Craddock Nomads Skittles Team

LATEST NEWS:

Last night we had our yearly end of season meeting , individual tournament and awards.

Seasons award go to:
TOP SEASON AVERAGE "GRAHAM HOWELLS TROPHY" : CHRIS VALLANCE
JOHN O'LEARY CUP WINNER: ROB JAMES
JOHN O'LEARY CUP RUNNER-UP : CLIVE OSLING

OFFICERS FOR NEXT SEASON:

SECRETARY: CHRIS VALLANCE
CAPTAIN: CHRIS VALLANCE
V. CAPTAIN: GLYN MARSTON
TRESURER: RUSS BRADBURY

We will be back at the Fairwater Hotel next season for our home matches.

We would like to thank Dylan Bradbury for sticking up the last few seasons and the good news is that he will now be joining us as a player. (Brings the average age of the team down a lot!)

MAIN PIC: CHRIS VALLANCE BEING PRESENTED WITH HIS "GRAHAM HOWELLS TROPHY" BY SECRETARY GEOFF LEWIS.

TOP RIGHT: ROBE JAMES BEING PRESENTED WITH HIS "O'LEARY CUP" WINNERS TROPHY BY CAPTAIN CHRIS VALLANCE

BOTTOM RIGHT: CLIVE OSLING BEING PRESENTED WITH HIS "O'LEARY CUP" RUNNERS-UP TROPHY BY CAPTAIN CHRIS VALLANCE

(Sorry about the quality of the pics)

LATEST NEWS:

Caerphilly cons beat the Mugs to complete the table for this season.

SEASON END TABLE WITH THE EXCEPTION OF 1 GAME:

RESULT OF LAST NIGHTS GAME:

VETERANS 251 - 228 CRADDOCK NOMADS

Well, the season is over and after our disaster of a 2nd half it's a relief. At the Xmas break we had won 5 and lost 5 but after then we lost 10 out of 14.
This match started badly for us with a 44 on an alley which was really hard to score. Saying that both teams agreed that we would play 11 a side as we were both short on players. The Veterans managed 51 to take an early lead of 7. It was almost ditto on the 2nd with their 51 to another 44 by us. The third saw us fall behind by another 6 to now be 19 down after their 49 to our 43. This amount of pins behind was always going to be difficult to pull back, and we fell further behind on the 4th after the opposition scored 52 and we hit another low score with 45 to now be well behind by 26. The game was over as a contest, but we did manage to win the last roll with our 52 to their 49 which meant we lost by 23. Top scorer this week was Tony O'Leary with 24 backed up by Hywel Vallance with 23. RECORD NOW@ P24 W9 D0 L15 PTS18. It looks like we have finished in 11th place this season which is disappointing . Saying that, at times we have been missing players through illness and holidays etc. We now have our annual meeting which is planned for May 18th at the Vic Park Hotel at 7.30pm. This will be the last time at the Vic as we are moving back to the Fairwater Hotel for next season. We will be hoping to recruit new players for next season to boost our numbers.

RESULT OF LAST NIGHTS GAME:

CRADDOCK NOMADS 236 - 257 GRANGE QUINNS

Another poor night for us as we are finishing the season on a big low. We can't believe how shocking we are at starting games and this was no different with a terrible 41. They did a little better scoring 48 so straight away we were 7 down. We weren't much better on the 2nd with 44 and again the Quinns could only take 2 more off us with their low 46. On the 3rd we got a little bit better with 51 but this time the opposition had no mercy and hit a very good 60 on an alley that seems to get worse every season. We were now 18 down and struggling. On the 4th again we could only manage 47 but as it happens the Quinns got just 45. Going into the last we were 16 down and that really was that. Even though we scored our highest roll on the last with 53 it wasn't anywhere near enough and they came back with a good 58 to take the game by 21 pins. Top scorers this week were Rob James and Liam Vallance who both scored 25's. RECORD NOW P23 W9 D0 L14 PTS 18. Our next game which is our last of the season is on Thursday the 30th April away at the Whitchurch RFC against the Veterans.

RESULT OF LAST NIGHTS GAME:

CRADDOCK NOMADS 273 - 283 CRUISERS

Another disappointing night against the Cruisers who did the double over us this season. Our score of 273 was our highest at home this season and still it was not enough. Despite that our home form has been poor with just 3 wins from 11 so far.
This match started poorly with our 49 to which they capitalised with a fine 60 to take an early lead of 11. This match was never going to be easy as the opposition had won their last 11 games on the trot.
We pulled 1 back on the 2nd with 54 to their 53 even though we had a 0 in the roll. We got ourselves right back in the game on the 3rd with a good 56 to which they could only get 49. We were now just 3 behind and in with a chance. The 4th roll was very close with our 55 to their 56 so now we were just 4 behind going into the last. We now needed to put in a good roll, and again after another 0 on the board, we finished with our highest score of the night with 59 to leave them a very tricky 56 to win. You can see that the Cruisers are likely to be promoted as they showed no mercy with a fantastic 65 to finish and win the game by 10 pins. Top scorers this week were the Vallances with Liam getting 31, Chris scoring 28 and Hywel 27. RECORD NOW: P22 W9 D0 L13 PTS 18. There are just 2 games left now and or next match is at home next Monday the 20th against Grange Quinns.

RESULT OF LAST NIGHTS GAME:

MUGS 247 - 259 CRADDOCK NOMADS

Back to winning ways last night and completing a double over the mugs for the season. This completed an 8th consecutive win against them in the last 4 seasons.
The game started very tightly with their 47 on generally a low scoring alley. we replied with 48 to take a slender lead on 1 pin.
On the 2nd we doubled that with our 48 to their 47. Neither side seemed to get a grip on the alley at this point, but they did improve on the 3rd with 51. We came back with our best roll of the night with 56 to now take a very handy 7 lead. The 4th roll which has been a bogey roll for us many times in the past happened to the Mugs when they struggled to 45. we took advantage of that with 52 to now take a lead of 14. The last roll they pulled out a very good 56 which left us with 43 to win. We didn't take it for granted as we knew it was a tricky alley. We were very consistent all the way down the board and scored 54 which made us winners by 12. Top scorers this week were Hywel Vallance and Les Hazell who both hit 26 and that was backed up by Chris Vallance with 25. RECORD NOW: P21 W9 D0 L12 PTS 18. There as now just 3 games left to play and our next match is at home at the Vic Park against the Cruisers next Monday the 13th April.

RESULT OF LAST NIGHTS GAME:

CRADDOCK NOMADS 255 - 278 BOTTLE BOYS.

Our terrible form in the second half of the season continued last night. This was our 7th defeat in the last ten so we are falling down the table unfortunately.
The match started with a shocking roll of 43. The Bottle Boys took advantage with a 55 to leave us 12 behind. We did better on the 2nd with a 52 but it was still not enough . They got 57, so that meant we lost another 5 pins to be 17 adrift. We did better on the 3rd with 56 but still we lost more pins after their 59. Now, 20 behind things were looking bad and we knew that we would have to get a decent score on the fourth. But true to form on the night we collapsed to 47 which we knew would definitely lose us the game . The Bottle Boys were cruising now and their 54 saw them increase the lead to 27. At least we did manage to win the last roll with our highest of the night with 57. They replied with 53 to win the game by 23 pins. Top scorer this week was Chris Vallance with 26 backed up by Tony O'Leary with 25. RECORD NOW: P 20 W8 D0 L12 PTS 16. Our next game now is not until Wednesday April 8th away to the bottom of the table Mugs at Park Cons Club.

RESULT OF LAST NIGHTS GAME:

FLINTSTONES 292 - 281 CRADDOCK NOMADS

Unfortunately, our poor form for the 2nd half of the season continued last night against the Flintstones at the Birchgrove. We started on the back foot when we found ourselves 6 down after the 1st roll with their 54 to our very poor 48. To make matters worse on the 2nd they put in a very good 64 to which we replied with another low score of 53 so now we were in early trouble being 17 down. We had to make some progress by pulling some pins back on the 3rd and after their 52 we bounced back with a mighty 65 to now be back in the game. We were now just 4 down going into an important 4th roll. When we came back out into the alley we were shocked to see that they had hit a huge 66 so now we were in trouble unless we could hit the same. Well, it wasn't to be with our low score of 52 to be 18 down going into the last and all looked lost. They were struggling a little bit on the last until their final few men got them out of trouble and they finished with 56 leaving us an impossible 75 to win. Despite starting well with 3 x 6's and a 7 it was really a pipedream to think we could do that all the way down the board. We did finish with 63 but that made them winners by 11. Top scorers this week were Hywel Vallance, Chris Vallance and Glyn Marston who all hit 27's . Our spare did hit 29 though! RECORD NOW: P19 W8 D0 L11 PTS 16. Our next game is on Monday the 23rd at home at the Vic against the Bottle Boys.

RESULT OF LAST NIGHTS GAME:

CRADDOCK NOMADS 248 - 265 PIN PALS

Unfortunately we lost this match on a night that just didn't go right for us.
The game started extremely poorly for us which seemed to be a theme for the night with a low 46. They took full advantage of this with a 55 which is not too bad for our low scoring alley. On the 2nd we did manage to pull back 4 pins with a 53 to their 49 to now be just 5 behind. The 3rd saw us claw back a pin with another 53. they came back with 52 in what was a tight game to this point. The 4th roll was a disaster for us and that really was the defining roll of the night with another 46. This time they got their act together with a very decent 57 for us now to be behind by 15. Our only chance now going into the last would be to get a very high score on the last, but again, another low score this time of 50 left them just 36 to win. They cruised to victory with a 52 to win by 17. With none of our players getting a 25 of over it was a terrible night. We have now only won 3 out of 10 home games as well so far this season. Our top scorers this week were Liam Vallance, Russ Bradbury, Adrian Macloed and Les Hazell who all scored 24. RECORD NOW: P 18 W 8 D0 L10 PTS
Our next game is on Wednesday 18th March away at the Birchgrove against the Flintstones.

RESULT OF LAST NIGHTS GAME:

CAERPHILLY CONS 277 - 293 CRADDOCK NOMADS

Our furthest trip in the division proved fruitful after our last two games ended in defeat. Considering playing on an alley that we were expecting reasonably high scores the game started poorly for both sides. The Cons hit just 51 to which we replied with a terrible 48 to be down by 3. The match livened up on the 2nd with their 57, but it was not enough as we came back with a hefty 65 to now take the lead by 5. On the 3rd Caerphilly failed again with a low score of 50 which gave us a decent chance to increase our lead. We chucked in another good roll with 60 to now be 15 ahead and it was starting to look good. You never know on skittles a game can turn quite quickly and with their roll of 63 on the 4th meant that we had to make sure that we didn't lose many pins. We hit a 58 so despite losing 5 pins we were still in a good position to win the game. Now, on the last we were hoping that they didn't score too highly, and leave us a tricky score to win. Fortunately for us that scored just 56 to leave us 47 to take the match. We started the last roll poorly with the 1st 5 men just getting 17 between them leaving the last 7 men to get 30. The roll soon turned after that with some really good skittling to finish with a roll of 62 to win by 16. Top scorer this week was Chris Vallance who hit the highest individual score of the season so far with a brilliant 34. This was backed up by Glyn Marston with 31 and Liam Vallance with 29. RECORD NOW: P17 W8 D0 L9 PTS16. Our next game is back at the refurbished Victoria Park next Monday the 9th March against the Pin Pals and we will be looking to do the double over them for this season.