BOTH Well Developed and Lodge Farmers lost the opening two legs and each were 16 points adrift before stirring themselves to take the remaining three legs to run out comfortable winners against their opponents in the latest round of Swan Studley Skittles League fixtures.
Well Developed and Alley Cats were level going into the fifth legs and a strong finish by Well Developed left their opponents needing 67 pins to win, but Alley Cats started slowly in the final leg and never looked likely to seal victory.
Well Developed’s Ron Skidmore made 37, Margueritte Bayley 36 and Jim Child 34, whilst Pete Sollis (40), Neil Harrison (35) and Tony O’Connor (32) scored well for Alley Cats.
Alcester Nomads, with a season’s lowest total, lost to Lodge Farmers and this looks to have ended their title hopes.
Farmers were just two pins ahead going into the final legs, only for Nomads to post a poor leg total, leaving their opponents requiring 51 pins to win – a total achieved with two players still to bowl.
This was a fourth successive win for Farmers and their first for many seasons against Nomads. Farmers had Glyn Morley making 36, Alan Rumble 35 and 34 each from Chris Prichard and Tim Jones, whilst best for Nomads came from Alan Spreckley (40 – 13-stack), Tony Moore (36) and Penny Moore (34).
Still fighting for the runners-up spot are Maudslay who, despite producing their season’s lowest team total, narrowly beat a Swan team unable to find their form of recent seasons.
There were scores of 35 each for the victors from Mark Sanseverino and Paul Matthews and 34 from Geoff Mayneord. Swan’s main scorers were Phil Bussey with 39 and Andy Reynolds’ 37.
Meanwhile, leaders Engineers cruised home against Team BG. Although just one pin separated the teams after two legs, Engineers put on the after-burners with third and fourth leg totals of 81 and 74 and also narrowly pinched the last leg.
In good form for the winners were Brandon Kelso (45 – 17-stack), Andy Clewlow (41) and Dennis Compton (40 – 16-stack). It was a third successive loss now for Team BG who had Rob Baker making 37, Gail Stringer 35 and Ray Cartwright and Lin Dyer 32 each.
Swingers looked in good form when narrowly taking the first leg with 72 pins, but they could not maintain that form against Jumbo Jet Set who took the next two legs to set up a fairly easy win.
Jumbos’ Mick Stanton scored 37, Les Sheldon 36 and there was 34 apiece from Ray Jones and Dave Young. Good responses for Swingers came from Larry Hanks with 36, Norman Sutton with 34 and Paul Clifton’s 32.
Results: Well Developed 8 (310) Alley Cats 3 (297); Alcester Nomads 3 (300) Lodge Farmers 8 (319); Maudslay 8 (301) Swan 3 (297); Team BG 1.5 (305) Engineers 9.5 (344); Swingers 3 (297) Jumbo Jet Set 8 (316).
