The Hustlers played the long game (literally) at the Royal Oak but their valiant efforts at catching up on the last leg proved a couple of hands too far.
First leg started with more ups and downs than a pair of trousers in a Whitehall farce (younger members will just hear tumbleweed at this point). Neil started well and went downhill slowly while the other two spoilt their scores with a beaver each. Barry won’t know where his next meal is coming from. Despite a 40 from Neil, the outcome was a deficit of 13 pins with the shame spread evenly between Brian and John.
Second leg continued this erratic path and unfortunately with the same result – another 13 pin deficit with only Lloyd even close to matching his opponent.
So could third leg stem the tide ? Well yes, but only marginally. Stand-in Pete, who marked a fine attempt at hosting Mo with a 9 spare, managed to beat his man and thus kept the deficit down to another 8 pins which left last leg with the not inconsiderable score of 34 pins to make up.
Last leg set to it with a will and began whittling down the deficit with some pace. Star of the show was Rob with a solid 6 hands giving him the top score of 42 whilst Gary who had a well timed 12 spare stumbled to a hard fought 39. On a tough low scoring night, all three players shone on this difficult alley. Alas the deficit was a few pins too many and Hustlers ran out of hands just 9 short of their required total.
| Away vs Batmen 2 Oct 17 – Lost by 9 | |||||||||
| Place | Player | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | Total | V man! |
| 1 | Neil | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 6 | 4 | 40 | 5 |
| 2 | Brian | 0 | 6 | 6 | 8 | 3 | 7 | 30 | -9 |
| 3 | John | 4 | 6 | 5 | 0 | 5 | 7 | 27 | -9 |
| Leg | 13 | 20 | 18 | 14 | 14 | 18 | 97 | -13 | |
| 4 | Swayner | 4 | 4 | 1 | 5 | 3 | 6 | 23 | -9 |
| 5 | Andy | 5 | 3 | 8 | 5 | 9 | 3 | 33 | -3 |
| 6 | Lloyd | 7 | 8 | 4 | 6 | 8 | 4 | 37 | -1 |
| Leg | 16 | 15 | 13 | 16 | 20 | 13 | 93 | -13 | |
| 7 | Steve | 3 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 4 | 8 | 33 | -3 |
| 8 | Rich | 6 | 6 | 7 | 7 | 4 | 3 | 33 | -9 |
| 9 | Pete | 6 | 3 | 9 | 4 | 7 | 4 | 33 | 4 |
| Leg | 15 | 14 | 22 | 18 | 15 | 15 | 99 | -8 | |
| 10 | Anthony | 9 | 6 | 6 | 8 | 3 | 7 | 39 | 6 |
| 11 | Gary | 6 | 6 | 5 | 12 | 4 | 6 | 39 | 13 |
| 12 | Rob | 8 | 6 | 5 | 7 | 8 | 8 | 42 | 6 |
| Leg | 23 | 18 | 16 | 27 | 15 | 21 | 120 | 25 | |