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Hustlers Maddened by Hatters

Our final away game of this Prem B season saw Hustlers venture to the wilds of Charlton Kings, hoping to turn Madhatters over and edge a little closer to safety.

And we got off to another cracking start as all three openers broke the 40-mark, with Clive top scoring once more as they eked out a 4-pin lead.  Second leg were less fortunate, despite pulling early pins, and soon found the gods of fate steering them to a 16-pin loss, with Rich setting bottom score.

With Wallsy walking off with the raffle, the signs were looking better as third leg started out.  And they soon found themselves pulling pins.  But that was not to last long and they also started leaking pins, closing the leg a further 17 behind.  But the anchors are always up for a challenge and soon set about the chase.  With Gary and Neil both matching Clive’s top score and Steve so narrowly losing to his man, they proved too strong for the ‘Hatters.  But not strongly enough, as it turned out, and we lost by a narrow 22 pins.

It’s our final home game next week and we look to achieve that rarest of doubles this year – the double over the Cannonballs and a win under Rob’s command.  Tune in to find out what happens next.

31/3/14 v Madhatters @ Charlton Club

Rob

7 6 8 6 7 7 41 -2

Mart

6 8 6 9 7 5 41 4
Clive 8 6 7 6 8 9 44

2

1st leg total 126 v 122

TC

6 7 5 5 6 6 35 -6

Rich

8 6 4 4 4 6 32 -6
JT 8 4 8 6 3 4 33 -4

2nd leg total 100 v 116

Pete

6 7 4 5 6 8 36 -5

AS

8 6 4 4 5 5 32 -3
Chris 9 7 5 2 7 6 36 -9

3rd leg total 104 v 121

Gary

5 9 9 6 8 7 44 3

Steve

3 8 5 5 7 8 36 -1
Neil 8 9 7 7 6 7 44

5

4th leg total 124 v 117

Grand total 454 v 476

WON by -22

Hustlers let fly at the Suffolk

With the end of the season now fast approaching, Hustlers returned to the Suffolk, looking to salvage at least some pride and, hopefully, a handful of points.

And what a way to start.  With Pete and Clive getting our first 9s on the way to a pair of 40s, and Neil just missing out on his (but becoming the first Hustler past the 1000 pin mark for some years), they set an unbeatable leg score to give us an early 19-pin lead.  Second leg proved to be our lowest-scoring, with TC narrowly missing a rare 40, JT making amends for a faltering display with a final 9 and AS beating his man, despite being bottom scorer.  Still, a further 7 pins were eked out against the Flyers’ poorest leg.

Next up was the Flyers’ best leg.  Alan came in as supersub, sandwiched between joint bottom scorer, Lofty (despite his 9) and another 40 from Chris (with a pair of 9s).  But third leg couldn’t hold out, so conceded the 7 pins we’d just pulled out, but still leaving the anchors with a rare healthy lead.  Gary set about defending the lead with another solid 40, while Steve and Rob stumbled some way behind.  Buit they did more than enough, dropping just the three pins as they wrapped up a rare Hustlers win with a fine total.

It’s off to the Charlton Club next week, as we look to take points off Madhatters.

24/3/14 v Brown Jug Flyers @ Suffolk

Pete

7 6 8 7 9 6 43 10

Clive

8 8 6 9 8 8 47 10
Neil 6 7 4 8 6 8 39

-1

1st leg total 129 v 110

JT

4 6 7 2 5 9 33 -1

TC

6 7 7 4 8 7 39 4
AS 7 7 5 4 5 4 32 4

2nd leg total 104 v 97

Mart

2 7 2 9 6 6 32 -2

Alan

6 8 5 2 5 8 34 -5
Chris 9 7 4 9 5 8 42

3rd leg total 108 v 115

Gary

7 7 8 6 6 7 41 4

Steve

3 8 4 7 8 3 33 -11
Rob 6 5 8 8 3 5 35

4

4th leg total 109 v 112

Grand total 450 v 434

WON by 16

Hustlers get steamy at Saras

Rested after Race Week, Hustlers made their last trip of the season to Saracens, looking for revenge against Steamers and the start of our run to safety.

First leg got us off to the best possible start, with both Pete and AS equalling their season’s bests.  A spareless 40 (but our first 9) from Pete was followed by spares from AS and Neil, as they set up an early lead of 17 pins.  TC opened second leg with a 9, but all three struggled, with Rich just edging JT out for bottom score as we saw those 17 pins cancelled out.  Still, nothing lost as it was all square after the first half.

Chris made a great start on third leg with a spareless top score (and so unlucky to lose to his man by 4 pins), with another 40 from Mike and an injured Clive just missing bottom score.  But their efforts were negated by Steamers’ strongest leg, who opened out a 12 pin lead for the anchors to chase down.  But with just Steve breaking the 40 barrier (Gary & Rob so narrowly missing it), their valiant effort ultimately proved not to be enough as we dropped a further 13 pins, to concede the double.

Back home next week as we look to regain some pride and maybe hope that we can stay up.

18/3/14 v Steamers @ Saracens

Pete

6 8 8 7 9 8 46 7

AS

6 5 8 6 11 6 42 3
Neil 7 8 5 14 8 5 47

7

1st leg total 135 v 118

TC

9 7 6 6 6 4 38 -5

Rich

7 2 5 7 5 8 34 -5
JT 3 7 5 6 7 7 35 -7

2nd leg total 107 v 124

Chris

7 9 8 9 8 8 49 -4

Mike

7 7 7 7 9 5 42 2
Clive 3 7 6 5 7 7 35 -10

3rd leg total 126 v 138

Gary

5 8 8 5 7 6 39 -2

Steve

7 5 8 6 9 7 42 -5
Rob 8 7 5 7 6 5 38

-6

4th leg total 119 v 132

Grand total 487 v 512

WON by -25

Hustlers’ Stars Dulled

Back at the Suffolk, back from the Weymouth trip, Clive back in charge and looking to restore some order to the Hustlers’ form – what could possibly go wrong?

First leg were looking good as Rob scored our first 9 and Pete’s consistency almost netting him a 40, but with AS faltering as he gained possession of Barry the Brasilian beaver with his lowest score of the season.  But it was still enough to establish a narrow lead of four pins.  Second leg were a little more consistent but, despite Clive getting our second 9, dropped six pins, leaving us trailing by a mere two at athe end of the first half.

With TC and landlord Alan taking the honours in the raffle, hope was still in the air.  Despite Chris finally getting our first 40, third leg underachieved in dropping a further twenty three pins, with Mike grabbing our second beaver in the process.  But the anchors could still pull it back.  And they set about it early, pulling back twelve pins on the first hand and five on the next.  Then Gary pulled a spare out of the hat, easily negated by Neil getting our third beaver (surely an unprecedented achievement, even for the ‘Slurs), but all still tight.  Gary’s top score helped the anchors to a grand total, but just not enough to grab that much-needed win.

We have another break next week for Gold Cup, before resuming combat at the Saracens against Steamers.

25/2/14 v Starbrights@ Suffolk

Rob

7 6 2 8 9 6 38 3

Pete

6 7 7 6 7 6 39 13
AS 5 6 5 0 7 2 25

-12

1st leg total 102 v 98

JT

7 5 8 8 3 7 38 -5

TC

6 5 6 4 7 6 34 -2
Clive 7 3 4 8 9 6 36 1

2nd leg total 108 v 114

Mike

8 6 0 6 5 4 29 -11

Rich

4 4 6 3 7 6 30 -14
Chris 8 5 9 6 9 6 41 2

3rd leg total 100 v 123

Gary

6 8 12 8 6 7 47 14

Steve

8 8 7 5 4 6 38 -1
Neil 7 8 0 8 6 8 37

1

4th leg total 122 v 108

Grand total 432 v 443

WON by -11