WITH their first win of the Swan Studley Skittles League season, Alley Cats shuffled two places up the table after overcoming Well Developed, who are bottom of the pile without a victory.
For the first time this season Well Developed fielded a full team, but still found themselves seven pins down after leg one and slipped further behind over the next two legs before rallying to reduce the deficit to 12 pins after leg four.
Alley Cats then left their opponents requiring 72 pins to take the game which proved too much for Well Developed. Alley Cats’ Neil Harrison scored 37 pins to equal his team’s highest individual score to date, with Malcolm Batchelor and Tony O’Connor contributing 36 and 34 respectively.
Best for Well Developed were Martin Brennan with 32 and 31 each from Ros Pottinger and Shirley Searle.
Lodge Farmers and Team BG swapped blows and the lead over the first three legs before Lodge Farmers pulled away to win the game.
After leg one, Team BG were six pins adrift but reacted well to themselves lead by 15 pins after leg two. Lodge Farmers then won leg three to regain the lead by a margin of 11 pins.
Team BG could not repeat their second leg heroics in leg four as Lodge Framers extended their lead to 14 pins before they also took the last leg.
Consolation for Team BG was their team’s highest individual score this season of 43 (13-stack) from Alex Beard in a team total that was also their highest this season. Nina Moore and Gail Stringer made 36 and 33 respectively for the losers.
Lodge Farmers had good scores from Glyn Morley (43, 15-stack), Kim Clewlow (38, 12-stack) and Lynne Long (36).
At the top of the table, Maudslay remain unbeaten after scraping through by only four pins against Alcester Nomads, who actually won three of the five legs.
After a four-game winning start to their season, Nomads seem to have lost their way with this their third straight defeat despite scores of 34 each from Bob Browning and Geoff Loat.
For Maudslay, Keith Fryer made 38, Paul Matthews 36 and Dick Walters 35.
Results: Alley Cats 9 (304) Well Developed 2 (285); Lodge Farmers 9 (330) Team BG 2 (312); Alcester Nomads 4 (316) Maudslay 7 (320).
