Hammers in last ball thriller

Hammers 423 The Imps 422

The Hammers may be bottom of the league but they are not going down without a fight as Friday nights game against The Imps at the Trinity Club proved.
After two hands the game was going to form and The Imps found themselves 14 pins in front. The third hand was poor from both sides as The Imps hit 54 and Hammers only managed 55 to pinch back 1 pin. Although Phil Goodland gave The Imps a good start on the fourth hand with a 12 stick up The Imps only managed a 55 hand, this time the Hammers took their chance with a big 69 hand which included a 14 stick up from Rich Mitchem to go 1 pin up. The Imps hit 53 the lowest hand of the night on the fifth hand which included a 1 from Kev Diment, Hammers went 8 up hitting 60 with the help of a 14 stick up from Lloyd Mitchem .
On the sixth hand the game swinged back into The Imps favour, sticker up Alan Knight playing only his third match had a 14 and Keith Wyatt hit 13 as The Imps hit 74, the Hammers had no reply to this hand and only hit 54 to put them 12 pins behind The Imps.
The Imps managed 57 on the last hand and were fairly confident that the points were theirs as the Hammers required 70 to win. After five players had thrown it looked as if the Hammers were in for another defeat, but Steve Mitchem gave them some hope with a 12 stick up while Lloyd Mitchem got an 8 which meant that anchor man Lee Pitman had the task of hitting 13 to win, and he held his nerve to give Hammers the victory and a much needed 2 points.
Rich Mitchem was top score for the Hammers with 59, while Keith Wyatt hit 59 to top score for The Imps.
The teams meet again on 16th April in the Knockout Cup when Hammers will be hoping for a repeat performance while The Imps will be looking for a little revenge.