache in deciding who to play and who not to play.  Some had to play because they either were not played on the last match due to a low score the previous week, or were not present due to other commitments.  

 

I think the pins and balls were frozen to the alley due to the weather and not being used over the last couple of weeks because they would just not budge.  At least not for us anyway!  Neither side had a particularly good first set except T. Smallwood and M. Worral from REA both managed to hit 40 without a spare.  This gave them the edge to clinch victory on the set by 9 pins and snatching 2 points.  The second set was fairly well matched player for player.  Our Doug Pearce played very well to get our teams highest score of the night with 43 - again this was achieved without a spare so well done.  R. Eames from REA also hit 43 - again without a spare so well done to him.  Thanks to Doug’s effort and being valiantly supported with Dixie and A. Griffiths victory in this set was ours by 13 pins and getting our first 2 points of the game.  This gave us a 4 pin lead on the game to go into the third set.  N. Ashbee made a welcome return after not being available for a few weeks due to work commitments.  He still had the magic scoring 40 - again without a spare.  G. Davis also followed suite and he too hit 40 without a spare.  We held on by our finger tips to win the set by 1 pin!  So now we had 2 more points and a lead of 5 pins to enter into the final set.  The REA unfortunately had a player short so they had to field a low score of 31.  Our “power” anchor set badly needed a charge! Captain Woody could not find the mark, D. Pearce  came out in sympathy to suffer one of his worst games.  Vince tried to be the glue holding it together but alas it just wasn’t enough.  M. Singfield from REA steamrollered away to hit a fantastic 44 - again without a spare - well done.  This was their saving grace giving them an overall win on the set of 10 pins to take the final 2 points and the game.

 

It was strange that neither team managed a spare.

 

We look forward to playing them again on their alley at the end of the season.

 

So we have to gather ourselves together ready to start the second half of the season against the Fortyniners  next week - again on our alley.  Can we overturn the defeat of the last time we met back in August last year?

 

Watch this space.

 

 

Wednesday 19th December

 

George Davis Cup Round 3

 

We knew this would be a tough match bearing in mind that we were going to be playing against a First Division Side “The Sweeney”, we weren’t wrong!

 

The First Set began well.  ‘Edgehog’ was back on form managing to score a good 43 without a spare.  A. Stevens of The Sweeney tried hard to cause some damage when he scored a good 13 spare in his 4th hand down.  Unfortunately he still only scored 42.  This gave us an early lead of 8 pins on the game.  Could we hang onto them?  The Second Set looked like it was going to bear more fruit when Dixie hammered a fantastic 14 spare on his final hand down to power himself to our sides second highest score of 47 (well done).  B. Humphreys fought back with a score of 44 without a spare.  This helped their cause greatly and they went on to win the set by 8 pins.  This made the game, at that time, all square.  It was all to play for.  Onto the third set.  We played steady with Doug scoring a good 44 without a spare.  Alas this was short lived when both A. Patterson and G. Beacham both hit fantastic 15 spares in their first and second hands respectively.  A Patterson powered on to hit a fantastic 50.  G. Beacham was not far behind him with an excellent 46.   This gave them the upper hand and a massive 15 pin lead on the game.  Onto the final set.  D. Pearce played an excellent game to score a huge 48 without a spare - this was our highest score of the match - Well Done.  Alas this was not enough to secure victory .  D Mensah scored a good 44 without a spare but S. Adams hit an 11 spare in his fourth hand down but this only gave him a score of 43!  Both Vice and Captain Woody  suffered a little with the pins not going their way.  We tumbled to a further 4 pin defeat on the set to give us an overall loss of 19 pins on the entire game.

 

So we are out of the George Davis cup for another year.

 

We hope to do better in the Knock Out cup that starts early in the new year.

 

Friday 14th December

 

Licking our wounds from last weeks defeat we were ready to bounce back into contention.  With us playing a proper league match at the Regency Pub, (The same location where we won the first round of the George Davis cup and D. Pearce hit his amazing score of 69 with 3 spares), could we get back into winning ways?

 

The First set began fairly friendly but our M. Murray aka ‘edgehog’ suffered a v/c with his first hand, could this be nerves creeping in because of his lower than average score from last week?  The heat was turned up when both P. Kendrick and R. Harris of the Double Six both hit excellent spares of 12 and 13 respectively.  We carried on like the professionals we are.  ‘Edghog’ turned up the pace and managed to get a good 13 spare in his 5th hand down, giving him an overall score of 43 - well done - getting back to true form.  Alas this was short lived when R. Harris hit another 14 spare in his final hand down to romp home with a huge 59, their teams highest score of the night.  R. Kendrick also had a good score of 49.  This was the nail in the coffin for the first set to give us an overall loss of 15 pins and zero points.  Onto the second set.  The meter had been fed with the money, the lights were turned on - we were back!  K. Driscoll played a phenomenal  set with 2 spares, one in his second hand and the other in his third.  This led him to get his personal highest score of the season so far of 50 - but this was not our highest score on this match. This ensured us to gain a victory of 22 pins and 2 points, which gave us a profit of 7 pins to enter into the third set.  Spurred on Steve C. aka ‘Grandad’ managed an excellent 12 spare in his second hand down.  He bowled on to get our teams highest score of 51 - Well done.  R. Taylor of The Double Six also scored 51 thanks to his spare of 14 on his fourth hand down.  Alas this was not enough to ensure them victory so we stole another 15 pins to give us a good 22 pin lead going into the final set and two more valuable points.  Due to the season the Double Six were two players short which was a shame, so they had to put in two low scores of  35.  We were almost in the same position, but we were only one player short and our lowest score was 41, which was our saving grace along with Vice and Captain Woody both getting good scores of 44 and 41 respectively.  This gave us another superb set victory of 18 pins and two more points.  This gave us an overall victory of 40 pins up and 12 most welcome points.  This was our highest scoring match so far this season with a fantastic 537 pins.  All of our team players scored over 40 which again was amazing taking into consideration our track record of some abysmal scores.

 

We look forward to playing against the Double Six again on our alley, can we secure another victory?  Currently we are even with them because they walked all over us back in September in the first round of the Front Pin.

 

Friday 7th December

 

I guess it had to happen sooner or later when we had to play against the top team of the Division.  This week was it!

 

Our opponents being The Wanderers, we knew that we had our work cut out.  I cannot remember a time, at least, since I have been with our team if we have ever beaten them or not.  So it was going to be tough with a capital ‘T’.  We started off fairly well and seemed to match our first set opponents fairly well.  Something happened along the way and our Martin aka ‘edgehog’ changed his style of play to give him a fairly low score compared with other matches he has played.  Unfortunately we lost 14 pins and 2 points.  We needed to find something else.  This was found with Doug scoring a triumphant 12 spare with his second hand down, to give him an overall score of 43 - not our teams highest score this week.  Due to this we managed to scrape back 6 pins from the 14 down and gained 2 valuable  points.  Onto the third where we felt that we could perhaps continue this good fortune.  Alas this was not the case when Vince had a bad third hand down and unfortunately hit a ‘v/c’ and managed an overall score of only 26.  Had he not have had a poor week then we may well have clawed back some more pins and points.  A. Milsom of  ‘The Wanderers’ played a phenomenal  set with a 14 spare in his fourth hand down.  This gave him an impressive score of 52 their highest score (well done).  We felt that we could perhaps get somewhere but alas this was not the case and we lost another 28 pins and 2 more points.  Our deficit now was a massive 36 pins.  Could we get these back?  On now to the final set.  With our Captain Woody having a prior engagement he could not be present so the Anchor fell to Vice, supported by Dave  and Steve C. our high scorer from last week, could we pull it off?  Dave played really well and hit a 12 spare in his final hand down to give him a good 44 - still not our teams highest score this week.  Steve C somehow did not get going to give him a dismal score of 34.  Could Steve T ‘Vice’ pull some magic out of the hat.  It looked good when he hit a good 14 spare on his second hand down to give him our teams highest score this week of 46 (Well done).  This helped our cause greatly.  Alas it was not enough  but we only lost 3 pins on this set which was fairly close and another 2 valuable points.  This gave us an overall loss of 39 pins, which meant we crashed and burned by losing overall 12 points to 2.  With any luck we can get even when we play them again towards the end of  the season at their alley.

 

 

Friday 30th November

 

What a week this was.  The match began rather slowly until Des aka ‘biker’ managed an impressive 15 spare in his third hand down to give him is highest score of the season so far of 50 - well done.  This was enough to steal the set by 15 pins and 2 valuable points.   Onto the second set where we had the upper hand at the start of the set but things became dodgy when C. Sandford of The Dambusters hit a 12 spare to give him a score of 44.  We hammered back and Steve T. Aka ‘Vice’ hit a fantastic 49 without a spare!  This helped secure this set too adding another 5 pins to our lead giving us now 20 pins ahead and another 2 points.  Into the third, where the pace slowed a little and losing us  bit of focus.  Undeterred Steve C. Aka ‘Grandad’ not wanting to be defeated, smashed through with an excellent 15 spare powering him to his highest score for the team and his personal best of 55 (superb!).  Adding another 8 pins to the total profit and another 2 points.  Onto the final set with 28 pins ahead we had a comfortable margin.  This was cemented in place when we found out that The Dambusters were short of two players forcing them to have to play two low scores of 31 which was a bit of a shame.  Still battling on we felt it could go either way when J. Gilmore began hitting 9’s with his first couple of hands down.  We, on the other hand, just trotted along  knowing that the final two hands down could be our turning point with the low scores totaling 14 pins, so unless good scores came forth from J. Gilmore it could be ours.  Once the final ball had been bowled we knew we had it in the bag - another 10 pins to our total and another 2 points.  This meant we won yet another game and should move up the table a few places.

 

 

Friday 23rd November

 

After a couple of weeks away from our alley for a proper match we wanted to get down to business.  The game began as a very close affair with very little in it.  Thanks to Des aka ‘Biker’ scoring 40 with a good 12 spare to give us hope.  The Tornadoes had a stroke of bad luck on their final hand down to give us a lead of 8 pins and a valuable 2 points.  Onto the second where the pins decided to join our team for a change to give us the upper hand.  It became very close towards the end of the set when C. Lacy of The Tornadoes scored an excellent 13 spare to give him a total score of 48.  We turned up the heat and pulled back the throttle to win the set by 2 pins and another valuable 2 points.  Onto the third where G. Horler of The Tornadoes had an excellent 5th hand down to gain an excellent 15 spare giving him another score of 48 for The Tornadoes.  This gave them the edge to win the set by 12 pins robbing us of our 10 pin lead and losing us 2 valuable points.  Onto the 4th.  We played like Trojans to keep them at bay.  Thanks to Steve T.  aka ‘Vice’ getting an excellent 16 spare to get our teams highest score of 48, (well done).  A. Crawford of The Tornadoes fought back with a 15 spare, alas this was not enough to secure victory for them.  Captain Woody battled on valiantly getting a good 13 spare which helped our cause greatly.  It was thanks to this that tugged us back from the brink of defeat to give us a win of 8 pins to give us an overall win of only 6 pins, giving us a very welcome 12 points overall - boy did we need them!  Things are beginning to look up at long last with 2 wins in 2 weeks.  Fantastic!

 

Friday 16th November

 

This match we thought would be a good one due to the fact that most of us has scored a good score on the “Golden Lion” alley in Worle High Street.

 

Well, at the end of the first set it was close, we slithered to a 6 pin lead gaining us a valuable two points at an early stage in the game.  The second set things began to look decidedly dodgy.  The pins would just not relinquish their stance on the diamond to give us a crushing defeat of fifteen pins, resulting in an overall deficit of nine pins.  On to the third, where the pins would still not budge, so alas we lost two more points giving us an overall loss of twenty pins.  Could we salvage anything from what was beginning to turn out to be a bit of a nightmare?  Into the fourth and final set.  The “power set” with Captain Woody having the roll of Anchor.  The Nutters unfortunately did not have a full team so had to play two low scores of 33 giving us something to aim for.  We felt that at this stage in the game perhaps maybe we had a chance after all.  Vince came through with a blinding score of 47 without a spare so well done to him for the teams highest scorer for this match.  It was a tense time right until the end of the match where we came through to win the set by  25 pins to give us a valuable lead of only five pins on the game to secure us with a nice ten points.

 

We look forward to a re-match with The Nutters sometime in the new year after Christmas.  

 

Friday 2nd November

George Davis Cup Round 2

 

First impression on this new venue at the Victoria Bowling Club, What a long alley!

 

The match looked like it would be a very close one with both teams, us and The Dambusters almost scoring the same pins hand for hand.  M. Murray (aka ‘edgehog) saved the bacon with an excellent 17 pin spare to cruise his pins to a massive 52 giving him our teams highest score for the game.  This enabled us to gain victory on that set by a single pin.  The second set and things began to get rocky towards the middle, where we were down by a pin.  The winds of fortune changed and the Dambusters had a couple of bad hands.  Our D.S. Pearce stormed through to score 43 without a spare to scrape a win on that set by two more pins, making our lead to be 3 pins.  A. Hall of the Dambusters fought back with a 15 spare catapulting his set total to 55.  We were ten pins down in the set at the mid point.  Bravely we fought on but lost the set by 2 pins, cutting our lead back to a single pin.  This was going to be a close one.  Our final set knew we needed to get back in action, but it looked like it would all fall apart with A. Turner of the Dambusters hitting a good 16 spare to give them a down of 34 pins.  S. Dewey followed with a 14 spare.  Steve T. (aka Vice) not wanting to be outdone also got a 14 spare to keep us in the game so to speak giving him his highest score of the season of 50 (Well Done).  Captain Woody, M. Warren came back to keep the dream alive.  The final set was lost by us by a pin giving a draw.  This invoked a fifth set to be played, so the final three of each set played again.  D. Pearce helped save the day by getting 3 spares over three hands.  Victory was ours by seven pins by the time Captain Woody was due to have his final hand, this was not played because we had won the game.  

 

Who knows who we will have to play against in Round 3.  Watch the site for details.

 

 

Friday 26th October

 

The game started off really well, storming to a fantastic 8 pin lead at the end of the first set.  Things began to get shaky thanks to an 11 spare on the fourth hand down from B. Huxham.  Not to be down hearted we pulled back to win the set by 1 pin giving us an 9 pin lead on the game.  Not a huge amount but enough to give us a slight edge.  Into the third and the tables began to turn against us by having a 3 pin deficit towards the middle section of the set.  John C. pulled some magic out of the bag and managed to score our only spare of the game of 13 giving him our teams highest score for the night of 47 (well done).  This secured victory in the set by 11 pins giving us an excellent 20 pin lead for the fourth and final set.  This we needed due to being 2 players short so we had to play two low scores of 31.  This looked like a huge ask.  A. Taylor of the Electric Sports gave us a headache with an excellent 12 spare.  Mark W. Aka “Captain Woody” tried valiantly to get a good score but alas could only manage 37.  Unfortunately this was not enough to win the set so lost the set by 27 pins.  Giving us an overall loss of 7 pins.  We hope to gain a better victory when we meet them on our alley early next year.

 

Friday 19th October

 

Not such a good week this week.  The Persuaders caught us napping in the first set by steaming to a fantastic 19 pin lead.  The excuse we could only offer was the pins etc were still cold and had not warmed up!  The Second set was marginally better in as much as we managed to pull back 6 pins cutting out deficit down to a mere 13 pins.  Our third set were on fire, storming ahead with a fantastic spare from Kev.  This we felt could have won us the match because we managed to level the game.  Sadly though, the tables were turned on us again and we lost by 5 pins.  Not a huge amount, but enough to only give us a point value of 4 out of a possible 14.

 

Friday 12th October

 

Well we actually did it this week! We had a great friendly game against the “Balmoral Steamers”.  They cruised to a win on the first set.  The second was a stormer with our Steve C hitting a massive 51 pins being his highest score for the team since he has been playing.  Our set total was 155.  The third set, however, we lost.  The final set we gained pace and managed to only lose that set by 1 pin!  We managed to win the game overall by a fantastic 12 pins.  We would like to express our best wishes to the Balmoral Steamers in their up and coming cup matches and look forward to playing against them on our alley in the new year.

 

 

Friday 5th October

 

Oooops! This is the only way I can describe the match.  We suffered a crushing defeat from the “Lamb Shanks”.  We felt that we would have had a better match bearing in mind we had a fantastic win back on 26th September where we won by 35 pins.  This time we just could not get started so to speak.  They had the upper hand most of the time and they cruised to a fantastic 14 - 0 win, winning overall by a massive 41 pins.  What did not help was the fact that they played one or two different players to the cup-match so we were a bit off guard.  So onwards and upwards to our re-match later in the season.  We may well meet them again in another cup match.  It could happen.

 

Friday 28th September

Front Pin Round 1

 

All I can say to this is oops!!  After our excellent win on Wednesday we went down hill fast just like an avalanche!!  We just could not hold onto any sort of lead.  In fact we were well and truly stuffed!!  Part way through the game we were 52 pins down.  To rub salt into our very deep wounds was the fact that our opponents could only muster 10 players instead of the normal 12, which meant that they had to play two low scores - we still lost by 35 pins!!

 

 

Wednesday 26th September

 

George Davis Cup Round 1

 

What a game that was!  We played on an alley that not many of us had played on before in a very quiet pub called “The Regency”.  Our opponents were the “Lamb Shanks”, who normally play at the Lamb pub in Worle High Street..

 

We began slowly but gradually built up to a crescendo of pins greatly assisted by D. Pearce who scored a massive 69 - this is the highest one of our players has scored this current season.  We hope that we continue to play well in this cup because it has been a long while since we won it .

 

Overall we won by 65 pins.  It is a shame that this buffer cannot be carried forward into the next round to give us a head start!!!

 

Friday 21st September

 

We played against the Reptiles on their home alley.  They are above us in the table at present, but who knows that could change during the season.  Watch this space!!

 

The match began with The Reptiles gaining the upper hand and beating us by about 14 pins after the first set.  We came from behind and managed to gain two valuable points from the second set, reducing the deficit  slightly.

 

Then into the third set we played well again and gained another two valuable points, but again not enough to pull back some of the loss.  Doug played really well to gain a score of 52 with two fifteen spares which was fantastic.  Alas it was not enough to win the game, because the others came back and won the final set.

 

We will look forward to playing them again on our home alley just after Christmas.