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After some initial scares, the Hustlers overran a very sociable Strollers team in a lively encounter at the Adam & Eve.

First leg provided the scares, not because of particularly bad scoring on our side but a Strollers leg of 130, including a 49, was a daunting score to follow on a strange alley.  At the end, Hustlers were second best to the tune of 21 pins.

Second leg soon rectified this and captain Clive’s innings of 53, which began with a 16 spare, ably supported by Gary’s 43, virtually wiped out the deficit and the two sides began the third leg only one pin apart.

Modesty prevents this writer from describing the intricacies of his 58, other than it began with a 15 flattener and finished with a 12 spare, but good support was provided by Lofty’s 42 and Pete’s 38 in ending the leg 18 pins ahead.

So to the last leg, where all three players gained on their opponents to the tune of 21 pins.  Lewis’ 50 included a 13 spare on his final hand; Rob’s 48 included a 10 spare; and JT managed 44 without needing the extra assistance of the sticker.

18/10/11 v Strollers @ Adam & Eve

1st leg total 109 v 130

2nd leg total 134 v 114

3rd leg total 138 v 119

4th leg total 142 v 121

Grand total 523 v 484

WON by 39

Looking to get a win in the bag, Hustlers faced Cheltenham CC in the first home match of the new season.

1st leg had the privilege of being the first to use Lofty’s shiny new balls. Cap’n Clive just missed out on a 40 as we got off to a slow, but steady start, finishing 11 pins down as their middle man hit a spare & a 9 spare.  2nd leg couldn’t match the score, but scrabbled pins back as none of the 3 lost to their man,and Steve collecting our only spare of the night. leaving us only 5 down at the halfway point.

3rd leg brought us our top score & total, thanks to Rich’s 43, but conceded another 2 pins along the way, leaving the anchors with only 7 pins to claw back.  Despite JT’s 42 (with a 9 spare making him the inaugural holder of our meerkat – Pete is still to name him), we fell yet further behind as both Neil & Rob beat JimBob to next week’s bench

Its the Temperance 12 at the Labour club next week – maybe they can be our first victims.

19/9/11 v Cheltenham Cricket Club @ Suffolk

1st leg total 109 v 120

2nd leg total 105 v 99

3rd leg total 114 v 116

4th leg total 104 v 116

Grand total 432 v 451

WON by -19

Cannonballs away from home was the wrong match to begin the season, with the Hustlers not realising the game had started until the last leg.

The first three legs went the same way, with Hustlers gradually shipping pins until we were 33 down at the end of the third.  Only Olive and his rug-rat managed to beat their men, during which time our Captain put our new meerkat (what’s his name?) on standby until his third ball ended on target. 

On the last leg the Hustlers pulled back 6 pins, partly because they all broke 40 and partly because Cannonballs had stopped playing by then.  But the Balls had a scare on the fourth hand when Hustlers pulled back 9 pins and for the next five minutes it could have been game on.  At least Neil and JT beat their men; Pete meanwhile, who finished with 40, had to bowl off with Gary for the bench with the result that Pete wears the Warsaw trousers next week.

If this sounds like doom and gloom the positives were that the Hustlers broke 500 and only two of the team failed to make 40.  The negative is that Olive is top of the averages, a point he was not slow to recall (several times) on the long walk home.

14/9/11 v Cannonballs Elite @ Saracens Club

1st leg total 129 v 136

2nd leg total 123 v 134

3rd leg total 118 v 133

4th leg total 130 v 124

Grand total 500 v 527

WON by -27

It’s that time of year again – the annual grudge pre-season not so friendly match against the Anchor Old Ladies, who were hosting us this year.  Could we maintain our victorious record of recent years?

Barry was on holiday, but Lofty brought along his newly shaved and polished balls as good luck charms.  To fit everyone in, we agreed to play only 5 hands and have 2 4-person legs.  How would this affect the teams?

We opened with a steady leg, with JimBob setting the score to be chased down.  But the Old Ladies managed to scrape by with a lucky 2-pin lead.  But this merely lulled them into a false sense of security as the 2nd legs faced off. Wallsy soon set a new standard as he got our first spare of the night, soon followed by an  unconverted spare from Lewis (lucky boy – the new mascot hasn’t yet been introduced!).  Settting new top score and beat yer man (BYM) scores, we now turned the game around to take a 24-pin lead.

With Matt guesting, 3rd leg set about stretching the lead still further.  With the help of a staggering +12 from Jim, they added another 3 pins, leaving an easy lead for the anchor leg to defend.  In our poorest display of the night, only Stavros had a positive BYM, while Olive claimed only his 2nd ever beaver (so he claims).  But, despite losing the leg, they did enough to ensure another Old Anchors slaughter.  Victory was deemed to be extremely sweet.

19/8/11 v Anchor Old Ladies @ Suffolk

1st leg total 115 v 117

2nd leg total 127 v 101

3rd leg total 111 v 108

4th leg total 79 v 86

Grand total 432 v 412

WON by +20

Having finally gotten back to winning ways, Hustlers made the long trek out to Bishops Cleeve, looking to do the double over Smiths A.  Could we finally string a couple of wins together?

1st leg got off to a steady start, with a starring performance from Chairman Pete as his 9 spare helped him to our top score of the night, although it wasn’t quite enough to stop us falling behind.  2nd leg kept the game tight as they only dropped 3 pins in a leg where neither side could break the 100 mrk.  JimBob excelled himself to regain possession of Barry the Brasilian beaver after just a single match as he just managed to get our lowest score of the night.  And so we turned around trailing by just 8 pins – a gap hardly worth mentioning for the ‘Slurs.

3rd leg soon sorted that out as they racked up our 2nd highest leg score of the night & Smiths got by far the lowest.  And so we immediately found ourselves 10 pins in front thanks to a superb 18-pin lead and confidence really rising.  Anchor leg just had to cruise and the double was ours.  But somebody had forgotten to show the script to Smiths.  With Dobbin getting our 2nd lowest score (and leaving us without a single 40 average in the process) it all came down to Smiths’ last hand – get 14 and the game would be ours.  The 21 saw us lose by another close margin – it can’t be good for the nerves.

Our penultimate game ses us play our last home game of the season against old opponents, the Cream.  We will be looking to avaenge the earlier defeat at Cleeve British Legion against them.

21/3/11 v Smiths A @ RBL, Bishops Cleeve

1st leg total 103 v 108

2nd leg total 94 v 97

3rd leg total 102 v 84

4thleg total 100 v 116

Grand total 399 v 405

WON by -6