Pin Ups win it on last hand

Breakaways 389 Pin Ups 404

The two unbeaten teams from Group 11 of the Blackthorn British Skittles Championship met at the Wool British Legion on Friday night.
Breakaways started with a disappointing 55 hand to which the Pin Ups replied with a 64 hand to go 9 pins in front, but the next hand saw Breakaways comeback with a 74 hand and go 3 pins in front. The home side went 6 pins up on the third hand hitting a 68 hand, and a score 67 on the fourth hand put them 7 pins in front of the Pin Ups.
Breakaways hit 66 on the sixth hand but this time Pin Ups had the perfect reply hitting a hand of 73 to tie the game up going into the last hand.
The Wool side struggled to set the Pin Ups a decent target only hitting a 59 hand, Pin Ups anchor man C.Aston needed 2 to win the match and done it in style getting a 16 stick up giving him a total of 59 to top the Pin Ups scoring and giving the visitors a 14 pin win. P.Burden was top for the home side hitting 57.
Pin Ups from Weymouth are hoping to make it to the grand finals for the fifth year running, the finals take place at the Sand Bay Holiday Village, Weston Super Mare on Saturday 20th September 2008.

Mixtures start well but Imps go through

The Imps 288 Colliton Mixtures 232

The ladies got off to a great start at the Gurkha Inn last night in the first round of the Nomination Cup. On the first hand the Imps hit a disappointing 36 hand to which the Mixtures replied with a 48 hand which included a 15 stick up from Sally Childs to go 12 pins in front. The next hand saw a reverse in the teams fortunes as the Imps hit a 49 hand with a 15 stick up from Keith Wyatt while the Mixtures only hit 32 to give the Imps a 5 pin lead. The game was won over the next three hands as the Imps hit three 41 hands on the trot while Mixtures scored hands of 25, 30 and 31 which saw them 42 pins behind their host. The sixth hand was tied with both teams hitting 34, while the Imps pulled another 12 pins on the last hand hitting a 46 hand while the Mixtures hit 32 to give the Imps a 56 pin win. Sally Childs was top for the Mixtures with an excellent score of 55 while Keith Wyatt was top score of the night hitting 59.

Monster Oaks off to winning start

Monster Oaks 367 Motley Crew 348

Monster Oaks won their first match in the Blackthorn British Championship mixed competition beating Weymouth's Motley Crew by 19 on their Royal Oak alley at Milborne.

More photos

Pairs winners Brewers Bees
Ladies plate winners Borough Bombshells
Men's plate winners Patriots

Monsters lose away

Dewlish Monsters lost their first match in the Blackthorn competition away to Weymouth's Pin Ups at the Wyke Smugglers.

Breakaways get off to winning start

Breakaways 426 The Imps 400

Breakaways got off to a great start in the Blackthorn British Skittles Championship by beating The Imps by 26 pins on their Wool British Legion alley.
The Imps went in front on the first hand after beating Breakaways 68 hand with 71 to go 3 pins up, Breakaways pinched 1 pin back on the second hand hitting 67 while The Imps hit 66.
But the third hand was were the game was won as the Breakaways hit a 80 hand to which The Imps could only reply with a 64 hand and the Breakaways went into a 14 pin lead.
The final three hands belonged to the Breakaways with hands of 69, 72, and 70 which kept them ahead of The Imps and in the end it was their consistent stream of stick ups which was the difference between the two teams.
Star man for the Breakaways was Ashley "The Dog" Churchill who was top score with 62, while for The Imps Phil Slade was top score with 61.
Both teams are hoping to make it to the grand finals which takes place on Saturday 20th September at Sand Bay Holiday Village, Weston Super Mare

Skimmers lose

Motley Crew 386 Skimmers 375

Motley Crew went on first & hit 56, Skimmers replied with 72, spares from Timmy Reed & Derrick Knight, to go 16 up. M.Crew then picked up & hit 77 on the 2nd. Skimmers had a reasonable 66 but lost 11 pins to remain 5 ahead. The 3rd hand was the turning point, Motley Crew hit 66 but Skimmers could only manage 54, giving the home team a 7 pin lead. Motley Crew increased their lead to 15 by the 5th but could only manage 56 on the final hand leaving Skimmers 72 to win. If they could match their 1st hand it was possible but they were unable to get any spares and lost by 11 pins.

Top score for Motley Crew hit 61
Top for Skimmers - Timmy Reed with 54.

Nomination cup draw

Barmy Army v Colliton Wide Boys
Slingers v Crazy Things
Vic Jokers v Breakaways
Bulls Headliners v 3CA
Skimmers v Heathens
Funseekers v Brewers Bees
New Strugglers v Breezers
The Imps v Colliton Mixtures

Matches to be played by Friday 20th June

Blackthorn fixtures

Two of Dorchester's top team start their Blackthorn British Championship matches this week, Skimmers start on Thursday night with an away game in Weymouth against Motley Crew. On Friday The Imps start their campaign with an away game to Breakaways at Wool.

Skimmers fixtures

22/5 - Motley Crew (A) Chapelhay Tavern
5/6 - Barbarians + 1 (A) The Bull, Stur Newton
12/6 - Barbarians + 1 (H)
20/6 - Motley Crew (H)
26/6 - The Masters (A) West Bay Hotel
4/7 - The Masters (H)
Home games at the Gurkha Inn

The Imps fixtures

23/5 - Breakaways (A) British Legion, Wool
6/6 - Breakaways (H)
13/6 - Pin Ups (H)
20/6 - Pin Ups (A) Wyke Smugglers
27/6 - Dewlish Monsters (A) Royal Oak, Milborne
4/7 - Dewlish Monsters ( H)
Home games at the Conservative Club

Photos

To view or order photos from the presentation night visit www.chriswhitefield.co.uk

Thanks

I would like to thank everyone who has contributed towards my blog with news and reports during the season in the form of e-mails, text's, phone calls and drunken chats on Friday night's. I had no idea it would take off like it has and I have received a lot of positive feedback, and I hope to keep it going next season, so if you know anyone who might be interested in sending me their reports from their games please pass on my e-mail address tgosney@tiscali.co.uk . Good luck to any team playing during the summer, send in your reports I will be happy to post them.

AGM

The Annual General Meeting of the League will be at the Colliton Club on Friday June 6th 2008 at 8pm.

Your committee

Wide Boys take to the floor

Presentation night

I hope there are not to many hangovers this morning after last night, everyone seemed to enjoy the night and there was plenty of dancing, although I can see why we play skittles on Fridays instead of night clubbing us blokes are pretty awful dancers ( I've got the pictures to prove it). Congratulations to all the trophy winners even the teams that beat the Imps. The teams pictured here are Section A winners Marco Wanderers, Knock out cup winners Colliton Wide Boys, Ladies league and cup winners Oakettes

Patriots win play off

Report to follow

Play off

The play off for the runners up spot in Section A takes place on Thursday night at the Conservative Club between Cup winners Colliton Wide Boys and plate winners Patriots.

Bees win the pairs

Brewers Bees pair Wilf Chainey and Nigel Notley won the Pairs Competition at the Colliton Club on Tuesday night beating The Imps pair of Barry Gosney and Keith Wyatt in the final.

Pairs Finals

The final of the pairs competition takes place at the Colliton Club on Tuesday night. There are sixteen pairs left in and all must be on the alley for 8pm

Patriots come out on top

Patriots won a very close match in last nights Plate final against Allsorts. Patriots anchor man got 9 to tie the game on the seventh hand and then got 14 to win the match in the extra hand.

Cup glory for Wide Boys

Wide Boys 461 - 442 Imps

On a warm night at the Conservative Club some high scoring was expected from two of the season's top four teams. However the first hand could not have been more different. Wide Boys threw first and were indebted to a 13 pin stick-up from Roy Fowler. This was particularly timely when throwing next Jason Hallett managed to have his first ever OXO that led to a hand score of just 56. Imps were then only able to pull 2 pins with a 58 hand of their own.

Wide Boys started the next hand in completely contrasting circumstances. First man Steve Legg had a flopper and hit 17 and this was then followed by No.2 Paul Lenaghan hitting 15. Good skittling on the rest of the hand meant a total of 78 that pulled 14 pins to move Wide Boys 12 in front. Another poor hand by Wide Boys was once again saved by another 13 pin stick-up from Roy Fowler. Imps were again unable to fully capitalise on this and hit their second 64 hand to reduce the lead to 7 pins.

On the fourth hand Wide Boys bounced back with a 75 hand that included a 16 pin stick up from Jason Hallett. Imps replied with a 66 hand that left them 16 down. Some low scores on the fifth and sixth hands from Wide Boys meant two hands of 60. Imps fifth hand of 74, with spares from Terry Gosney (15) and Barry Knight (16) brought them right back in to the game and reduced Wide Boys lead to just 2 pins. They could only hit 60 themselves on the next hand to leave the game on a knife edge going into the last hand.

Steve Legg then gave Wide Boys a dream start by taking a running four for a stick up of 16. Roy Fowler's third 13 of the night helped them to a last hand of 73 that left Imps 76 to win. Knowing that the odds were stacked against them Imps could only manage two 6's and two 7's from their top half and this combined with not being able to get any stick up chances they finished with a hand of 56 to give Wide Boys a flattering winning margin of 19 pins.
Man of the match was Wide Boys senior player Roy Fowler, while for The Imps Barry Gosney was top score with 63.

This was Wide Boys second KO Cup win after previously winning in 1996.

Men's final

The men's knock out cup final takes place tonight at the Conservative Club with Colliton Wide Boys taking on last seasons winners The Imps.
The plate final takes place at the Trinity Club where Patriots play Section B winners Allsorts.

Thursday night winners

Lots of skittlers turned up at the Trinity club to play and support their captain or their skitter-up.
There was 16 turned out for the Ladies Captain cup. The 5 hand final was close between Sharon Rose of Crackerjacs and Mel Gosney of Colliton Devils, with Mel winning after needing a 9 to win.
The Mens captains cup saw 32 entered . The final saw Gary King of Barmy Army beat Andy Roberts of Tinklers.
It was the first year for the sticker-uppers to have their own cup. It was well supported with 32 entering. It was eventually won by Colliton Thatchers beating Barmy Army.

Secretaries Shield and Sticker Up cup

The Secretaries Shield and Sticker Up cup is taking place at the Trinity Club on Thursday night at the Trinity Club. All players to be on the alley by 8pm.

Skittler of the week

Doug Chalmers of Colliton Spares was skittler of the week as he hit 72 in his teams vital win against Brewers Bees at the Colliton Club.

Section A Table

1. Marco Wanderers 46pts
2. Colliton Wide Boys 38pts
3. Patriots 38pts
4. The Imps 36pts
5. 3CA 36pts
6. Brewers Bees 31pts
7. Skimmers 26pts
8. Milborne Woodman 26pts
9. Breakaways 24pts
10. Slingers 24pts
11. Dewlish Monsters 24pts
12. Puddletown Wanderers 19pts
13. Colliton Spares 18pts
14. Hammers 17pts
15. Colliton Muckspreaders 17pts

Colliton Wide Boys will play Patriots in a play off for second place.

Allsorts into plate final

Allsorts 395 Merrymen382 (at Royal Oak, Milborne)

Allsorts made it into the plate final last night beating Merrymen by 13 pins.

Imps storm into final

3CA 455 The Imps 531 (at the Chalk & Cheese)

Neither team had previously played on the very short Chalk & Cheese alley at Maiden Newton until they met last night in the knock out cup semi final.
3CA won the toss and threw first hitting 65 to which The Imps hit a very big 83 hand to go 18 pins up. 69 was hit by 3CA on the second hand but The Imps again had a big hand hitting 76 to go 25 up. 3CA came back strong on the third hand hitting a fine 77 hand that The Imps got close to hitting another 76 to lose just 1 pin. 3CA again hit 69 on the fourth hand but there was no stopping The Imps as they hit 73 to go 28 up. A 57 hand by 3CA on the fifth hand gave The Imps the chance to go further ahead and when they hit a 77 hand the difference between the teams was 48 pins. 3CA hit 63 on the sixth hand and The Imps pulled 7 more pins hitting 70. On the last hand 3CA could only manage 55 while The Imps finished with another big hand of 76 to cap a fine win by 76 pins.
Barry Knight was top for The Imps hitting 73 while Phil Goodland hit 72 and Andy Taylor hit 71.

Consistent Wide Boys into final

Slingers 442 - 490 Wide Boys (at the Frampton Arms)

Throwing first Wide Boys gave themselves four good stick-up chances, of which they managed to take three of them, to total a superb hand of 82. Slingers replied with 67 to leave themselves 15 pins down.

Wide Boys continued to skittle well and hit one stick-up on every hand for the next five hands. On the second hand they hit 66 which Slingers managed to beat by 1 to reduce the deficit to 14 pins. The third and fourth hands virtually settled the game when Wide Boys two hands of 69 pulled another 24 pins to increase their lead to 38.

Another two hands of 66 & 68 gained them another 9 pins to go into the last hand with a lead of 47. Another two stick-ups on the last hand led to a total of 70 and despite Slingers hitting three stick-ups they still lost another pin. Wide Boys good skittling was highlighted by the fact that the team only had 10 bolters during the game.
Wide Boys Steve Legg hit his highest score of the season with a 78.

Pogo leads Marco to win in yoyo match

Marco Wanderers 509 Slingers 493

Marco and the Slingers played out a classic match that could have gone either teams way. Slingers throwing first hit opening legs of 75 and 70 to take a lead of 25. A third leg score of 60 opened the door for Marco and they responded with a leg of 81 to reduce the Slingers lead to 4 pins thanks in part to an ‘18’ from Pete Bolton. Back came the Slingers with a leg of 77 and a solid follow up leg to increase their lead to 21 with two legs to go and after hitting a 67 leg in the sixth leg they had every right to think that they would be taking a healthy lead into the last leg. However Marco had other ideas and with stick ups from John ‘Pogo’ Norman (17), Ian Tubbs (13) and Eric McConkey (16) they hit a fine 88 leg to leave the match all square going into the deciding leg. Slingers showed their class by hitting a final leg of 76 to set the home team a tough target for victory, but determined to finish off the season in style, Marco ended with their highest leg of the season by hitting 92 thanks to five players hitting stick ups to secure victory by 16 pins. Three players hit over 70 for Marco with Pete Bolton (72), Eric McConkey (73) but top honours went to Pogo with 76.

Hammers go down with a win

Hammers 431 3CA 413

Hammers short stay in Section A ended last night but they went out with a fine win against one of the top teams in the section, they beat 3CA by 18 pins at the Trinity Club. Top score for 3CA was Malc Slade who hit 66.

Spares out of bottom two

Colliton Spares hit 495 to beat Brewers Bees at the Colliton Club on Friday night to finish out of the bottom two and unless the sections are changed to fourteen teams the Spares will be playing in Section A again next season.

Skimmers and Woodman draw again

Skimmers 425 Milborne Woodman 425

Skimmers and Woodmen drew again last night as they had also drew at Milborne earlier in the season.
A close match throughout, there was no more than 5 pins difference at any point. Skimmers threw first & started with a 64 to go 3 ahead. Woodmen pulled these back on the next hand to level the game. A hand of 67 put Skimmers 3 ahead on the 3rd. The 4th hand was tied but Woodmen then went 1 ahead on the 5th with 63 hand. The 6th hand was Woodmans lowest giving Skimmers a 5 pin lead going into the last. Skimmers could only manage 55 leaving Woodmen 61 for victory. They looked on course for the win with Dave Way their captain & last man needing 6 to win. But he could only manage 5 to draw.
Woodmen finish as the top Milborne team this season.
Top score for Skimmers - Steve Willsher 61
Top for Woodmen - A. Climo 56

Wanderers win keeps them up

Puddletown Wanderers 465 - 432 Wide Boys

Wide Boys threw first and hit 63 that Wanderers managed to beat by 5 pins mainly due to an 18 from Tony Belt. Wide Boys then hit a poor 58 hand that was looking quite good when the home team's top half could only manage 23 between them. However their bottom half then hit 2 stick-ups (including a 17 from Martin Tucker) to hit 45 and make the hand total 68 and move another 10 pins in front.

Wide Boys managed their first stick-up of the game on the third hand to hit 64 which surprisingly pulled back 8 pins even though Ian Belt had started with a stick-up of 13. Wide Boys were unable to capitalise on this good fortune and only managed to hit one more stick-up in the last 4 hands as they hit legs of 60, 68, 60 & 59. Wanderers continued to get stick-ups at the right times and finished with scores of 70, 65, 67 & 71 to run out comfortable winners by 33.

Imps finish with win

Dewlish Monsters 407 The Imps 410

The Imps finished their league season with a win away against Dewlish Monsters at Milborne on Friday night.
Monsters started with a 58 hand that The Imps beat hitting 63, Monsters next two hands were both 56 while The Imps hit 59 and 58 hands to go 10 pins in front.
The fourth hand was poor from both teams with Monsters hitting 52 and The Imps hitting 53. Both teams improved on the fifth hand as Monsters hit a hand of 62 which The Imps beat by 3 pins hitting a 65 hand to go 14 up.
The game looked over as Monsters hit 58 on the sixth hand but a poor 51 hand by The Imps put only 7 pins between the teams. Monsters finished strong hitting a 65 hand to leave The Imps needing 58 to win, a steady hand was played by The Imps but anchor man Andy Taylor still needed 6 to win, a 9 was achieved by Andy and The Imps had a 3 pin victory.
Top score for Monsters was Martin Tisseman with 56, while The Imps top man was Barry Knight who hit 58.

Ladies Finals

Oakettes managed to do the double by winning section A ladies and then winning the Ladies Knock-out Cup. They beat Cheeky pinky ladies by 12 pins at the three compasses pub at Charminster.
The Plate final was played at the Victoria Hotel pub with some high scores achieved, Borough Bombshells eventually beat Colliton Nik-Naks by 22 . Overall totals were Bombshells 430 and Nik-Naks 408. Mandy Larder hit 69 to be top score for Nik-Naks and Lindsey Watson hit an excellent 70 for Bombshells.

Patriots win leaves Spreaders in danger

Patriots won their last match of the season at home to Colliton Muckspreaders on Thursday night. Spreaders were struggling for a side and were never in the game as Patriots kept the pressure on second placed Wide Boys. The defeat leaves Spreaders in danger of going down if Spares can win their last match of the season.