It took longer then usual... but i've written a full report for this event. Just click on read more.
All the scores from this event can now be viewed here.
Under 24 winner Sam Rose, with his prize a DV8 ball pictured with scout 10 kiosk owner Matt Giles
The pattern has been annouced - click here to view it
Tournament winners ... the Teece's !!!
2011 winners - Damian Gray & Matt Miller (45men and 13ladies)
Singles format
2010 Winners - Mark Smith (24 men & 7 Ladies)
2009 Winners - Zara Glover & Paul Moor (45 men & 19 Ladies)
2008 Winners - Rob Kendall & Fiona Banks
2007 Winner - Jo Allsebrook
So the 2012 season is heading to the home straight, with this being the 12th tournament of the year. Ranking points are crucial now and some bowlers made epic journeys to get to Blackburn to take part in the Scout 10 pro kiosk doubles. Poor old Westy and his partner Angie made the 540 mile round trip, Oates and Bottomley had a 580 mile journey and of course Devlin and James Tidd who come from Norwich which is stuck out there miles from anywhere. Myself only had a 415 mile round trip and I travelled with Princess Rapid Kirsten Penny – so it only took us an hour and a half. And I pretended to be asleep for most of that, only waking up when she shouted abuse at anyone daring to slow her down to under 100mph. The reason I’m rambling on about all this, is it just goes to show the dedication and enthusiasm some people have for top line tournament bowling, you might think their mugs, but these people give up their weekends, time away for their family and spend a lot of money on something their love doing – so you got to respect that level of dedication. Other people spend just as much on golf – updating their clubs, joining fees, green fees, lessons – all that bolloxs. And the best their ever going to get is 100000th in the country and win a grand total of fuckall in prize money. Where as the guys who travel all this way are among the top 30 in the county at the their chosen sport and all have a chance of winning something on their day’s.
Wow – i went off on one there. Just get a bit wound up by all the bowling bashing.
Anyway – format for this was all bowlers play a first round of 8 games, then its gets a bit complicated (well for me anyway). Its the teams best 4 consecutive games that count and then that score is then halfed for the 2nd round. The top 16 teams then made it through to round 2. Of course ranking points were up for grabs and it was the individual’s score after this round that counted.
Tournament numbers. There were 30 teams, 1 team more than last year. 48 men and 12 ladies.
Finally i can talk about some bowling.
First round – the early leaders were the Teece Brothers Ray and Richie (who also won the doubles tournament earlier in the year at tolworth) – their best 4 games was 1909. In 2nd were Ash Iacona and Leon Devlin who bowled in the early squad and shot 1905. Then rounding out the top 3 was coffin dodgers the senior partnership of Jack Smith and Ron Deacon on 1852. Good to see some senior’s out there and showing they can compete and that experience can’t be bought.
The cut to the 2nd round was set by the other senior pairing of Al Bennett and Ron Oldfield on 1712.
Other first round highlights were Matt Miller who went 279 and then followed that up with a showboat 300 – and he dragged his partner along Basher Bonfield to finish the round in 4th place. And there was also a new ball donated by Scout 10 kiosk for the highest placed under 24 bowler after the first round. That bowler was Sam Rose 1914 a 239 average that saw him finish 2nd overall.
The top bowler wasn’t matt miller with his 279,300 that only left him 3rd overall. The top bowler getting the maximum ranking points was Leon Devlin who shot 1987 a 248 average. That’s top skittling by the wild child Devlin.
In the ladies it was Jenny Billingham that took the maximum points with 1722 a 215 average. Then in 2nd two bowlers were tied Lisa John and Kirsten Penny on 1710 a 214 average.
Round two then ... was 3 games (on the same pair) cutting to the top 8.... remember scores from round 1 were halfed. But there weren’t halfed after this round. I weren’t overly thrilled about that and i weren’t best pleased you had to bowl all your games on the 1 pair in the 2nd and 3rd round. I just like a moan and i think if you move lanes in round 1 you should move lanes in all the other rounds as well.
Ray Teece with a 717 and his brother Richie had a 655 which kept them top, then moving up to 2nd were Nikki Ainge 673 and Kirsten Penny 648. And moving up into 3rd after an 811 set by Big Head Matt Giles and his “partner” Chris Maughan who backed up matt superbly with a 534 set. The cut to the 2nd round was Jo Cundy and Lisa John on 2129 – pesky 8 pins bonus a game !
Now into the final 3 games. And the Teece Brothers were 64 pins ahead of 2nd place. A 742 from Chris Oates saw him and Jamie Bottomley take 3rd place and get them a bit cash in their sky rockets. A 713 set by Maughan, a massive improvement on his previous set saw him and Matt Giles move upto in 2nd place. But taking the title by 9 pins were Ray and Richie Teece - both bowlers helping each other and working as a team.
I spoke to tournament manager who explained why he half’s the score after the first round. He wanted to create a tighter tournament and give more chance to more teams of winning it. And it certainly worked with only 37 pins separating the top 4 teams
written by Edwin on October 12, 2012
Any comments on the format or centre would be appreciated, any sugestions or improvements for next year.
written by bash on October 16, 2012
edder's... i may retract my comments from when we spoke up at blackburn. Originally I thought that if you cut the scores in half after round 1 you should then do it all the way through... but after this tournament your right it does provide tighter closer finishes. Centre's great... only moan is the snack bar run out of jacket potato's and some people want or need to eat healthy, oh i think it run out of susages and bacon too. Hopefully blackburn will get some major tournaments next year. Shame its in blackburn though - its frigging miles away.
written by Castro on October 24, 2012
Bash, I've won about £700 from golf this year, probs double that with all the prizes.
So I can't agree with your anology.
You keep a spreadsheet on everything, how much have you spent bowling and travelling and hotels this year????
written by Mike q on October 24, 2012
Wilson....I think you might be in the minority mate, fair play for your winnings but most go,f clubs have hundreds of members and I'm not sure that they all get a urn out like you have? How much is a new set of clubs these days?
written by Castro on October 25, 2012
£300-£500 (Up to £800 for a scratch golfer)
A set of golf clubs will last you 10 years.
We have between 150-200 players in a comp.
On a side note, the characters i had to enter below were F U C K N
How funny is that.
written by bash on October 25, 2012
i used golf as a comparison, as alot of my friends play golf. They spend up to a 2grand a year green fees, they buy either a new driver, putter, every year. They go through packs of pro v1's every 9 holes (there not very good). Then the go on golf trips every year. And most of them do it for the love of it. And MOST don't ever win anything other a few quid for closet to the pin.
Now most bowlers who play these top line domestic tournaments probably won't spend as much as that, or they may.. whatever.. but they have a chance of actually winning something back.. o,k - they won't be able to retire on it. But they play the tournaments for the same reason as most people play golf.. coz that's their hobby and they enjoy doing it.
it don't have to be golf it could be anything.. it could be ..erm... bmx'ing... you buy a expensive bike, there's probably races all round the country people travel to paying for hotels petrol erm crash hats.. and they aren't doing it coz they want to get rich. they doing it coz they enjoy it. They only probably win a trophy or something.
so what i'm saying is.. don't do drugs and don't be a fool stay in school.
