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Hustlers in late push for glory

With the injuries racking up, a crook Hustlers ventured out to take on Saracens A, looking to finally get in the points.

A steady start saw JT get our first 40 (& 9, to boot) of the night, ably assisted by further 40s from debutant Chris & veteran Pete, putting us into an early 4 pin lead.  2nd leg saw Mike partner the deadly duo of TC (who did well to evade the clutches of our Brasilian mascot, Barry)& Stavros.  The lowest scoring leg did well to keep within 10 pins of the Saras & we turned around at the halfway point trailing by a narrow 6 pins, eminently gettable.

3rd leg set about closing the gap, with only Rich beating his man, despite our vice-skip’s 9 and Stu getting our 1st spare of the season, but somehow lost a further 2 pins, leaving the anchors to turn things our way.  Neil’s opening 9 helped close the gap, before a glorious pair of spares from him & Gary finally saw us regain the lead, albeit briefly.  An exchange of leads left it uo to the final hand to decide the match as we went into it all square.  With a 40 from Gary & Neil’s season high 53, the task ultimately proved just too tough & we fell by a mere 3 pins.

Hospitals Cup is upon us next week, and we travel to the Merryfellow to face the Rebels in our 3rd consecutive away match.

24/9/13 v Saracens A @ Saracens

JT

7 6 7 7 9 6 32 6

Chris

4 7 7 8 8 8 42 2
Pete 7 7 6 8 6 7 41

-4

1st leg total 125 v 121

AS

6 7 5 5 2 7 32 1

TC

1 6 6 5 7 8 33 -7
Mike 4 5 8 7 8 7 39 -4

2nd leg total 104 v 114

Rob

9 8 5 7 8 6 43 -2

Rich

7 7 6 6 8 8 42 1
Stu 4 6 11 7 8 6 42 -1

3rd leg total 127 v 129

Neil

9 14 7 8 8 7 53 9

Steve

6 7 6 7 6 3 35 -3
Gary 7 13 8 6 7 6 47

-1

4th leg total 135 v 130

Grand total 491 v 494

WON by -3

Bowled Over

Still very depleted, Hustlers ventured up to Shurdington, looking to get the season opening win as they took on Hatherley & Reddings CC.

A lively start soon saw the ‘Slurs edge into a narrow lead, only to see that whitttled away as the leg progressed, finally trailling by 21 pins.  2nd leg, with a still injured JT at the fore, got off to a flying start, pulling pins from the off.  But a glitch in form saw them leak a few pins, to leave us trailling by 48 at the midpoint.

Knowing all was not yet lost, 3rd leg set about closing the gap.  A hatful of 9s finally helped them field a healthy score, despite Clive knackering his back reaching for his pint, with Wallsy narrowly beating our skip to top score.  Only the 7 pins dropped was looking like a good sign as the anchors stepped up to pull the game back from the brink.  Mopre 9s ensued as Gary & Neil both clocked up a 40.  But it proved insufficient  in the end.  Although Hustlers improved on last week’s score, victory ultimately narrowly evaded their grasp.

It’s on the road again next week as we head to the Saracens Club, where we have tasted success in the past – we can do so again.

16/9/13 v Hatherley & Reddings CC @ Hatherley & Reddings CC

Lofty

6 7 6 7 5 3 34 -12

TC

7 5 4 4 7 4 31 -2
Pete 7 7 6 4 4 4 34

-7

1st leg total 99 v 120

JT

6 5 7 6 4 5 33 -11

Mike

7 4 4 7 5 5 32 -9
AS 6 5 6 6 7 4 34 -7

2nd leg total 99 v 126

Clive

7 6 8 9 7 6 43 -11

Steve

5 9 7 8 9 6 44 7
Stu 5 9 2 7 9 6 38 -3

3rd leg total 125 v 132

Gary

5 7 9 9 7 4 41 -3

Rob

7 6 9 6 5 6 39 -1
Neil 6 7 6 7 7 7 40

-7

4th leg total 120 v 131

Grand total 443 v 509

WON by -66

Living on barrowed time?

After a lovely Summer break, the new season has finally arrived and a much depleted Hustlers begin life in Prem B with a home game against the Baro Boys.

A bit of a mixed bag soon saw Pistols setting our first 40 of the season, thanks to our maiden spare.  TC’s negative BYM helped the Boys to set an initial lead of just 3 pins.  A rare appearance from Alan helped a steady 2nd leg pull back those pins and turn the game around at the halfway point to give us a narrow 6-pin lead.

With Stu winning the raffle, surely the omens were looking good.  2 spareless 40s from Stu and Cap’n Clive helped wipe out Steve’s bottom score deficit as 3rd leg ended in a tie and leaving the lead intact for the anchors to defend.  While JT literally threw himself into the game on his way to equalling bottom score with the help of our first beaver of the season, Neil looked to be pleasing the Indian match-fixing as he faltered mid-leg, while Rob decided to practice his best Guy Gibson impression.  And so tension built throughout the leg as the lead petered away,  leaving it all up to the last hand to decide.  Unfortunately, we were not good enough to hold on and the Baros won the leg by 12 to take the game at the last.

Not the best of starts, but not too desperate either, so we hope that can improve as we move on next week to Hatherley & Reddings CC next week with a still depleted team.

9/9/13 v Baro Boys@ Suffolk

Lofty

7 3 7 7 7 8 39 2

TC

6 6 7 4 6 2 31 -6
Pete 6 12 7 3 9 5 42

1

1st leg total 112 v 115

AS

5 6 6 6 6 7 36 -3

Alan

7 5 7 6 5 7 37 6
Gary 6 8 8 4 7 6 39 6

2nd leg total 112 v 103

Steve

4 4 4 3 8 6 29 -11

Stu

7 7 6 7 8 8 43 4
Clive 7 8 4 6 7 9 41 7

3rd leg total 113 v 113

Rob

5 7 6 7 7 7 39 -3

Neil

8 9 3 2 9 5 36 -1
JT 7 5 8 0 7 2 29

-8

4th leg total 104 v 116

Grand total 441 v 447

WON by -6