The Tale of the Roll!

On Thursday 27 May 2008 at about seven o'clock the teams gathered to compete for this year's title of best team knocker over of pins.

Five teams assembled, four eager to take the title away from the reigning bowlers, Exeter, with Exeter keen to retain it. The mighty arms of Chester, Hearts, Sheffield Wednesday, West Bromwich Albion and Exeter took to the lanes suitably sustained by copious amounts of alcohol from the conveniently located bar.

Two teams had managed to get five members along but Exeter with seven lent one to S Wed to make them up to five and Neil, as the official pin counter opted to observe - with one or two Guinness's for company. Chester had also managed the seven so lent Alan (their Captain) to WBA.

With four teams having only five members the 'less than six' rule came into play which meant that all the teams with five members would have a score added to their game score in each round. That score would be the lowest score scored by a member of any team to ensure fairness was maintained.

Playing for the teams were: Chester: Rob, Smu, Sma, Giles, Sue, and Pauline; Hearts: TDS, Ang, Claw, Glyn, and Mike; Exeter: Ferret, Gilo, Greg, Two Shots, and Sheps; S Wed: Phil, twitch, Ken, Roger (the Pynster from Exeter), and Paul; And WBA: Alan, Chris, Clare, Lar, and Lynda.

The tournament consisted of each team playing two matches of ten frames and the winners being decided by the total score achieved by the tea as a whole - including the added in score mentioned above.

In the first game the highest individual score was achieved by Alan for WBA - his Chester team mates could be forgiven for wondering what was going on! - with a magnificent 147 (yes it was bowling and not snooker!). He was closely followed by Phil from S Wed with 141 and in equal third place were Lynda also from WBA [though a Palace Supporter apparently!] and SMA from Chester.

The lowest score achieved was - well it would be rude to reveal who but it was a bowler from Chester who scored 52 so that was the score added in to the scores achieved by the teams with only five bowlers - coincidentally the other four teams.

The team scores were Chester: 482; Hearts: 508; Exeter: 534; WBA: 622; and S Wed: 628.

Thus it was very close at the top between S Wed and WBA with Exeter firmly in third leaving Chester and Hearts with it all to do.

In the second games the most notable facts were that all teams upped their games except WBA who inexplicably fell away quite badly and it really came down to the last ball bowled to decide second and third.

Individually Mike from Hearts came from nowhere to score the best individual game score of the evening with 155 after only scoring 110 in the first game. Twitch from S Wed did even better in coming second scoring 148 after having scored only 89 in the first game. In third was Phil from S Wed following up his 142 with a very creditable 130! Also a mention for Ferret from Exeter who after topping the scores last year struggled to find his form but in the second game achieved a 126.

This meant the overall individual scores were Phil from S Wed first with 271; Mike from Hearts second with 265; and Al from Chester but bowling for WBA third with 263. The lowest score this time was 60.

Turning to the team performances the scores were Chester: 551 [an increase of 69]; Hearts: 560 [an increase of 52]; Exeter: 648 [an increase of 114] WBA: 551 [a decrease of 71]; and S Wed: 676 [an increase of 48].

So Exeter had well and truly found their form and achieved the distinction of every bowler scoring 109 or more whilst no other team managed to all score over 100. The other teams except for WBA had all achieved a good increase whilst as commented above WBA fell away and noticeably all 5 bowlers scored less - that was some half time talk by the Captain!

And so to the final team scores. Chester couldn't find enough to challenge for fourth place so remained in fifth with 1003. Hearts maintained their half way position and finished fourth with 1068. WBA couldn't maintain their form and slipped to third with 1173. Exeter did just enough to get up to second with 1182. However with a magnificent 1304 and way out in front Sheffield Wednesday took the title.

Well done to all teams and many thanks for taking part in what all agreed was yet another excellent evening.

Neil Le Milliere, APFSCIL Secretary