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 with Tracey Stocks-Wallace averaging 231, Sarah Hood 226 average, Fiona Hallam 219 and Laura Marcham 218. Top men were Rob Thurlby, averaging 236, Chris Oates 226 and Lee Cocker 224.
With all of their bowlers at the top of the averages, it was no surprise that Tracey Stocks-Wallace, Rob Thurlby and Lee Cocker were the top team. In 2nd place was a team of England internationals – Chris Oates, Laura Marcham and Sam Rose who were averaging 218.
All BTBA tour events have a Handicap division, and that was lead 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. James Tidd was tearing the lanes apart averaging 270 for his first 4 games, including a 299 in game 2. In the ladies, BTBA Tour leader Samantha Hannan shot a 256, 265 in games 2 and 3 for a +131 total to finish 4th. James Tidd won the men’s with +385 with Northampton’s Dylan Maciuk with +272 in 2nd and Rob Thurlby 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 Lee Cocker, Rob Thurbly, Tracey Stocks-Wallace and the Handicap team winners were Darren Michaels, Ton Langley and Jackie Wyatt.
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. Striking Shirts 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 to then step 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.
The full results for the Bedfordshire Mixed Trios can be downloaded here.
With thanks to Dan Bonfield for the tournament report and organisation.
Be the first to comment