South Devon skittles teams ready to take on best in British Champs

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Five South Devon skittles teams have qualified for the finals of the British Skittles Championships being held in Torquay on Saturday.

Four of the teams are former champions so South Devon could well dominate the competition once again.

Last year two teams from Totnes took home two out of the three titles, winning the ladies and mixed competitions, a best ever performance by South Devon teams.

Leading the fray this year are the current ladies champions, the Dolly Mixers from Totnes, who will be hoping to retain their title after being previously four times runners up.

Another team from Totnes, the Lucky Devils, are back on form after winning the mixed championship back in 2012 and 2013.

They won their group round by two points to bag their place in the finals.

Mixed team the Misalots from Paignton will be keen to get their hands on the trophy. They were champions in 2011 and runners up the following year.

Other regular qualifiers include the Mixers from Totnes, champions in 2010 and runners-up two years later.

They’ll be joined in the men’s final draw by the Footfaulters of Torquay.

Missing from this year’s qualifiers line-up are High Flyers who were last year’s mixed champions.

A total of 64 teams from all over the UK have bagged their places in the grand finals after a summer of local league matches and play offs.

Around 1,000 qualifiers and supporters will converge on Torquay’s Riviera International Centre for a gruelling day of group rounds and knock-out matches to determine the winners.

As well as trophies, medals and team shirts, the winners in each category stand to win a skittles weekend away for 10 people.

By the time the winners step up on to the podium there will have been around 500 matches played representing about 30 days of continuous play, around 150,000 balls bowled, and 3000,000 skittles stuck up.

The Championships are staged annually by Torquay based Serious About Events.

SNOOKING

With Match Room A having claimed the Premier Division of the Match Room Sponsored Torbay Summer Snooker League last week, the battle for runners-up spot will go into the last round of fixtures.

Brixham Cons A currently have a three-frame advantage following their 4-2 win over seventh-placed St Marychurch A – and they require three frames from their final match to secure second spot.

St Marychurch G are the team chasing the Brixham side and they held champions Match Room A to a 3-3 draw, despite James Lee having a 41 for Match Room.

The battle to avoid relegation also goes to the last week with Ellacombe Cons A holding a two-frame advantage over Match Room E with Dan Ward having a 28-break in their 3-3 draw with seventh-placed St Marychurch A.

Match Room E remain bottom having battled out a 3-3 draw with sixth-placed Upton Social A.

Match Room F, as expected, have been crowned Division One champions with captain Will Snook enjoying a 39-break in their 5-1 win over seventh-placed Galaxy E.

The battle for runners-up spot now involves three teams. Teignmouth Social A took advantage of Brixham Sea Anglers X having a bye week to draw level with a 3-3 draw with sixth-placed Central Cons A.

Preston Cons B are three frames behind after they slipped to a 4-2 defeat at fifth-placed Central Cons B and host Teignmouth in their final game.

At the bottom, St Marychurch B have pulled five frames clear of bottom-placed Paignton Cons A with Paul Keates having a 22 for St Marychurch and Neil Parker breaks of 39 and 27 for the Paignton side – as St Marychurch won 4-2 to ease their relegation worries.

The Division Two title race sees Roundham A take a three-frame advantage into the

The current British Skittles ladies champions the Dolly Mixers from Totnes who will be at the RIIC on Saturday final round of matches after they won 6-0 against eighth-placed Teignmouth Social B, while Matchroom T’s 4-2 win over fourth-placed Brixham Sea Anglers A keeps them in the title race and also needing only two frames to assure promotion.

Galaxy C’s title ambition ended with a 4-2 defeat at home to fifth-placed Hookhills A, despite the efforts of Ryan Gibson who had a 29 break and 27 clearance for Galaxy.

The battle of the bottom two saw St Marychurch C win 4-2 to move two frames clear of their opponents, while Preston Cons C remain seventh but now just one frame behind Roundham B in sixth after they beat the Roundham side 4-2.

League and competition entry forms for the Match Room Sponsored Torbay Winter Snooker League need to be completed and returned to the fixture secretary, together with entry fees, no later than Thursday, September 13.

The new league will commence on Thursday, October 4.

ANGLING

The lakes came alive at Town Parks Fishery last week when the fish started to feed as the weather turned more Autumnal.

Fantastic sport was experienced by anglers on the Specimen Lake as many broke their personal bests during hectic seven days.

In a week that saw the fishery hold its annual Vernon Feakes Memorial Match, Vernon’s son Matt not only won the match but also banked his personal best catfish.

The memorial match was attended by family and friends of Vernon who often fished at the venue.

The match was won by Feakes with a mid-teens catfish and several other fish coming to the scales and taking donated prizes. The event raised more than £150 for Macmillan Cancer Support.

After the match had finished Feakes hooked into a much larger fish. Following an epic battle a fine catfish of 46lbs 2oz was in the net.

Town Parks regular Scott Bryant was also in the thick of the action when he banked his personal best carp, a fine mirror of 25lbs 8oz. The fish fell to the fishery’s krill and halibut pellets.

Josh Dean chose peg 4 and took his PB carp, a nice common of 22lbs 12oz. He then banked a PB catfish of 29lbs 10oz. Once again, pellet proved effective.

Luke Wiseman had his ‘best ever session’ taking 13 cats to 36lbs 4oz and five carp to 21lbs 3oz. Wiseman also lost another eight fish at the net.

Plenty more catfish and carp came to the net – too many to list individually.

Graham Hancy broke his personal best three times in one session. He banked a PB catfish of 34lbs 3oz, only to smash that with a fish of 38lbs 2oz. Hancy also banked his PB carp of 20lbs 5oz – all from peg 1.

The Match Lake fished much the same as the Specimen Lake with carp and silvers feeding freely.

Many multiple catches were reported with bags of carp to the 200lbs-mark taken from the Dam Wall.

Visitor Stan Williams fished peg 16 for a short three-hour session and took 12 carp to 14lbs fishing 10mm boilies close to the island.

Another unnamed angler reported taking 17 Carp to 12lbs 9oz with pellet from peg 19.

With relatively settled weather forecast fishing should remain excellent for the foreseeable future.

BOWLS

As the curtain came down on the season for Torquay Bowling Club‘ s ladies it was definitely a case of third time lucky when they defeated Newton Abbot in the final of the 4-3-2-1 Knockout Cup competition at Victoria.

The win followed final defeats at the hands of Kings last year and Torbay Country in 2016.

Things didn't look too promising early on as all four disciplines were trailing – but slowly they clawed their way back and first to finish was Sarah Vinnicombe, who only lost the 4 Wood Singles – played over 21 ends – by two shots (16-14) to Julia Barnes when it could have been a lot worse.

The pair of Val Davis and Liz Lock eventually finished 22-13 to the good against Pat Powell with the deciding factor being the outstanding 27-10 win by the four of Jean Welch Jane Perrett Doreen Jordain and Ellen Crispin.

The triple of Ella Crouch, Natalie Heath and Beryl Leach ended 23-12 down.

Spokesman Tim Lock said: “This was sweet revenge indeed for the Torquay girls as recently it was Newton Abbot who put paid to any hopes of them pipping Kings’ ladies for the league title.

“They did however bag enough points off Torbay Country this week to secure the runners-up spot.”

There was, however, nothing lucky about Torquay Ladies B team, who under the leadership of Pat Keay achieved a third consecutive championship win when they defeated visitors Ivybridge to finish top of Division Four of the South Devon Ladies Bowls League with a marvellous record of 12 wins from 12 matches.

BADMINTON

The Devon Badminton Association are offering an opportunity to extend playing careers with some enjoyable competition against other similar aged people in the South West area.

The search is on for players to represent Devon in the Inter-County Masters badminton competitions for players aged 40 and over.

Those interested should contact Devon County Veterans co-ordinators Margaret Banyard on 01752 319471 or Dylys Bradshaw on 01752 402015 by