HUSTLERS FAIL TO STRIKE GOLD AT THE VICTORY CLUB

A stunning flattener on last leg by Neilson proved insufficient to prevent Old Golds from overhauling Hustlers and sneaking a two pin victory.

The game opened with both sides evenly matched but with Old Golds nosing ahead at the end by 3 pins.  Second leg followed the same pattern but with the scores reversed so that there was nothing to split the teams after the first two legs.  The only scores of note were Dave, on fire with 41 and who pulled 17 on his opponent and Andy, in his customary position of being matched with the opposition’s top scorer, who lost 12 pins.

Third leg gave Hustlers optimism.  Ant starred; his top scoring 43 included a 13 spare and helped him into an 18 pin advantage on his opponent.  A glass half full person would have thought that Hustlers’ 16 pin lead would put last leg in a relatively comfortable position.

But this is the Hustlers, and fate had yet to show its brown fingers.  Neil rescued first hand with a 13 flattener in which he put his second ball through the middle (should the meerkat come into play for that?) but this proved the only bright spot in a leg which Old Golds dominated.  On the last hand they needed just 19 to win and scored 20, consigning Hustlers to another narrow defeat.