There was celebration for the home team in the Suffolk Arms last night as Hustlers recorded only their third win of the season in a relatively high scoring match.
There was suspicion that Jets had put on their entire anchor leg on first, and indeed their total of 120 proved to be their highest of the evening. Hustlers were therefore up against it and, even though Rob scored consistently to reach 41 with good support from Brian, Dave bought a beaver on the fifth hand and the leg ended up 12 pins in deficit.
Second leg were also battling a competent Jets three but they failed to impress, all three players losing pins to their opponents and adding a further 17 pins to the wrong side of the balance sheet.
Fortunately it was at this time that Jets ran out of steam and third leg set about attacking the 29-pin arrears. Wallsey impressed to deceive with a 9 spare and taking (very shortlived) possession of the Meerkat, but all three scored well – with Lewis managing a 40 into the bargain – and halved the deficit to just 14.
With all to play for, last leg started in storming fashion. Although Gary’s first action was to retrieve the meerkat from Wallsey he ended up with a decent 45; Neil was close behind with 44 and Clive would have joined them but for a 2 on third hand. A nerveless last hand of 22 left Jets with an achievable 21 to win but their bolts were well and truly shot by then and Hustlers ran out the winners by just 2 pins.
| Home vs Jets 12 December 16 – Won by 2 | |||||||||
| Place | Player | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | Total | V man! |
| 1 | Rob | 5 | 7 | 7 | 8 | 8 | 6 | 41 | 1 |
| 2 | Brian | 7 | 6 | 9 | 5 | 7 | 4 | 38 | -7 |
| 3 | Dave | 4 | 6 | 7 | 6 | 0 | 6 | 29 | -6 |
| Leg | 16 | 19 | 23 | 19 | 15 | 16 | 108 | -12 | |
| 4 | Andy | 5 | 4 | 5 | 7 | 7 | 6 | 34 | -4 |
| 5 | Swayner | 6 | 6 | 7 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 32 | -7 |
| 6 | Jim-Bob | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 7 | 32 | -6 |
| Leg | 16 | 15 | 17 | 17 | 17 | 16 | 98 | -17 | |
| 7 | Steve | 6 | 6 | 9 | 5 | 5 | 6 | 37 | -1 |
| 8 | Rich | 6 | 5 | 8 | 7 | 8 | 3 | 37 | 11 |
| 9 | Lewis | 6 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 6 | 7 | 40 | 5 |
| Leg | 18 | 17 | 24 | 20 | 19 | 16 | 114 | 15 | |
| 10 | Clive | 7 | 9 | 2 | 8 | 6 | 6 | 38 | -3 |
| 11 | Gary | 9 | 6 | 5 | 7 | 9 | 9 | 45 | 10 |
| 12 | Neil | 7 | 8 | 6 | 7 | 9 | 7 | 44 | 9 |
| Leg | 23 | 23 | 13 | 22 | 24 | 22 | 127 | 16 | |