BTBA Tour - Bash/r’s Battle of the cuts
Report from Dan Basher Bonfield
The BTBA Tour rolled in Dunstable – The original tournament scheduled for Ashby fell through, and tour manager and official of the rear Paul Loberman contacted me to see if I could put an event together to fill the gap. He caught me at a moment of weakness…and I actually volunteered my services. What a mug !
Anyway, I booked up Dunstable, the date wasn’t ideal as it clashed with TPT at Stroud and the whiskey doubles down at the Scareport… but we still managed 48 entries.
I wanted to use this event as a kinda test event for the events I’m going to run in 2025 “The QubicaAMF Senior Series” – So the format was 6 games, cut to 24. Then 3 games, and cut to 12, then 2 games, cut to 6, then 2 more games to decide the winner – Hence the name for the tournament Bash/r’s Battle of the Cuts… which Lobbers was very dubious about using.
Learnings for me for 2025 ! – I need more people to help me next year ! Thinking me, with a little help from lobbers could do it and bowl is wishful thinking. And my estimated time of finishing needs to be pushed back an hour.
A lot of the kids and younger bowlers, from the post PTBC era don’t often bowl tournaments where you have to battle through the rounds and build a score through a lot of games. Tournaments these days tend to be bowl your block and pack up and go home. I tried to create that old skool vibe of having pressure on the last game knowing your close to the cut line and then hanging about as the scores come in to see if you made it through or if you fall agonising short of the cut line. Also, it used to make feel a bit better knowing that perhaps I didn’t win or cash, but I did make the 1st or 2nd cut and I’d still feel a small sense of achievement from that.
There were extra ways to win some prize money. We had pot games, and brackets. All of which added to the stress of running this event. And that’s where I bring in my saviour Richard Beck !- Who offered to help with the scoring inputting. Very grateful to Richie for that.
So, we ran brackets – what’s a bracket ? Well it’s (google search)… each “bracket” includes eight randomly selected bowlers in your squad during team, doubles and/or singles events. You need to bowl a higher game than the bowler you are paired against to advance out of each round. If you win three matches, you win your bracket.
We ran 12 brackets (4 in the first squad and 8 in the 2nd squad) and that generated £480 prize money that was paid back out to the winners of the brackets and to the runners up.
A brief break down of who won what.
Bracket 1 – Winner Pete Stevenson, R/Up Cameron Brown
Bracket 2 – Winner Hayden Hewitt, R/Up Gerry Wrathall
Bracket 3 – Winner Angela Li, R/Up Hayden Hewitt
Bracket 4 – Winner BASH/R, R/Up Hayden Hewitt
Bracket 5 – Winner Tom Langley, R/Up Alex Pace
Bracket 6 – Winner Mark Coles, R/Up Alex Pace
Bracket 7 – Winner Haydn Richardson, R/Up Ava Richardson – He beat up on his 12 year niece !
Bracket 8 – Winner Ava Richardson, R/Up Gavin Greaves
Bracket 9 – Winner Laura Fawcett, R/Up Kimberley Oakley
Bracket 10 – Winner Thomas Grose, R/Up Alex Pace
Bracket 11 – Winner Ava Richardson. R/Up Paul Loberman
Bracket 12 – Winner Ava Richardson, R/Up Bradley Armstrong
We also had High Game scratch pots for those that wanted to enter… and that added another £150 to the prize fund
Winners
Game 1 – Craig Barrett 232
Game 2 – Jessica Sillis 279
Game 3 – Colin Grose 289
Game 4 – Bash/r 278
Game 5 – Gavin Greaves 277
Game 6 – Colin Grose 260
Right into the tournament
The pattern using the New Brunswick Max Machine was the 20Roth42 pattern from the Brunswick Library. It’s a 5:1 pattern so falls into the “challenge” category. I think it was a decent pattern. It gave everyone the feeling that they could score highly even if sometimes the actual high scores didn’t materialise. It wasn’t a pattern that left you wanting to bang your head against a wall, and it wouldn’t just give you the score either.
First Squad started a little later then planned after a lane re-draw as a tardy player (Gerry Wrathall) finally rolled into the bowl. The squad leader was Local lad Hayden Hewitt (Double H) with a handicap total of 1428. The scratch leader was another local, the one and only Bash/r with 1334 a 218 average. In fact, this tournament was very well supported by the local league bowlers, many playing their first “national tour” tournament.
After the 2nd squad bowled, we had a new leader, Colin Grose. Colin going for back to back tour wins after winning the Mansfield event finished the first round with a handicap total of 1471. In 2nd was young Ava Richardson. Ava’s 12 and the niece of England bowler Lorna Scott – Ava’s already better and taller than Lorna, is a two hander and is a real prospect and definitely one for the future.
So, the first cut came in at Lily Hammett on 1278, with Alfonso Palestre missing out on low last game. MAMA MIA !!
As mentioned earlier from the 24 bowlers that made it through 14 of them were Dunstable league bowlers. Good local support.
To try and get a bit of social media engagement I ran a little “closest to the pin” competition on the tournament event page. I invited bowlers and non-bowlers to have a guess at what score the 1st cut will come in at. It worked well as we had 23 guesses. So, the cut was 1278 and the closest guess was Richard Beck who guessed 1275 … and he won himself £20. Hang on a minute ! The person inputting the scores won the closest to the pin comp ! Stewards’ enquiry !!!
The top 24 then played a further 3 games on freshly oiled lanes and the next cut was to the top 12. There was change at the top as young Ava moved into 1st with Colin slipping down to 2nd. Making a big move was Pistol Pete Stevenson who busted a move with games of 279,215,278 moving up 12 places from 15thto 3rd. The cut to the 3rd round fell at Local Lothario Bash/r on 2011, just pipping Local Youngster Josh Bland by 1 pin !
Round 3. The top 12 playing two games to get into the top 6. Colin Grose’s back gave in, and he slide down the leader board, just finding enough to make the cut on 2510, and knocking out Hayden Hewitt. Ava Richardson was still top, with Aaron Snelling moving up to into 2nd and Pete Stevenson remained 3rd.
So, the final Round, where the top 6 played 2 more game to decide a winner. Aaron had a final game of 172 and that saw him take 3rd. Pistol Pete was charging hard with a final game of 257, but he couldn’t catch Ava who was steady all day and despite the number games, never seemed to look tired as she went to claim the title and a £400 winners bonus !
A good mix of bowling abilities in the final. And a brilliant tournament if somewhat chaotic for me !
These are what the BTBA tour tournaments are all about, giving bowlers across the range of abilities something to play for and giving them a feeling that they always have a chance. Hopefully, many of the bowlers who played this event will play a couple more and in the long run and go on and play the Sports Tour and then maybe even try out for the National Team.
Ava with her bracket wins and prize money took home £500 – which she promised to give to her grandad (Little Dug) and her Mum. In fact it was good day for the family as her uncle Haydn Richardson finished 5th. It was only Lorna from the family who failed to make the cut,,,, she’s always been a disappointment to them.
A few extra prizes we had on offer.
Top Under 18 bowler outside the top 6 – this went to Cameron Brown who finished in 19th - £60
Top Lady outside of the top 6 – this went to Cat Fullbrook who finished 8th - £60
And thanks to Team Bowling Vision we had a great prize for the highest placed 18-22 year old (Youth bowling England Progression tour age group). Bowling Vision donated any ball from any of their brands. The winner was Jessica Sillis who finished 4th overall… she’s not sure what ball she will choose yet,,, but it will probably be the Hammer Effect. Apparently, it’s a decision her bowling committee will take as an agreed consensus after a tournament de-brief ! – what happened to just picking a ball because it was a nice colour !!
The total of cash paid out this tournament was £1,810 – thanks to 3 generous sponsors https://onestretchbeyond.com/ https://www.sdcarpentryleightonbuzzardltd.com/ and https://www.sandtautos.net/
We even had sponsor’s bowling Ki Leighfield from the S&T Auto and Stevie Dynes from SD Carpentry – thanks guys for yousupport.
You can view all the scores from the tournament here - https://events.btba.org.uk/tournament-details?recordId=recB9Kdk66IBVJJiM
The next event on the BTBA Tour is the Generation Doubles –Entry form is here https://events.btba.org.uk/tournament-details?recordId=rec3BmwSxQtO8kDqD
And if you’re active on Facebook please like and follow the BTBA Tour page https://www.facebook.com/btbatour
Thank you’s:
Lobbers – producing another amazing spreadsheet even though it was in Googledocs !
Richard Beck – Hero Duties
Hayden Hewitt, Jo Green, Lorna – Radio Duties
Steve the tech – for working past his shift !
Andy Penny – consultation
The Bowl – Ray-gun the Duty Manager. For letting us get on with it and doing basically everything I asked of them. Thanks.
And to you the bowlers for turning up, showing patience as I made it up as I went along.