LIME Kiln was the venue for a Bridgwater Town Skittles League Division A derby game, with the A team taking the role of hosts.

Spares from Ray Gibson and Malcolm Royce saw a hand total of 74. The ‘visiting’ B team, as to be expected, took no time to bed in and a flopper from Chris Flacherty, and spares from Jim Prowse, Mark Hill and Kev Budd took the hand total to 84 pulling ten.

Limer A whittled away the lead over the following hands until by the fifth they seized the lead themselves by five.

The penultimate hand saw a game low hand of 56 from the hosts letting the B team back in who capitalised to take the lead by seven which, despite losing the last hand, gave them the win by a single pin.

In Division B, River Parrett A hosted the Bunch of Grapes and opened with a hand of 58.

Bunch looked to be struggling until Andy Richards hit a 15 flopper regaining the initiative for the visitors, which they maintained until the fourth hand when Parrett took advantage of a poor hand to pull 11 and reduce the lead to a more manageable four, this was backed up in the fifth by another eight-pin haul to take the lead by four themselves.

Fate intervened again and the penultimate hand saw a lowly 53 from the home side allowing the Bunch back in. They didn’t look back and won the game by two, despite losing the final hand by eight.

Market D hosted the Commercial Inn in Division C and opened with an average 63, pulling two, before pulling a 79 out of the bag to pull a further 23.

By the fourth hand, Market were running amok, leading by 34.

Then the game changed – it was the visitor’s turn to get the scores. The sixth hand saw floppers from Ken Walker, Tony Andrews, and Peter Riddle which saw the lead halved, and if not pressure at least an intent was shown to the home side.

A target of 79 was posted by the home side. Commercial set off in style with first man on Ken Walker hitting a 15 spare. Nathen Bastin backed it up with a 17 flopper, however, another spare was needed and Market won by three.

In Division D, Castle Club B didn’t have far to travel to the Lions Club to face the A team.

Lions hit 61 following Luke Davies spare pulling four.

Castle’s second hand saw a spare from Jim Coles, and consistent scoring from the rest of the team resulting in the lead being snatched by three.

Tony Ainsworth hit a 13 spare as last man on in Castle’s third hand added another pin to their lead, which he repeated in the fourth hand to this time add eight to give a lead of 12.

Out of nowhere, Lions banged in a 71, due, in part, to Luke Davies’ 17 spare and Steve Bisset’s 14, to snatch the lead by four.

However, they couldn’t back it up and a lowly 54 let Castle back in; they didn’t need asking twice, pulling 14 on the penultimate hand and a further seven on the last hand to win by 17.