HUSTLERS CATCH SHURDINGTON CC ON A STICKY WICKET

Both teams found a surprising amount of turn on the London Inn alley but Hustlers prevailed by gradually wearing down their opponents and ending the year on a high note. Batting first, Hustlers were ably led as usual by Captain Neilson who put in another commanding performance to end with top equal score of 44, enabling Hustlers to close the first innings with their noses just in front.

Second leg was remarkably consistent with all three players scoring 38.  This proved to be the highest leg of the night with Clive’s 12 spare leaving his opponent, some 8 behind, sniffing his dust (not a pleasant experience on any level).

Third leg was therefore given the luxury of a 14 pin lead.  Steve enjoyed rubbing it in with a 44 which included a 12 spare and a gain of 16 pins over his opponent.  Overall the leg gained a very useful 11 pins to hand over, giving last leg a margin of 25 pins to lose.

In fact fourth leg started doing just that and midway through the leg it appeared that the cricketers might just snatch an unlikely victory.  However, Gary and Rob managed to steady the ship and, despite ending up the lowest leg of the night, the three anchors lost just 6 pins which resulted in a Hustlers victory of 19.