Life in the Bus Lane

Being a semi-final, tonights match was played on a neutral alley. However it wasn’t as neutral as you’d expect because it was BARDS home alley until a couple of seasons ago.

Both teams scored 52 in the first leg, however we started to slowly draw ahead in the subsequent legs. Going in to the seventh and last leg we needed just 36 to win. Ian, our fifth man, managed to push us past that and we went on to score 58 and beat BARDS by 23 pins.

The final will be played on a non-league alley which could be interesting.

Not one of our best performances tonight, we averaged legs of a tad over 45 which is low for our alley. Luckily Bath Hospitals had an even worse night and we beat them 5-1.

Housing Admin took the full 8 points, Bath Hospitals took 1.

Our next match is the semi-final of the pins cup on a neutral alley on Wednesday night. Should be fun.

Apparently Tony and Mary got robbed within 24 hours of arriving in Spain. Not a good start to their new life.

Unfortunately we were playing one of the worlds slowest teams tonight, and it wasn’t helped by it turning into a full 9 leg match. It was a very close game tonight, but despite our best efforts we lost the last leg, and therefore lost the game 5-4. Bluecoat House took the full 8 points, Housing Admin took 4.

We also bid a fond buenos noches to Tony and Mary who leave for Spain at 6am tomorrow morning. Rumour has it that they might be back to play the last few games this season if they can drag themselves away from the shorts and t-shirt weather of southern Europe.

Housing Admin will be disbanding at the end of the current season. After 14 seasons my skittles career will be coming to a premature end.

Tonight was the fastest match of the season so far, it was all over by 9:30.

We took a straight 5-0 win, and were 40 pins or so in the lead by the end. Housing Admin took the full 8 points, Bluecoat House went home empty handed.

The next match is the nomination cup semi-final on Wednesday, however I won’t be playing due to a prior committment with Half Man Half Biscuit.

Tonight was possibly one of the best games we’ve played for years. It was neck-and-neck for the first 8 legs, leaving the score at 4-4 with the pins tied. They showed a 51 which was pretty good, but luckily we started well. It got down to the last man who needed to get 3, just to taunt us he managed to put the first two balls through, then got 5 with the last ball.

Housing Admin won 5-4, and took the pins by 2 giving us the full 8 points, Picadillys took 4.

We won the first leg quite comfortably, but a rare demonstration of form saw Picadillys win the second leg. However after that we were almost unstoppable and built up a decent margin. We only just managed to beat their sixth leg, but that meant we won 5-1 and beat them by over 40 pins.

Housing Admin took the full 8 points, Picadillys took 1.

We braved the reports of the impending end of the world, or a little bit of snow as it’s more commonly known, and headed up to Weston Bowls Club to play the return match against the Police tongiht. Unfortunately I didn’t play as well tonight as I did last week when I wasn’t there, and after trading legs for a while we hit a losing streak and eventually lost 5-3.

Police took the full 8 points Housing Admin took 3.

I’m not sure how much longer Housing Admin will last as a team. Two players are emigrating to Spain in a month, and another will be moving away next year. Given that we already struggle for players at the moment, I can’t see the team surving until next season unless the captain breaks the habit of a lifetime and recruits new players. I think this is my fourteenth season playing for the team, so I’m still classed as a newcomer.

Apparently we won 5-2, partly thanks to spares from Tony and Darren. Rumour has it that I played quite well despite being at home ill.

After a few weeks break for Christmas and New Year, it was back to skittles again tonight.

We won the first leg quite easily, but were left a fairly high leg to beat for the second. Things went slightly downhill when I managed to rip my jeans down the inside of my right leg from arse to knee, we went on to lose the leg as well. Howeverf after that we didn’t look back, even with the exploding bottle of lager.

Housing went on to win 5-1 and took the full 8 points, Treasurers took 1.

Our next match is in three weeks time.