We hosted the Devon Open finals last Saturday at Pollyfield and one of our teams, Superstuds, made it to the final. Unfortunately they were well beaten runners-up to a team from Totnes. One of the Totnes team also won the Singles competition and the trophy for the highest score of the day. However, the ladies competition was dominated by North Devon as Holsworthy beat Totnes in the team final and Barnstaple's Jill Thorne won the Singles competition. Shirley Grills from champions Holsworthy also won the highest score of the day trophy. I was helped by committee members Wilfy Beer, Mark Milton, Richard Watson, John Chew, Peter Bowden, Chris Bulled & Jon Tapping. I would like to give my personal thanks to Wilf, Mark, Richard and John, without their help I wouldn't have been able to cope. Chris would have willingly helped more but he was playing in three matches as the captain of Superstuds. One skittler responded to my appeal for help, many thanks Anthony Down.
All the results from finals day can be seen on the trophy winners page.
LAST UPDATED ON 23/04/2018 @ 1220 HRS. TROPHY WINNERS ADDED.
The last competition of the season, the County Singles, was played on Monday evening and the two who will contest the final on Saturday are Colin Thorne and Andrew Braunton. The losing semi-finalists were James Walsh and Roger Vanstone.
IAN BRAUNTON waited until the last match of season to win 2 trophies. The Hunters maestro scored 100 to take the Highest 3 away scores cup with 258, and it also won him the highest score of the season trophy. Fortunately, the man he overtook for the 3 aways cup, Tony Allin of Allsorts,won't go home empty handed as his score of 85 won him the trophy for the highest over 60's score.
HOTRODS are champions of division 6 with 4 matches remaining. They achieved this with a one pin victory over their closed rivals.
Last week they were joined by Mashers from Division 1, Blackudders from Div 4 & W Giffard A from Div 5. This week Abbots have won division 2 and Parkham Wurzels division 3.
Already relegated are Buckland Brewer B , Hunters Nutties, The Dragons, Frithelstock A & Reds C.Joining them are S Club 6, 6 of Clubs, Harton Town and Horniwinks,St Giles.
The Presidents Cup semi-finals produced two big shocks with two first division teams losing against two second division teams. Hunters, currently 5th in division one, lost to Newton Hopefuls, then table toppers Mashers lost to Abbots. Giant-killers will also contest the Man for Man cup final after Abbots beat Strikers & CLB Old Boys beat Langtree B. As expected, Parkham Strays took their place in the Jubilee cup final but their opponents, Young Bucks, also had a surprise win over Newton Hopefuls. Red Devils will contest the front pin cup final for the first time against CLB Old Boys. Hunters or Abbots will win the right to represent the league at Longdown in the County Cup and Langtree B will go to the North Devon finals at Holsworthy.
The Captain's Cup final will be contested between Geoff Huxtable of Langtree B and Mark Milton of Mashers.
There will be new names on the Pairs Trophy this season. Dave Allin and Matt Wonnacott from the Strikers and Jimmy Walters & Peter Bater from Six of Clubs will contest an all division one final.
THE LANGTREE B TRIO OF TOM & TONY DOWN (SON & DAD) AND COLIN LARKWORTHY WILL DEFEND THEIR KO THREES CUP AFTER REACHING THE FINAL AGAIN. THEY WON A VERY HIGH SCORING SEMI-FINAL AGAINST SINKERS FOR WHOM SEAN SEATHERTON SCORED 83 WHICH INCLUDED A 25 SPARE, EARLIER ON SEAN HAD A MAXIMUM 27 SPARE. I WOULD IMAGINE HE WAS PRETTY UPSET THAT HE DIDN'T REACH THE FINAL, HE CERTAINLY DESERVED TO. THE RESULT OF THE OTHER SEMI-FINAL HAD A FAMILIAR RING TO IT, LANGTREE B'S OTHER TEAM BEAT SINKERS' OTHER TEAM TO REACH THE FINAL. THEIR THREESOME WAS SCOTT & GEOFF HUXTABLE (SON & DAD) AND RAY DANIEL.
I AM TRYING TO FIND SOME HISTORY OF THE BEGINNING OF OUR LEAGUE.
I HAVE GOT THE NAMES OF SOME OF THE EARLY CHAMPIONS AND I AM HOPING THAT SOME OF YOU OUT THERE WILL BE ABLE TO TELL ME WHO THEY WERE AND WHAT THEY DID, MAYBE FOR A LIVING OR IF THEY FOUGHT IN THE WAR.
WE STARTED IN 1929-30 AND THE CHAMPION TEAM WAS CONSERVATIVE CLUB 'B' AND THE TEAM MEMBERS WERE W MOORE, F JOHNS, RS LEY, R PASSMORE, A HILLS, C GREEN, G SHORT, J HUXTABLE.
1930-31 LIBERAL CLUB 'A'- J SHORT, H RENDALL, L BRAUND, J HEARN, J TAYLOR, R VODDEN, F TUCKER, W TRICK.
1931-32 CONSERVATIVE 'B'- W PICKARD, W HAMBLY, E LEWIS, R PASSMORE, J BALE, W LOCK, S LEY, J HUXTABLE.
1932-33 CONSREVATIVE 'B'- A JENN, H PIDGEON, R PETHERICK.
1933-34- -”- T ANSTEY.
1934-35 INSTOW – J SNELL, W JENNINGS, W SMALE, L MOORE, H WELSH, F HOYLE, F STEVENS, E HODGE.
1935-36 MALTSCOOP- F MAYNE, A JENN, C CLANFIELD, T BRIMACOMBE, W PICKARD, H PIDGEON, W STONEMAN, L SUSSEX.
1936-37 LIBERAL 'A'- G SQUIRES, F TUCKER, R DOWNING, P STEER, G POOLEY, W TAYLOR, C WAKELEY, J TAYLOR.
1937-38 CONSERVATIVE 'A'- J MILLS, W NICHOLLS, R BURNETT, S NICHOLLS, W BISSETT, A SHERBORNE, W LOCK, S LEY.
1938-39 LIBERAL 'A'- R VODDEN, J BALE, G POOLEY, J HEARN, C WAKELEY, C SQUIRES, R DOWNING, W TAYLOR.
1946-47 B BREWER 'B'- R DENNIS, W TUCKER, W BRAUND, R BLIGHT, P MILLS, G FERRITT, W HORRELL.
1947-48 CONSERVATIVE CLUB- S LEY, W MOORE, E CLEMENTS, W NICHOLLS, F PARR, A SHERBOURNE.
1948-49 CONSERVATIVE 'A'- SAME PLAYERS AS 1948.
I KNOW OF A FEW OF OUR SKITTLING MATES WHO ARE NOT FEELING TOO WELL AT THE PRESENT TIME. I'M SURE YOU WILL ALL JOIN ME IN WISHING THEM A SPEEDY RECOVERY AND LOOK FORWARD TO SEEING YOU BACK ON THE ALLEY AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.
Young Bucks, Buckland Brewer B and Buckland Colts now play in the new hall which is located behind the school on the Hillpark housing estate. If coming from the Torrington end of the village, Hillpark is on the right as you enter the village. If coming from the Bideford end, Hillpark is on the left shortly after the school.
I HOPE YOU ALL HAVE AN ENJOYABLE SEASON. WE ALSO HAVE OUR OWN FACEBOOK PAGE NOW SO YOU CAN FOLLOW THE RESULTS ETC ON THERE AS WELL.
I AM DELIGHTED TO TELL YOU THAT WE HAVE ONE MORE TEAM THAN LAST SEASON, THE FIRST TIME THE NUMBER HAS RISEN SINCE WE HAD 130 TEAMS. WE NOW HAVE 81.
The photo above shows President Malcolm Skinner presenting a cheque for £300 to Lance Rice from the Chestnut Appeal for prostate cancer at the recent AGM. Other things that happened at the meeting were raising the entry fee to £40 and the start of season was to be 11th September.
Unfortunately, our representatives came away empty handed from this year's Devon County finals.
The Hunters have won the Devon Open Championships, which were held at Torquay Riviera Centre recently, for the second time in three years. This meant that they held both this trophy and the Devon County Cup, albeit for just a week as this year's finals of the latter took place at Barnstaple the following weekend.The photo below shows their team of Bill Soby, Ian Braunton, Nigel Gear, Colin Thorne, Keith Hillier, Tom Downing, Chris & Roger Symonds, and non-playing captain Francis Thorne intermingled with the members of one of the other of Bideford's representatives Notorious PIGS. Our third team, Simply Reds, were not available for the photo but their lead man, Graham Tucker, took home with him the runner-up trophy in the Singles competition. After going into a comfortable lead after 4 rubs Graham could only watch as his opponent finished with two massive spares to take the trophy from his grasp.
North Devon Skittles Championships were held at Brayford recently and one of the Bideford League's representatives, Strikers from Parkham, swept the board winning the team and individual competitions.
Steve Wonnacott beat a Holsworthy player in the singles final after beating the other Bideford representative, Andrew Braunton of Mashers, in the semi-final.
Steve was then joined by team-mates David Allin, captain, Stuart Allin, Tom Allin (David's 2 sons), Eric Hockin and Tony Sargent in the final of the team competition where theyalso beat a team from Holsworthy.
Congratulations guys!
This season's Champion team are Six Amigos, pictured below, from division 4 and The Hunters are the Champions of the Runners-up. Full list this season's winners can be seen on the Trophy Winners page. From the left they are: Pete Buckpitt, Rob Slee, Tom Allin, Alex Colwill, Dan Furse, Dan Meeson & Ryan Walter
IF YOU HAVE ANY OLD PHOTOS THAT YOU THINK MIGHT BE OF INTEREST TO THE PEOPLE WHO READ THIS WEBSITE PLEASE e-mail THEM TO ME AND I WILL MAKE UP A PAGE CALLED 'OLD PHOTOS'.
THE LEAGUE'S ORIGINAL WINNER'S SHIELDS HAVE RECENTLY COME TO LIGHT AT ABBOTSHAM. THEY DATE BACK TO WHEN OUR LEAGUE STARTED IN 1929. NOT ONLY HAVE THEY GOT THE TEAM'S NAMES ON THEM BUT THEY HAVE THE PLAYER'S NAMES ALSO. SO IF YOU HAD A GRANDAD WHO WAS PLAYING THEN PLEASE LET ME KNOW AND IF YOU HAVE ANY PHOTOGRAPHS THAT WOULD BE EVEN BETTER.
THIS WEBSITE HAS NOW HAD 66766 HITS by 14082 DIFFERENT VISITORS from 84 DIFFERENT COUNTRIES. FROM BRAZIL to TUNISIA to SINGAPORE to AUSTRALIA to MOZAMBIQUE to JAPAN to ALGERIA to VENEZUELA to SURINAM, SINCE IT'S CONCEPTION IN DECEMBER 2009 UP TO 13TH OCTOBER 2017.
