2007/8 Season Match Reports
(final)
26th September v Legion A So the season is underway, and a great win to open oour account. An ordinary opening roll turned into a decent 64 with a 7, 9 finish from Statto & Stabber and the Legion could only manage 55 in reply. That set the tone, and after being 18 up after 3, the 4th roll saw any hope for the Legion dashed as we posted 73 thanks to an awesome spare of 15 from the skipper. Another decent roll (62) on the final roll left the Legion clutching at straws and we ran out very comfortable winners by 46 pins. Top Dog was very obviously Sparky, although honourable mentions must go to Stabber (32), Stockings (31) and Ted (30). There was early season rustiness for the Panther (19) and Rossi (20) |
| 4th Oct v Swanderers No-one it appears likes the Swan aley. Stocks in particualr said before this match he hated it. Then he drops 36! It is a tough alley, but we averaged over 61 a roll in demolishing the Swanderers on their home patch. Sparky's boys look on fire so far this season (mostly), although it's early days and we have been guilty of complacency in the past. Beer wasn't too hot, but the sausages & chips were decent. Tope Dog was the aforemetioned Mr Stockings, with Exocet & Statto in supporting roles notching 29 apiece. There was a good debut for Big Si with 28, the same score as JR - nice to see him back in the pins. A couple struggled, and the nights Ugly Ducklings were Father Ted (19) and Gilo back on an old hunting ground with 20. |
10th October vs Terriers |
| 17th October vs Ex's Boys Thanks to Stabber for this weeks column Victory was never in doubt after an opening roll saw the lads 14 pins ahead which increased to 33 after the second roll. The lads understandably took their foot off the gas in the last 3 rolls and eventually ended up winning by 30 pins. Trigger in his now established roll as lead off man racked a marvellous 15 off his first 2 rolls and this set the pattern for the evening. Solid performances by Exocet, Skipper, Tankerman and Mavis who all hit 28/29 made this a great team performance. "Super" Stocks will be disappointed with his first sub 30 roll of only 27!. Meanwhile at the non business end of the performance table came DJ, JR, Nightmare, Teddings and Stabber. who all hit under 25. A marvellous 9 from Stabber rather flattered his score of only 24. Meanwhile, Veteran Gilo ripped the yellow shirt of Stocks' back with a barnstorming 30. 4 out of 4 for the lads see's us top of the table. The happy embroidery shop are now on standby for next years manufacture of the "honours" shirts. |
| 23rd October v Pilot Regulars |
| 7th November v Coro Oldies This was a poor performance. We would have expected to take maximum points but ended with only a share as the Oldies kept nagging away at our inconsistent and under par scores. The warm alley is usually condusive to splashes, but not tonight. In fact several peope had trouble keeping the ball on the alley as 48 bolters were sent down. In fact the Oldies should have snatched the match. needing 7 to win on the last roll their anchorman hit 6 off thefront then missed with his last two balls as we got out of jail. Only DJ (31) and Exocet (28) really stood out, whilst Nightmare's 20 and Mavis's 21 included 13 bolters between them |
| 14th November v Ex's C Great expectations abound at the Ex's Cheap beer and a splash alley. Sadly only the beer was cheap as we succumbed to a decent Ex's side. After a bright 67 opener, and their huge 72 in the 3rd,we had a massive chance in the 4th roll to claw things back after their dodgy 58, but managed only a measly 59 ourselves, and that left us too much to do in the last. 50 bolters on the night - a poor effort on this alley. sparky and Stabber led the way with 29 each, but we genuinely expect the Diddler to go when we play here, and we were all well short this time. |
| 21st November v Cons A We just can't get splashes on our home alley at the moment. On an alley where we average well over 300, it was a surprise that we won with just 283 last night, but 50 bolters didn't help our cause. We've been missing Ted, and Harv is strangely below par - even Stockings missed out last night. The skipper's in top form though, and another 29 from him keeps the yellow shirt. Trig and Slowhand amassed 7 bolters apiece, and Harv was close behind on 6. We'll take anything at the moment - a win's a win. |
| 28th November v Whalers The home alley is still poving trickier than normal, though a 309 this week was a vast improvement over last week, and enough to secure a 20 pin win over the Whalers. It was a case of steady if unspectacular skittles, as scores of 62, 60, 61, 67 and 59 did for the opposition, with Stocks (31) and Tankerman (29) leading from the front. No-one scored below 22 which was impressive, although as usual we have to name the bottom two, in this case JR (22) and Nightmare (23), but that's rather being unfair on them in a good team effort. |
| 5th December v DP Legion Our good form in Division 2 of the Penarth & District Skittles League continued last night as we put the Dinas Powys Legion side to the sword. In typically rumbustuos style, with Stockings leading the singing (or rather shouting), we ran out winners by 16 pins on a tough alley. Top scorer was Nightmare with 27 with Gilo on 26, whilst others including some of the big guns didn't overly trouble the scorers. Champagne moment of the evening, Stockings' little canter in the near altogether aside, was Stabber leading the three cheers for the opposition and calling them the "Swanderers" instead of the DP Legion. For those of you that don't know, the Swanderers are the OTHER team from the pub we played last night, and his good intentions were met with a stony silence by the opposition (who are actually all great lads!) |
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20th December vs Cutters (Ex's) |
| 9th January vs Cefn Originals This was our match re-arranged from 31st October when City were away at Liverpool. The Cef is a tough alley - one of the hardest in the league with skinny pins and big gaps and we rarely do that weel there. In this match though the pins were flying everywhere (well almost). 309 is an average of 61.8 a roll, and Harv's 31 indicates that the alley was scoring well on the night. Statto didn't agree and only a final 6 from him dragged him to 18. Trigger floored 9 - the first time we've seen a maximum at the Cef for a good while. This win keeps us right up there and some cosnsistency over the next few weeks will set us well for promotion. However, we know what can happen when the skipper goes away for a couple of weeks - last year we threw it away jsut after the turn, so this year we're looking for some more steel. |
| 16th January vs Legion A With Sparky absent, Stabber took the reins as we moved into the second half of the season at the top of the table. Things weren't looking good after the first roll when we found ourself 2 down. We couldn't haul any back on the 2nd roll either, but in the 3rd we overcame the opposition's consistency (59, 59, 59) with a 72 to put us 13 up. They responded with a 62 which we matched, but that 3rd roll had done the trick, and when we scored 69 in the final roll including a 9 for Exocet, the victory seemed easier than it probably was. It's testament to the spirit in the side at present that we can post scores like this and turn the screw. Exocet was the main man with a stonking 35, whilst DJ who's having a blinding season, Nightmare and Statto all recorded 30. At the other end of the scorecard, Mavis (20) and Tankerman (18) contributed to the win. Stand in skipper Stabber felt the pressure with 21, but was pleased with the win. "The boys done me proud" he said in a tearful post match interview. " I loves them all like brothers..." |
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23rd January vs Swanderers |
| 30th January vs Terriers This was a very odd match. The oppo only managed to put 49 on the board first up, and our 66 gave us a 17 pin lead, but an awful 45 by us on our 2nd roll following their 62 meant we were back level. Then they imploded, and their 41 was matched by 70 from us meaning in 3 rolls we'd gone from 17 up, to level to 29 up.A 67 by the Terriers on the 4th matched another poor roll of 53 from us put the cat amongst the pigeons temporarily, andf big roll by them on the last would have been a tester, but luckily they only floored 57. That left us 43 to win, and a 64 saw us home with plenty of room to spare. Rossi's 31 was the Dog score, whilst the talking point was Stabbers HUGE bolter on his 2nd roll, that frankly never got on the alley. Left handers eh? |
| 6th February vs Ex's Boys We should have won this one easily, but for the second time in a week managed to throw away a commanding lead, but this time couldn't get it back. It all started so well as a 63 and 60 (respectable but not outstanding) on our first two rolls left us 11 up. But then disaster, as a 49 followed by a 52, with only four scores above 5 in 24 rolls, coupled to a determined and hard nosed fightback by the Boys who hit 70 on their 4th, left us 10 down going into the last roll. A determined 64 may well have been enough without those middle 2 rolls, but that left them needing only 55 to win, and they ran out winners by 4 pins. 27 got the Dog shirt this week, with Harv and Exocet leading the way. There were so many balls missing wide on both flanks that at times it was hard to know what we were aiming at. Verdict - must do better for the skipper on his return next week, or it's going to be 2nd Division skittles again next season. For information, we've now missed with 610 balls this season - that's the equivalent of one man getting a sunshine every roll for 40 matches (almost 2 seasons), or to look at it another way, only scoring with 28 balls of every 36 rolled. Scary |
| 13th February vs Pilot Regulars This match was rearranged from 14th Feb, presumably to give players a chance to get some brownie points from their missus. We'd have been better off getting brownie points from the skipper by winning this one, but for the 3rd time in four matches we lost, our promotion hopes taking a nosedive along the way. The deep Pilot alley known locally as Big Pit (actually it isn't - I just made that up) isn't noted for it's splashes, and we didn't get any. Only Stocking (29) and Gilo (27) looked anything like comfortable, and bolters abounded, with Nightmare, Tankerman and Mavis struggling most of all. Anchorman Stabber injured himself early in the piece and that injury plus a loss of form puts his place against the Cefn Originals next week in doubt. Sparky couldn't believe what he was seeing, and is asking, nay demanding better of his charges at next week's home match. We're going to have to win most if not all of our remaining matches if we're going to go up now. As usual at the Pilot, the oppo were great and the sauasage and chips went down well. |
| 21st February vs Cefn Originals This wasn't the most convincing win you'll ever see, but it was a win, and after recent weeks we're glad of that. Exocet top scored with 29 on a night when only 2 others broke 25, but fortunately it was good enough. Exo also find himself just 0.05 off the top spot in the table, and he's in with a great shout of his first championship title as we move into the last 6 matches. Elsewhere it was a question of missing the middle pin more often than not, which is probably why we ended up failing to break 300 for the 5th time in the last 6 home matches. still, promotion is still in our own hands, and next week we visit the Coronation Club for our first league match there in while when we face the Coro Oldies. Bring 'em on! |
| 27th February vs Coronation Oldies This wasn't our finest hour, but it was enough to beat the Oldies on their home turf. The match will forever be remembered not for the win but for the pin that dinged off Stabber's head from an Exocet roll that pinged off the wall or something similar. That'll teach him to keep his eyes open! It was also about as exciting as it got. Trigger and Mavis recovered from recent poor form to share the Top Dog spot, the shirt going to Trigger after a roll off. Still in with a big shout of going up this year. |
| 5th March vs Ex's C's We needed to put in a good shift against promotion rivals the Exc's C's, and we did. We looked almost back to our early season form as we floored over 300 on the home alley for the first time in ages. 5 down on the first roll, we rallied and put our noses in front on the second and stayed there. Tope performances all round were in evidence, no-one getting less than 23, with the night's performances coming from Gilo & Stabber with 30 apiece, and "Mr Consistent" Stockings top scoring with 31. Gilo and Sparky both floored 9's, Sparky quite thankful after his 9 enabled him to get to 23 - he'd have been in trouble without that one! |
| 20th March vs Whalers The Cons is one of the hardest alleys in the League, and we hadn't played there for a while. It didn't take long though to realise how tricky this alley is. An opening 53 by us was enough for a 9 pin advantage, which we extended to 10 on roll 2. They pulled a few back on the 3rd, but a 43 on their 4th opened the door for us, and another 53 followed by a 48 in the last was enough to give us victory by 19 pins. Gilo was Top Dog with a super 29, whilst Trigger and a slightly worse for wear Exocet managed 15 apiece at the other end. 3 games to go and we're at least equal top, so another 2 wins should do the job for promotion. |
| 26th March vs DP Legion In joyous scenes of champagne being sprayed everywhere we celebrated our promotion to the 1st Division after beating the DP Legion. Actually there was no champagne (too expensive) but someone did spill some Brains Dark. The points in the bag, promotion is we think, ours, although yet to be confirmed. There's still the title to play for though, and on current form we should be confident but not complacent. 30's apiece from JR and Gilo and a 31 from Harv led the way, but everyone was is a hero when you get promoted. |
| 9th April vs Cutters Promotion selaed and so the target is the Title. Well on last night's performance we aint going to win that. An awful 51 start let the experienced Cutters side take a 10 pin lead. We pulled that back on a crazy second roll, where Trigger took 8 of the front and then threw 2 bolters at the last standing pin, Gilo hit a 9 and Stockings floored 14 pins worth of spare. But it was another step backwards as we only managed 55 on thr 3rd roll. 64 on the 4th gave us some hope, but a final 53 meant it was all over bar the shouting, and the Cutters eventually ran out winners by 11 pins. Top Dog by a country mile was Stockings Diddler winning 36, whilst at the other end JR propped everyone else up with his 20. |
| 16th April vs Cons A Our final match of this campaign was our postponed match against the Cons A and we needed to win to be sure of at least a playoff for the Division 2 Title, and maybe the title itslef. We played this at our alley as the Cons alley wasn't free. We were happy enough about that as we don't particualrly like the low scoring Cons alley. However, we did our best to turn our alley in the Cons alley! A 56 opening roll including a big sunshine from Trigger gave us only a 5 pin lead. We added a fruther 8 pins to that with a second roll 60 including a 9 from Nightmare, but another 56 on the 3rd set hearts fluttering. A 62 on the 4th calmed nerves and 9th man Gilo sealed the win and points on the final roll. Exocet top socred with 33 with Stabber recording a fine 30. All we can do now is wait to see the outcome of the Ex's C's matches in hand to see if we're Champions or have to go into a playoff with them. |
