Six more games this week, and the three in Division 1 showed again just how competitive the top flight seems to be. Splitz ‘N’ Giggles pulled off the result & performance of the week, beating leaders Lads’ Night Out 6-4 with a best ever pin total of 200. The victory was powered by a superlative appearance from captain Rob Perry, who smacked a new individual high score for the season (47), bagging a pair of spares on the way - he looked unbeatable all night, and his team backed him up with plenty of other quality scores. Leg 1 saw scores level by the anchors, but Rob started as he meant to go on with a 9 to win the leg, 38-35. LNO were 2 pins up in the 2nd, but Perry’s 14 spare got Splitz to a winning 43. Lads managed to get themselves on the board in the beer leg, winning 4 drinks on the way to a 40 pins, and they levelled things up after a tight 4th, 39-37. The decider saw Splitz put it all together, with three 8s to accompany Rob’s second spare of the night (12) driving them to the match win, and a massive 46 pin leg. Aside from Rob’s effort for SNG, Ethan Gibbs whacked 36, Les Beard matched his PB (32) and new player Ian hit 30 in his first ever game. A shellshocked LNO’s best came from Alex Slezak (33). Elsewhere in Div 1, Living On A Spare schooled newbies Absolutely Skittled with a 9-1 pummelling. In fairness, the game was close at the start, the first leg drawn 34 all after LOAS squandered a lead and AbSki reeled them in. Leg 2 followed a similar vein but this time captain Matt just got Spares over the line by a pin, 33-32. From then on LOAS took control, winning the next three legs with scores of 37, 41 & 36 to complete the thrashing. Spares were a solid unit across with piece, with 4 scores over 30 and Geoff Fletcher’s 34 & Matt Wright’s 33 the pick; Dave Norris (34) & Craig Davis (33) were AbSki’s finest. Best Sellers and Alsorts fought a ding-dong battle with Sorts coming out on top 6-4, despite losing the pins 167-169. Sellers got off to their usual strong star, winning leg 1 38-36, but Alsorts hit back in the second with a 42 pin leg. Both teams didn’t seem to fancy a beer much, Sorts stumbling to just 20, and Sellers making 32 (and four drinks), but Grainger’s men came back again, taking the 4th comfortably (37-31). The deciding 5th was a middling affair, with no player hitting more than 6 until Steve ‘Leafy’ Lee’s’ 8 levelled things up with just the anchors to play; Grainger defeated Wadsworth in the captains’ shootout and Alsorts had their victory. Duncan Passey’s 33 was the best score on the night. The Division 2 games saw two big wins, another great individual performance, and a second victory for Sianie’s Angels. In any other week, David Walters’ massive 40 in Remnants’ whitewash of Maclean Smilers would easily top the scores, but it’s second best to Rob Perry this time. Smilers started reasonably and were 8 pins ahead in the first before David hit a 13 spare in anchor and stole the leg away. Remnants snuck ahead in the second and stayed there, following up with a comfortable beer win with 37 pins. Smilers were looking good for some points in the 4th but Captain Walters slapped over 8 and nicked it by a pin, and Remnants finished with aplomb, whacking 39 pins to get the 10-0. Aside from David’s 40, there were 30s from Victoria Barlow & Simon Barton. Rollin’ Pins thumped Late Knights 8-2, but a couple of pins the other way would have seen Knights take the win - that’s skittles, I guess. Pins started very lively, hitting 37 to get the first points on the board, but Knights matched their score in winning the 2nd and we were all square. Best leg of the night was the third, with all players matching their opponent’s scores apart from Olli Henderson who beat his man 8-7 and Pins then stayed ahead to win it 37-36. This put fire in their bellies, and Bell’s lot smacked 37 in the 4th before another squeaky one in the last. Late Knights actually got their noses in front initially, but were pegged back to level scores by the time the anchors walked out, and Mark Reeves’ 8 meant maximum points were secured. Skittler of the game honours go to Penny Meacham (35), with Olli making 34 for the Pins. Finally, as mentioned previously, Sianie’s Angels secured a 2nd win of the season as they beat Big ‘Uns 6-4. First blood went to Big ‘Uns here, 32-26 in leg 1, and they were on 4 points at the end of a closely contested second. After that, Angels got themselves going properly and rattled off three legs on the spin, hitting 32 pins in each, and victory in the match was theirs. Big ‘Uns were just a pin short in the 4th, but otherwise didn’t put up much of a fight. Top ballers were both Angels - Marcus Holford pegging 32 and James Crosby posting 31. This win didn’t lift Angels off the bottom, but they are just 6 points behind Late Knights now and have a game in hand. Right then, back to a full programme for week 26, with 8 games across the week including three games now on Monday due to team availability issues. See you at the club!

WEEK 25