Home

Martock & District Skittles League

Hello Everyone 

This was the curtain closing on the 2024-25 season and it’s been a challenging but very rewarding season.

Stoke Club as always was the venue and it hosted 2 finals on both their alleys. The top alley was the Coronation Cup Final in which 10 teams that qualified from the week before battled it out to become the champions, Nobbys Nuts were there defending their crown but would there be a new name on the cup!

On the bottom alley it was the Alan Elliott Knockout Cup Final and it involved 2 well renowned and generally strong teams. Duke of York have had a brilliant 2025 finishing 3^rd in the league and winning the Nomination Cup, could they do the double to gain retribution for last seasons runners up! Monkey Spankers have by their standards had a torrid season, but this was their chance to end the season on a high.

Both matches started at 8pm with the presentations to follow of both divisions and cup competitions and individual winners.

Lets see who the winners were on what would be a great night to end the season!

Alan Elliott Knockout Cup Final

Duke of York v Monkey Spankers

Venue: Stoke Club Bottom Alley

Pete Wescott & Graham Brimble were the officials in charge for this cracker of a final. Graham Brimble conducted the coin toss with Roger Lee and Sean Doble and it got an ironic cheer as Roger Lee who never wins a coin toss did this time as he chose to put Monkey Spankers in first & chase. With Duke’s flawless record of winning when chasing this season it was hopefully a case of do the same again. Monkey Spankers had to do the running early on and would hope to get to a strong start.

Apart from Lewis Watts with a 9,8 start, Monkey Spankers really struggled early on and the first two hands were generally littered with 4s and 5s and that led to a weak 45 and 51. The views from Duke of York was that they wanted a good lead looking at Spankers hands so the Grand old Duke of York needed a fast start. They got a decent start from skipper Roger Lee as he had a 9,6. The trend from Duke was consistency of decent scores as there was very little in the way of low scores with myself with 5,4, Simon Male with 4,7 and Adam Redwood with 7,2, but apart from that Duke had a good start as two 52s gave them an 8 pin lead. That weak start from Monkey Spankers could haunt them by the end of this final, but they had to get going to make this a great final, Monkey Spankers were much better and Lewis Watts (13) and James Grinter (13) hitting spares to give them much needed impetus as they hit 56,50 to put a modicum of pressure back onto Duke of York. What the Duke knew was they had a 8 pin lead to cushion, so it was important for them they kept the lead. You can see why Duke are such a hard team to beat as despite a 1 from Maurice Lee the rest and even myself scored decently and especially Rob Shire and Martin Lee who were at their brilliant best and hardly missing pins. 55 and 52 meant that Duke had blunted the Spankers mini onslaught and added to the lead as they were 9 up. It was go for broke time for Monkey Spankers as they had to set Duke a target that would be tough to get. They definitely warmed to the task as they were hitting 7s, 8s and 9s all the way through their last 2 hands. James Grinter top scored with 49 and Lewis Watts hit 46 as two 56s gave them a final total of 314 and left Duke of York needing two 52s to win the KO Cup and do the double! I have been in some special atmospheres but this felt like Dukes night from the start as the positivity and the backing of every player was superb. The high consistency of scoring shone through and with Martin Lee top scoring with 46 and Rob Shire closely behind with 45 to leave Adam Redwood needing 9 pins to win the KO Cup and he dually did that with 3 balls to spare for Duke of York to win the Alan Elliott KO Cup by 8 pins. Congratulations to Roger and his team on doing the double. 

There was emotions later on which I will elude to later on in the report.

Commiserations to Sean Doble and his Monkey Spankers team on losing the final but they had a great run to get there. thankyous go to Graham and Pete for officiating.

Coronation Pairs Final

10 Finalists: Bakers Rogues, Hit & Hopes, Monkey Spankers, Lamb Shanks, Duke of York, Seahawks, Split Pins, Stoke Buoys, Stoke WMC, Nobbys Nuts.

Venue: Stoke Club Top Alley

Chairman Barry Cullimore officiated the Coronation Cup Pairs Final and the early goings was good quality scoring as Keatesy for Rogues started with 2 9s and Matt Gould for Spankers hit a 15 spare, Split Pins hit a 12 spare also as we were seeing very decent scoring. The leaders after the first 2 hands were Stoke WMC with 34 and just behind were the duo of Darren Cousins and Chris (Bart) Jones with 33. It was looking very close between a few teams, but the next two hands was all about 1 team! That team surprisingly was Stoke Buoys as I’m delighted that their sticker up was 1 of the pair in Charlie Stoner who steamed in with a 17 spare! He turned the whole final on its head and his partner John Pitman followed up with a 14 spare and were leading with 72 between them after 4 hands which is impressive. Teams were chasing Stoke Buoys now, but spares were hard to come by which were needed if anyone was to overtake Stoke Buoys, the closest were Duke of York pair Roger Lee (48) and Martin Lee (45) finished with 93 but it was Stoke Buoys Charlie and John that won the Coronation Cup with 50 and 47 respectively and massive congratulations to them. There was also a trophy for highest individual in the final and that had to go to a playoff as Keatesy for Bakers Rogues also hit 50. Charlie and Keatesy played off and it was Keatesy that won the individual trophy. 

Presentation

Once everything died down it was time for the presentation with Chairman Barry Cullimore giving out the trophies, Pete Wescott on the mic and myself (Steve Lonton) photographer extraordinaire!

Pete started with a few thankyous to Stoke Club for hosting the evening and for an excellent spread of food, I was thanked for my hard work throughout the season as fixtures & the stickers up cup to rapturous applause. Then it was the presentation of the trophies and there are so many to talk about, so I will keep it short. The evening belonged to Duke of York who won the KO Cup and were Runners Up in the Coronation Cup, Charlie Stoner was brilliant for Stoke Buoys in helping winning the Coronation Cup. Bakers Rogues took individual honours with Paul Gould taking home the Highest Individual Away Score with 75, Keatesy winning the highest score trophy after a playoff with 50 and Sam Batten winning the Stickers Up Cup the week before. Nelsons Nomads won the reinvented Nomination Plate with S Club 8 Runners Up. We will welcome S Club 8 and maybe Hit & Hopes into Division 1 as Hit & Hopes are Division 2 champions and  S Club 8 Runners Up. The bad luck story of VIPS as they led Division 1 for three quarters of the season only to have a train wreck end to the season, but they finished Runners Up which was the least they deserved. I leave you for the 2024/25 season with the Division 1 Champions Stoke WMC!! More photos will be on the website and Facebook group.

Before I forget all good things come to an end and that was the case for 1 man and a good friend since I joined Duke of York. Pete Follett has been playing skittles for 65+ years and is a Martock skittles league legend. He played his last game in winning the KO Cup to go out on a high. It goes without saying that not only will the Duke team miss you, but also every single person that’s had the pleasure of playing with you and against you over the many years you have played this great game. You will be missed Pete by everyone in the league and hope to see you in the very near future.

Have a great summer everyone 

Steve