Lodge Farmers Lead the Way
The first two weeks of 2025, have seen Lodge Farmers emerge as slight favourites for the league title.
In week one, they beat The Borough to set a seven match winning sequence to remain unbeaten and have a game in hand over the chasing pack. For Lodge Farmers, Andy Whittle starred making 43 (incl a 14 stack) and Richard Long 37, while for The Borough best scores came from Rhiannon Moseley and Steve Court with 37 and 35 respectively.
Engineers kept on the leader’s tail by easily beating C&G Show thanks largely to the Kelso family of Brandon scoring 42 (incl 16 stack), Joe 38, and Josh 36. C&G Show had good individual scores of 34 each from Angela Guest and Paul O’Neill, with the former continuing to top her team’s aggregate scoring and averages.
Nomads continue to struggle as they lost to a resurgent Bernie’s Bolts in a low scoring game. Alan Cummings top scored for Nomads with 38 pins with Phil Jones chipping in with 35. Bolt’s had Andy Gill-Smith make 36 and Lewis McSweeney 35.
The second week started well for The Borough, who claimed their first win of the season to climb off the bottom of the table when they beat C&G Show. It meant that C&G Show slipped to the basement spot despite another good score from Angela Guest 41 (incl 11 stack) and a season’s best of 39 (incl 11 stack) from Rich Fisher. The Borough’s winning total of 332 was their season’s best boosted by Jack Court with 41 (incl 14 stack), and 37 each from Steve Court, and Scott and Charles Few – the last two each having stacks of 13.
Jumbo Jets started their year with a win over Nomads thanks to 35 pins from Dave Marriott and 34 each from Rob Quartly, Darren Summers and Dennis Compton. Nomads’ skipper Alan Cummings again top scored with 38 to maintain his excellent form but was disappointed to miss out scoring even more having set up a stack scoring opportunity. Mac Eaton also scored well for Nomads with 37.
The surprise of the new year was Engineers failing to score over 300 pins. Opponent’s Bernie’s Bolts took advantage to rack up a welcome second win of 2025 and hint they might yet force themselves into the title race. For the winners, Jim Williamson made 40 and Craig McSweeney 38. Best scores of 34 for Engineers came from skipper Andy Clewlow and Brandon Kelso.
Lodge Farmers 326 pins (9pts) – The Borough 297 (2pts)
C&G Show 307 (2pts) – Engineers 338 (9pts)
Nomads 284 (3pts) – Bernie’s Bolts 302 (8pts)
The Borough 332 pins (9pts) – C&G Show 324 pins (2pts)
Jumbo Jet Set 308 (8pts) – Nomads 294 (3pts)
Engineers 294 (3pts) – Bernie’s Bolts 315 (8pts)