Following the sad news that Roger 'Sparky' Samways a regular member of the team under the Marco banner had passed away at the weekend, the Greyhound Wanderers travelled to the Trinity hoping to secure a much needed win against the Plodders as a tribute to him.
Having won the toss the visitors chose to throw first and a string of bolters saw a score of 52 hit which in reply the Plodders skittled far more consistently to score 58 and lead by 6. The second leg saw the Greyhound skittle more solidly with three 9's from the top four but the finishing touch was added by Showbiz who after leaving the king pin, second fronter, left and right wingers hit a peach of a ball to clear the lot on his way to the only stick up of the night 14 and with it led his team to their best leg of the night 63. In reply the home team dug in well to hit 54 but it could have been more if a couple of stick up chances hadn't been missed, as a result the lead passed to the visitors by 3.
The third leg saw the Greyhound hit two 15's and two 14's a pair to end with 58 which in response the Plodders had a couple of low scores count against them following no luck with their first ball shots to see them fall 10 behind. The fourth leg went in favour of the visitors 60 to 49 with the bolter count impacting on the home teams score but again lady luck was against the Plodders when last man Darren hit a great first ball only to see the backer and winger still standing.
In the fifth leg more solid play saw the Greyhound hit 57 which in reply the home team skittled excellently to hit their best leg of the night of 61 without a stick up but again Darren was let down by lady luck after another quality first ball left him unbelievably with the same result of the backer and winger. With their lead at 17, the Greyhound kept up their steady scoring in the sixth leg with 56, in reply the Plodders had a bad start when Rich unfortunately had an oxo and his team never quite recovered ending with their lowest leg of 45 to see the visitors lead by 28 going into the last leg.
With bolters hampering the efforts of the top three, the bottom three all with 8's managed to pull the leg score up to 54 to set the home team 82 to win. With the Trinity Alley playing unbelievably tough at present this was going to be a big ask, but the Plodders had a real go but saw a couple of chances pass by and a final score of 57 meant the Greyhound secured the win by 25 pins.
RIP Roger you will be greatly missed by all the many friends you made through skittles.
Top scorers
Plodders - Darren Langdon - 55
Greyhound Wanderers - Eric 'Showbiz' McConkey - 58
