King of the hill - 2024 masters
So back for the start of another King of the hillz season. This years theme is Navigation patterns. For the first event of the year I wanted to ease you all back into it gently. So, it was a friendly pattern to start – It was Route 66 V2. The pattern name actually means something, Route 66 is a long arse road in America and this is one of the longest Navigation patterns at 45ft.
A full squad of 28 bowlers…
The top 3 scores Scratch were
Jamie O’Dwyer – 1407 a 234.5 average
Big Mac MacPherson – 1377 a 229.5 average
And the tiny, very small Lorna Scott – 1337 a 222.8 average
Too put Jamie’s performance in context… he hadn’t bowled in ages, had to dig his bowling kit out the shed. Found out at the bowl his bowling boots were covered in mould, and a spider had made it home in his thumb hole !
We had £10 high game pot for each of the high game
Game 1 – Lorna Scott 267
Game 2 – Big Mac 276
Game 3 – Haydn Richardson 267
Game 4 – Sean McFarlane 247
Game 5 – Tom Chuter 259
Game 6 – Reece Parker 247
* before I get into the handicap section – I need to own up !!! – I only spotted it when I got home and skimmed the scores. But basically, there was an error in the spreadsheet. Which means someone missed out on a space in the stepladder. I’ve spoke to everyone concerned, they’ve all accepted my apologies. And I’ve agreed a free entry in the next event to the person affected. It was solely down to an error in the spreadsheet and a corrupt formula. Nothing untoward. So for the sake of this report – pretend you never read this…
The top 3 in handicap section were
Tony Antoniou – 1465
Reece Parker – 1382
Laure Fawcett – 1371
Before we got into the finals we had the fun pot games… first up was ‘Basher on the 1 and 2s’ … a bowler Randomly drawn (using google random number generator) – they would have 1 ball to take the 10 pin clean out… which wins you a £5 – but then you can “GAMBLE” and try for the 7 pin clean out to win a total of £20 – several people got drawn out. Philip Lay, Tom Chuter, and Richard Tack all took the 10 pin clean… but failed to take the 7pin out… so next event it’s a £10 for a single pin or £40 to take both.
Richard Tack got closest – https://clips.twitch.tv/PopularLitigiousTrollSeemsGood-7LBmoGvF9aea6axL
Next up we had a new game… Basher plays his cards Wrong… basic idea, and it is pretty basic… I have some BIG cards numbered 1 through to 10, bowler gets picked out and picks a card they have to then knock down the same number of pins with one ball to the number on the card. However there are a couple of JOKERS in the pack – they pick a joker out I get to decide what they do… so it could be leave a 5 pin, or leave any split – they do it they win £20 ! – 5 people were picked – the worse of the lot was Sam Pateman who pulled out a 9 – easy, considering the way he had carried all day. What does he do ? – ditches it for a miss… https://clips.twitch.tv/SaltyCheerfulAlmondANELE–B12BioDAOUHHjid
Some of the lowlights from the qualifying
https://clips.twitch.tv/PopularLitigiousTrollSeemsGood-7LBmoGvF9aea6axL
https://clips.twitch.tv/ScaryCrowdedCormorantCmonBruh-3kdw-P-0YWyL1-q4
https://clips.twitch.tv/AffluentPrettyOcelotWOOP-UfsRGV0wXU5OLt9k
Step ladder finals
Into Match 1
Handicap
Laura vs Reece the Power Parker… formally known as the Pro with a Fro … then he had a hair cut. Couple of dodgey deliveries on lane 9 for Reece which saw him take a 5 count and a 3 count and Laura held her nerve to win 196-153
Scratch
Big Mac vs Little Lorna. Despite the final score it was actually a close game until about frame 7 when Mac got a split and at the same time Lorna was striking. Lorna winning 221-189
Title Matches
Handicap
Laura bowled on the wrong lane… not once, not twice but almost thrice ! she was unlucky in the title match leaving two 5-7’s on lane 9 and also coming up against Tony Antoniou who had bowled well all day. Tony winning 253-211
Scratch
Lorna having just beaten one senior decided to smash up another one… Jamie O’dwyer… THE JOD ! the richest lorry driver in the world !! The only person who downsized their house and ended up with more bedrooms than the old house. The opening frames were close Jamie threw 3 lovely pocket balls in a row each one leaving a 10 pin, each one he spared… that’s some sort of record in itself. Even more so when you consider a sider had laid its eggs in the thumb hole of his ball. Middle of the game Lorna pulled away and won 238-201
So our first King and Queen are crowned.
The next event is June 16th – like the facebook group for these tournaments – https://www.facebook.com/groups/1123770395141402 and get all the tournament news first.
Thanks to all the bowlers
To Alison for doing the scores.
To Corinne and Bradders
To Andy Penny for ensuring the pattern was all loaded into the machine
And of course to our brilliant sponsors.. whose support allows us to have some fun, and offer a decent prize fund.
