BTBA Tour Stop 8 – Bedfordshire Mixed Trios

The 8th Stop on the BTBA Tour was the Bedfordshire Mixed Trios played at Gobowling, Dunstable. It was a concentrated effort by Tour manager Dan “basher” Bonfield to get more women out playing a tournament and experiencing the BTBA Tour. A decent entry with 23 teams (46 men and 23 ladies) took to the lanes. The format was a simple one, a straight 7 games, the teams who knocked over the most pins won.

There were two squads, one Saturday afternoon and the other on Sunday Morning. 9 teams took to the lanes in the Saturday squad. Scoring was high, especially amongst the ladies. Tracey Stocks-Wallace averaging 231, Sarah Hood with a 226 average, Fiona Hallam 219 and Laura Marcham 218. Top men were the slim downed Rob Thurlby, even though he is only half the man he used to be he still shot a 236 average for his 7 games. Chris Oates averaged 226 and Lee Cocker 224.

With all of their bowlers at the top of the averages, it was no surprise that the team of Tracey Stocks-Wallce, Rob Thurlby and Lee cocker (Cockers Knockers) were top shooting a 230 team average, 2nd was a team of England Internationals – Chris Oates, Laura Macrch and Sam Rose (I aint afraid of no oates) who were averaging 218

All BTBA tour events have a Handicap division, and that was being won by The R.A.F team (Matt Hall, Fiona Hallam and James Baker) with a team average of 222

Onto the Sunday squad… again some high scoring. Bedfordshire bowler Brett Armer rolled what was to be surprisingly the only tournament 300 in game 3. And James Tidd was tearing the lanes apart averaging 270 for his first 4 games, including a 299 in game 2. In the ladies, Tour leader Samantha Hannan shot a 256, 265 in games 2 and 3 for a +131 total to finish 4th. And after that start James Tidd won the men’s with +385 with Northampton’s Dylan Maciuk with +272 and Rob from the Saturday squad in 3rd.

On to the team results – The scratch team event’s prize fund was boosted by Tour Sponsor B&P Fabrications and the winners were “Cockers Knockers” (Lee Cocker, Rob Thurbly, Tracey Stocks-Wallce) and the Handicap team winners were the “Put it In” team (Darren Michaels, Ton Langley and Jackie Wyatt)

Handicap Team Winners “Put it In” – Tom Langley, Jackie Wyatt and Darren Michaels

Track Bowling gave a ball away to the winner of the ladies scratch overall. Which was won by Tracey Stocks Wallace. The ball she chose was a Mako Attack. There were prizes from Striking Shirts. They donated two exclusive BTBA Tour Shirts to the two ladies with the highest overall handicap scores. The winners were Sarah Hood and Fiona Hallam.

Overall a very successful tour tournament, and it was fantastic to see so many ladies, who had at one time represented England either at junior, YAC, or adult level come back and play a competitive tournament. Hopefully the tour can achieve one of its objectives and bridge that gap between league bowling and Team England trials and get more ladies bowling tournaments then stepping up to try out for the National Team.

The final two tour tournaments are the Northants Open on October 23rd at Wellingborough and the Generation doubles on November 19th at Stroud.

Team

Ladies

Men