SWAN Studley Skittles League representative side Renegades experienced mixed emotions as they began their annual campaign to qualify for the British Skittles Championships in Torquay.
Renegades’ opening qualifying matches in the four-team group were both played on their home alley at Mettis Sports & Social Club and Renegades went down narrowly to Rattler Boyz of Worcester before recovering to overturn strong opposition and past championship winners Highwaymen, also from Worcester.
Against Rattler Boyz, Renegades started strongly in taking each of the first three legs to build a 16-pin advantage thanks largely to stacks of 16 and 13 from Craig Sears and Geoff Loat respectively.
However, as in previous campaigns, Renegades flattered to deceive and were unable to close out the game in their favour.
Rattler Boyz pulled a pin back after leg four, before reducing their deficit to only five pins after leg five as their anchorman Darren Brace registered a 17-stack.
This boosted Rattler Boyz and, with a big score in their last leg, including another 17 stack, this time from Laurence Carey, they left Renegades 59 to win.
Renegades, however, never looked likely to make that total and finally finished with their worst leg score of the game.
For Renegades, Sears top-scored with 50, Loat made 46 and Glyn Morley 44. Rattler Boyz had best scores of 49 from Brace, 47 from Carey and 43 from Adie Wooler.
After the disappointment of the opening fixture, the high-scoring and brilliant win against Highwaymen, if unexpected, was very welcome.
The first leg for each team was tied before Renegades took leg two by 14 pins as Rob Quartly and Mac Eaton made stacks of 13 and 12 respectively.
Leg three had still more stacks from each team. Alan Cummings had a 14-stack and captain Andy Clewlow a ten-stack for Renegades, only for Highwaymen’s Matt Grainger and Dave Evans to reply with 14 and 13 stacks as their team made a leg score of 74 pins – the highest leg score of the game – to leave Renegades only six pins ahead.
Undaunted, Renegades then produced a 72-pin leg of their own in leg four including two stacks – Len Quartly with 16 and Morley 14.
Highwaymen could not find a stack in their leg four and that meant Renegades had stretched their lead to 22 pins.
Surprising or not after the earlier fireworks from both teams, there were no further stacks in the final two legs. Highwaymen did edge leg five by three pins but, with the last leg scores tied, Renegades ran out winners by a healthy 19 pins.
Renegades’ Len Quartly finished with 51 pins, Cummings 48 and Mac Eaton 46. Highwaymen’s best came from Evans with 53, Grainger 48 and Dean Banfield 43.
Results: Renegades 329 Rattler Boyz 338; Renegades 358 Highwaymen 339.
