The London Inn had the dystopian atmosphere of the Suffolk on Monday night with the Hustlers suffering their first defeat of the season on an alley which, for the second week running, was as unfamiliar to home and away players alike.
First leg started well – for the first four hands the Hustlers were actually ahead – until normality set in and the game began to take a now-familiar course. Nevertheless, although Lewis unexpectedly misfired, both Dave and John held things together and constructed what turned out to be the highest leg of the night.
With a deficit of 9 pins, second leg tried to repair the damage with Pete managing joint top score of the night. Although Brian’s score was the lowest of the leg, he pulled the most pins against his opponent and all three players achieved the distinction of being the only Hustlers’ leg to win pins.
Thus third leg were able to set off just 5 pins in arrears but this happy state of affairs lasted only until the second hand. Clive strove manfully to bale out the team with a very consistently assembled 38 but both Steve and Ant failed to live up to expectation and Hustlers were left with a deficit of 16 pins.
Last leg once again had it all to do and both Rob and Gary tried hard to gain some momentum. Captain Neil however found it hard going and, with a final score of only 29, was last to jump off the sinking ship as she went down by 23 pins.
| Home vs The Strollers 18 Sep 17 – Lost by 23 | |||||||||
| Place | Player | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | Total | V man! |
| 1 | Lewis | 4 | 4 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 8 | 34 | -11 |
| 2 | Dave | 8 | 7 | 6 | 6 | 4 | 6 | 37 | 3 |
| 3 | John | 6 | 6 | 9 | 4 | 7 | 5 | 37 | -1 |
| Leg | 18 | 17 | 22 | 16 | 16 | 19 | 108 | -9 | |
| 4 | Pete | 6 | 7 | 7 | 6 | 7 | 5 | 38 | 3 |
| 5 | Brian | 9 | 4 | 2 | 6 | 9 | 3 | 33 | 6 |
| 6 | Andy | 7 | 5 | 6 | 5 | 3 | 8 | 34 | -5 |
| Leg | 22 | 16 | 15 | 17 | 19 | 16 | 105 | 4 | |
| 7 | Steve | 8 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 5 | 6 | 29 | -8 |
| 8 | Anthony | 5 | 6 | 5 | 8 | 5 | 4 | 33 | -7 |
| 9 | Clive | 5 | 7 | 7 | 6 | 7 | 6 | 38 | 4 |
| Leg | 18 | 16 | 16 | 17 | 17 | 16 | 100 | -11 | |
| 10 | Rob | 6 | 7 | 6 | 4 | 6 | 7 | 36 | 2 |
| 11 | Gary | 6 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 5 | 37 | 3 |
| 12 | Neil | 7 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 2 | 7 | 29 | -12 |
| Leg | 19 | 19 | 18 | 14 | 13 | 19 | 102 | -7 | |