Lodge Farmers Fall to Bogey Team

Lodge Farmers lost top spot in the league with just their season’s second loss, both of which have been against bogey team Bernie’s Bolts. Even in the third game between the two sides, which Farmers did win, Bolts took more points from that game than any other team has in a game against Farmers.

The Bolts started well making a first leg score of 71 to open up a seven pin lead before taking leg two by a single pin. The game was effectively decided when Bolts made 67 pins in leg three to which Lodge Farmers replied with just 54 and be 21 pins adrift. Farmers finally gained a consolation point when winning leg four, but had only reduced their arrears to 18 pins. Bolts then again scored well in leg five to leave Farmers wanting a daunting 86 to win they which never looked likely to make and finally finished with their lowest team total of the season.

Paul Blayney made 42 (incl 14 stack); Dave Williams 40 (13 stack); and Andy Gill-Smith 37 for the winners while Lodge Farmers best came from Richard Long with 34; Paul Cotton 33; and Lynne Long 32.

Engineers took advantage of Lodge Farmers slip to top the table by a single point but only after a very edgy win against C&G Show. The game between the top two later this week could well decide which team will take the title although each will still have a further three games to complete.

The new league leaders won the first two legs narrowly and then leg three more comfortably to build a lead of 10 pins, only to falter in leg four when C&G reduced that lead to a mere two pins and threatened to derail Engineers title push. C&G though couldn’t muster a big last leg score and left Engineers wanting only a modest 58 pins to win. Engineers initially made heavy weather of reaching that target but recovered as the leg progressed although it needed last man Mark Ganderton to get them over the line. Ganderton, Craig Sears, & Andy Clewlow finished with 35 pins each for Engineers. C&G Shows top scorers were Angela Guest with 42 (11 stack); Dave Orton 39; and 35 each from Aaron Evans and Keith Edwards.

The Borough made their highest team score of the season to beat Nomads and leap frog their opponents in the table if only by a half point. The Borough took leg one comfortably to lead by 13 pins only for Nomads to cut that lead to eight after leg two, before The Borough extended their lead over the next two legs to 18 pins. Needing to score big in leg five to stand a chance of winning the game, Nomads could only manage 57 pins to leave The Borough wanting just 40 to take the game. The final result was never in doubt and the target was reached as early as their seventh bowler before a further leg point was gained when their last three bowlers took their leg total to 65 pins. Tom Baker shone for The Borough making 47 (17 & 12 stacks) with good support coming from Andrew Taylor and Scott Few 36 each. Nomads had Mac Eaton with 37; Jim Child 35; and 32 each from Wendy Coombes and Andrew Coombes.

Results

Bernie’s Bolts 327 (9pts) v Lodge Farmers 301 (2pts)

C&G Show 315 (2pts) v Engineers 319 (9pts)

The Borough 333 (9pts) v Nomads 307 (2pts)