THE LATEST Swan Studley Skittles League games ended with Well Developed climbing to what is, for them, the dizzy heights of third place thanks to a narrow win over Team BG.
Well Developed started brightly to take a four-pin lead after leg one, only to see their advantage crumble to a deficit of one pin as Team BG took leg two by five pins.
The game was then level after leg three when Well Developed took it by a single pin before making a 70-pin score in leg four to lead by ten.
Finally, left only 47 pins to win, Well Developed bowled unconvincingly and it was left to last man Martin Brennan to get them over the line. Top scores for the winners came from Liz Hindson with 36, Jim Child 35 (12-stack) and 33 each from Ron Skidmore, Ros Pottinger and Janina Brennan.
Best for Team BG were Ray Cartwright (12-stack) and Gail Stringer with 38 each and Stuart Stringer and Clayton Baker with 31 apiece.
Engineers had few problems maintaining their 100 per cent start after taking each of the first three legs against Swingers to hold a comfortable 29-pin lead.
Swingers at least salvaged an extra point with a 75-pin fourth leg to reduce their deficit, if only by three pins. Engineers then restored order in their favour by winning the last leg and the game.
In good form for Engineers were Brandon Kelso making 43 (14-stack), Mark Ganderton 37 and Ian Greenway 33. Swingers’ best replies were from Margaret Hendy 35, John Marsh 34 and Brenda Leake 33.
After scoring 83 pins and easily taking leg one by 21 pins, Lodge Farmers looked odds-on to beat winless Jumbo Jets.
Farmers then dropped in a poor leg-two score to which Jumbos replied with 78 pins to win that leg by 23 pins and open a narrow two-pin lead.
Jumbos just edged leg three before effectively deciding the game by winning leg four to then lead by 15 pins. Jumbos finally left Lodge Farmers to get 76 pins in their last leg to maintain their winning league start but it was a target they rarely looked likely to achieve.
Jumbos had Len Quartly scoring 40 (15-stack), Mick Stanton 37 and Rob Quartly and Rich Johnston 36 each. Lodge Farmers’ top-scorers were Patsy Kane 46 (15-stack), Tim Jones 35 and Jason Kirk and Richard Cunningham 33 apiece.
Alcester Nomads were the only team to take maximum points as they cruised home against winless Swan.
Up by 12 pins after leg one, Nomads could afford to take each of the remaining four legs by just single figures for a win which keeps them comfortably in second place.
Consolation for Swan was Andy Reynolds making 44 (two 11-stacks) – his team’s best individual score to date – while team-mates Charlie Withers and Helen Racki made 35 each. Nomads had in-form Bob Browning scoring 46 (16-stack), Geoff Loat 40 and Alan Spreckley 38.
Results: Team BG 3 (297) Well Developed 8 (303); Engineers 9 (327) Swingers 2 (297); Jumbo Jet Set 8 (327) Lodge Farmers 3 (317); Alcester Nomads 10 (342) Swan 1 (311).
