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.