Warwick Matchplay Doubles Report

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BUTBA Warwick Matchplay Doubles

Stop 3 on the BUTBA calendar saw students and ex-students alike travel to MFA Banbury on Sunday 17th November for the annual Warwick University Matchplay Doubles, formerly held in Nuneaton. The handicap matchplay split the entering teams into six groups of six teams, combining students and ex-students in a five game qualification round. With the 100% handicap ruling, the matchplay doubles promised to be as excitingly close a competition as the Nottingham Trios and Fives had been the month before. Qualification consisted of a five game matchplay within the six groups, with the top two teams automatically qualifying for the second round. These 12 teams were to be joined by the four highest handicap scoring third place teams from the six groups.

Qualification

Group A

Teams:

  • Nottingham C – Saiful Salihudin/Frazer Bowen;
  • Warwick B – Dan Mills/Gerard Colston;
  • Portsmouth A – Jon Spivey/Chris Hunnisett;
  • Baldwin/Herbert – Charlie Baldwin/Chris Herbert;
  • Imperial B – Xin Yan Goh/Hui Erh Tay;
  • Loose Cannons – Adam Lewis/Damien Gray.

Continuing their high from the Nottingham Trios and Fives, the University of Nottingham looked set to be up in the tables once again, starting off the Group A matchplay with a massive game of 570 against Warwick B’s 462. Their high scoring continued into the third game, where they won 538 to 452 against Imperial B. Ex-student team Baldwin/Herbert, however, also looked to be a strong combination of players, scoring 506 in the second game to beat Imperial B’s 444, and beating Loose Cannons 543 to 481 in the third game. Game three saw a very close match between Warwick B and Portsmouth A, with Warwick B just scraping a victory in the tenth frame to win 447 to 444. Warwick B and Portsmouth A continued this close match scoring into their fourth games, with Warwick B drawing with Baldwin/Herbert on 418 a piece, and Portsmouth A narrowly beating Imperial B in the last few frames once again, to win 470 to 457. Imperial B fought back, however in the last game to finally win a match with a 477 against Warwick B’s 460.

Group A proved to be the highest scoring group of the qualification rounds. Nottingham C, unsurprisingly, were the victors of Group A, winning all their matches to receive the highest number of points (10) with a 2521 overall handicap pinfall – the highest of all the qualifiers. Baldwin/Herbet qualified in second on 7 points with a pinfall of 2370, fourth highest in the qualifying teams. Warwick B secured third place in the group on 5 points and a 2264 overall pinfall. This was not enough, however, to see them through to the four top third place qualifiers, coming last out of the third place teams by just 44 pins.

 

Group B

Teams:

  • Flossy – Paul Marks/Louise Parker;
  • Portsmouth B – James Harwood/Jamie Kingston;
  • Imperial A – Gregory Gan/Gavin Lai;
  • Trent A – Will Beeson/Delvis Misceicius;
  • J11 – Jack Adams/James Corrie;
  • Sheffield A – Darren Ellis/Carl Whitfield.

Group B appeared to be a very closely matched group, with all three of the first game matches within 30 pins of each other. Portsmouth B narrowly beat Flossy in the last frame with a 451 to Flossy’s 448, but were not a closely matched as Imperial A, who lost out to Trent A by just one pin, losing 477 to 478. Also on 477, Sheffield A were unfortunate to come across J11, who looked to be the most suited to the lane conditions of the group, winning with a 505. By the second game, the matches were still close between the majority of the teams, however, it was Imperial A this time who figured out the lanes, winning 534 to 418 against Flossy. Flossy fought back from their loss, however, in the third game, to narrowly beat J11 454 to 445. The fourth game of the group saw all teams step up their game, putting pressure on Group A to be the highest scoring group of the day, with all teams scoring near 500 team games; Flossy beat Sheffield A 490 to 481 and J11 beat Imperial A 515 to 486. It was Portsmouth B this time who scored massively, beating Trent A 541 to 467. Imperial A got above the 500 mark once again in the last game, beating Sheffield A 509 to 402, putting Imperial A, Portsmouth B and J11 all on 6 points at the end of qualification, behind Trent A, the victors of the group on 8 points.

Based upon the overall pinfalls to determine who out of the teams on 6 points would take what position, it was Portsmouth B who fell at the hurdle, with their overall pinfall of 2228 putting them in fourth place behind J11 in third on 2324 and Imperial A guaranteeing their way into the second round, securing second place in the group on 2491, some 182 pins above top qualifiers Trent A. J11, however, managed to squeeze themselves into the second round, coming third in the six third place teams.

 

Group C

Teams:

  • Birmingham C – Mark Jeffs/Reena Kaur;
  • Nottingham A – Jeff Lasher/Adam Maxwell;
  • Loughborough A – Mark Hodds/Rachel Hodds;
  • Split Happens – Chris Lane/Ollie Lush;
  • Nottingham D – Tom Chester/Marie Smith;
  • Death Warmed Up – Sam De’Athe/Matt Warmington.

Loughborough A, especially Mark Hodds, started the competition with a bang, beating Split Happens in the first game 527 to 411. The first game of the group also saw a close match between Nottingham D and Death Warmed Up, with Nottingham D winning by just 15 pins, 465 to 450. The scores of the group picked up by the third game, with Birmingham C scoring a 491 to Nottingham D’s 470, and Nottingham A beating Loughborough A with an impressive 519 to Loughborough A’s respectable 493. The group on the whole seemed pretty well matched, with a number of close matches throughout the qualification, particularly Loughborough A and Nottingham D in the fourth game, with Loughborough A narrowly beating Nottingham D by just one pin with a 498 to 497. The fifth game of the group saw a home match between the two Nottingham teams, who seemed to be happy whoever won the points either way, with Nottingham A narrowly winning 444 to 437. Loughborough A fought back in the final game, but put themselves at risk of not qualifying, just losing to Death Warmed Up’s 475 with a 462.

Birmingham C, despite not being the top pinfall team, secured 8 points out of a possible 10 to win their group, closely followed by Nottingham A, Loughborough A and Split Happens, all on 6 points. Based on overall pinfall however, it was Nottingham A who secured their place in the next round, coming second in the group on a 2361. Loughborough A, despite being the highest scoring of the group on an overall pinfall of 2451, were the top qualifiers of the third place teams, securing themselves a spot in the second round, quite rightfully.

 

Group D

Teams:

  • Loughborough B – Nikki Stam/Bradley Stone;
  • Nodes/Balaam – Will Nodes/Rich Balaam;
  • The Bowling Dead – Dan Chan/Lee Burrows;
  • Birmingham A – Joe Harrison/Kian Mistry;
  • The Old Codgers – James Larkin/Bob Nethersole;
  • Blind. 

With only five teams in Group D, the teams had to fight harder for the points, as everyone was guaranteed 2 points minimum. Ex-student team Nodes/Balaam started off their qualification well, beating Loughborough B 477 to 468. The ex-students of the group continued to show that years of experience in student bowling certainly pays off in the second game, with The Bowling Dead beating Loughborough B 526 to 482, and The Old Codgers beating Birmingham A 503 to 456. When the ex-students came up against one another, it proved to be a very close match, with Nodes/Balaam narrowly loosing to The Bowling Dead in the fourth game 414 to 453. By the fourth game, however, the students started to fight back with Birmingham A beating Nodes/Balaam 453 to 446. Game five saw students vs students and ex-students vs ex-students once again. Loughborough B narrowly beat Birmingham A 477 to 453, but it was The Old Codgers who ended their series with a bang, scoring a massive 541 to Nodes/Balaam’s 433.

A high game from The Old Codgers put the top of the Group D tables, with 8 points and an overall pinfall of 2374, closely followed by consistent team, The Bowling Dead, also on 8 points, just behind The Old Codgers pinfall on 2330. Despite losing to Loughborough B in the final game, Birmingham A had already done enough to secure them third place in the group with 6 points and a 2308 pinfall overall, showing Group D to be one of the most closely matched of the day. This high third place pinfall secured Birmingham A a place in the final sixteen.

 

Group E

Teams:

  • Imperial C – Kelvin Wong/Brian Kai Tin Siu;
  • DILLIGAF – Nicky Donowski/Phil Manning;
  • Nottingham B – Simon Atkins/Danielle Ediker;
  • Nurse May – Chris May/Tom Nurse;
  • Birmingham B – Georgina Overy/Blind;
  • Just Sit On My Face – Andy Peek/Antony Lakey.

Group E started with a interesting match between Imperial C and DILLIGAF, with Imperial C winning by just one pin 456 to 455. DILLIGAF, however, didn’t let this get them down, beating another student team, Nottingham B 466 to 455 in the third game. Another close match going into the fourth game was between Imperial C and ex-Portsmouth bowlers, Sit On My Face, who won 424 to 408. DILLIGAF fought back in the fourth game also, scoring one of their highest games of qualification with a 540, beating fellow ex-student team Nurse May’s 456. Nurse May, not wanting to loose another match, picked up their game to beat Imperial C in the final game of the set, winning 453 to 427. It was Sit On My Face, however, who finally came true to form in the last game to score 504, beating Nottingham B’s 424. Georgina Overy, who was unfortunately representing Birmingham B on her own, didn’t manage to secure any points, but was not deterred by facing doubles teams, scoring 200+ handicap games on all her qualification games.

Both DILLIGAF and Just Sit On My Face secured places in the second round, both ending on 8 points, with handicap pinfalls of 2390 and 2339 respectively. Nottingham B ended in third place on 6 points, but were unable to come in the top four third place teams, finishing on an overall handicap pinfall of 2294, only 14 pins off qualification behind Group D’s Birmingham A team.

 

Group F

Teams:

  • C and the Bs – Simon Wilkins/Matt Kokolski;
  • Trent B – Curtis Berry/Rachael McKenzie;
  • Warwick A – Alex Minns/Felix Lee;
  • Chuter/Wright – Tom Chuter/Aiden Wright;
  • Exeter – Iain Butler/Michael Gilheaney;
  • Sheffield B – Matt Duncan/Alex Castle.

As with many of the other groups, Group F didn’t disappoint in the entertainment of close matched, with one of it’s closest matches in the very first game, between C and the Bs and Trent B, with Trent B narrowly winning 453 to 450. C and the Bs fought back in the second game however, setting a president for the group, beating Warwick A 504 to 375. Trent B had another close match in the second game, losing out in the last frame by one strike against Sheffield B, 469 to 478. In the third game, C and the Bs scored highly once again, securing a victory over Exeter, 520 to 471. Sheffield B continued their winning streak into the third game, winning 466 to 431 over ex-student team Chuter/Wright. Despite putting up a good fight, Chuter/Wright couldn’t secure any points in the fourth game either, closing out narrowly once again, scoring 444 against Trent B’s 458. Another close match in the fourth game saw Warwick A beating Exeter 471 to 468. Coming off their victory in the fourth game, Warwick A took their high spirits into the final game, beating Sheffield B 497 to 402.

Unsurprisingly, it was C and the Bs who won Group F, with 8 points and an overall pinfall of 2372, closely followed by Trent B, also on 8 points and a slightly lower pinfall of 2347. After some very close matches, Warwick A, Exeter and Sheffield B all finished on 4 points, but it was Exeter, however, who’s high pinfall of 2316 secured them third place, and a place in the final sixteen.

 

Matchplay Round 2

The qualifying sixteen teams were split once more, by random selection, into four groups of four teams, who played three games more of matchplay. The top team from each group then progressed to the finals rounds, consisting of one game play offs.

 

Group J

Teams:

  • Nottingham C – Saiful Salihudin/Frazer Bowen (first place Group A qualifiers);
  • Trent A – Will Beeson/Delvis Miscevicius (first place Group B qualifiers);
  • Just Sit On My Face – Andy Peek/Antony Lakey (second place Group E qualifiers);
  • Exeter – Iain Butler/Michael Gilheaney (third place Group F qualifiers).

After winning their group and not wanting to loose face, Trent A stormed into the second round by beating fellow group winners, Nottingham C, 558 to 478. It looked as though it wasn’t Nottingham C’s day by the second game, with them loosing once again, this time only just to Just Sit On My Face, 434 to 443. The final game saw a close match between Nottingham C and Exeter, with both teams scoring highly, and Nottingham C just securing a win 485 to 491. With Trent A needing to win the final match to secure a place in the finals, they came up against Just Sit On My Face. In an exciting game, the match ended with both teams scoring 475 a piece, meaning Just Sit On My Face scraped through to the finals on 7 points behind Trent A’s 5 points and Exeter and Nottingham C both finishing on 2 points each.

 

Group K

Teams:

  • Imperial A – Gregory Gan/Gavin Lai (second place Group B qualifiers);
  • Birmingham C – Mark Jeffs/Reena Kaur (first place Group C qualifiers);
  • Nottingham A – Jeff Lasher/Adam Maxwell (second place Group C qualifiers);
  • Trent B – Curtis Berry/Rachael McKenzie (second place Group F qualifiers).

Group K stated off their round showing all teams wanted to make it to the finals, especially Imperial A and Nottingham A, who both scored above 500 in their first match, with Imperial A winning graciously 528 to 502. Both teams dropped however, in the second game, with Nottingham A just loosing to Birmingham C, 425 to 428, and Imperial A loosing to Nottinghm A, who scored an impressive 502 to Imperial A’s respectable 471.  Trent B and Birmingham C had a close second game, with Trent B narrowly winning 455 to 428. The final game was also exciting for Trent B, with the match looking set to be won by Nottingham A. It was only from the fifth frame that Trent B came upon a striking streak to beat Nottingham A’s 427. Trent B won all their matches to win 6 points on an overall 8 game handicap pinfall of 3800, ahead of Imperial A on 4 points, despite them having the higher overall pinfall of 3948. Birmingham C followed on 2 points ahead of Nottingham A, who despite having the third highest pinfall, were unable to win any points in the second round.

 

Group L

Teams:

  • Loughborough A – Mark Hodds/Rachel Hodds (third place Group C qualifiers);
  • The Old Codgers – James Larkin/Bob Nethersole (second place Group D qualifiers);
  • Birmingham A – Joe Harrison/Kian Mistry (third place Group D qualifiers);
  • C and the Bs – Simon Wilkins/Matt Kokolski (first place Group F qualifiers).

C and the Bs, once again, impressed in the first game, however, were unable to win against The Old Codgers, who won by a margin, 524 to 526. Loughborough A and Birmingham A also had a close first match, with Loughborough A winning 443 to 432. Birmingham A, however, didn’t go down without a fight, picking up their scores to a massive 516 in the second game, winning over C and the Bs, who managed to score only 436. Birmingham A continued their winning streak into the final game, beating The Old Codgers by just one pin, with 481 to 480. Loughborough A who had one their first two matches, were unable to keep their winning steak up, missing out on a clean sweep of points on the last game to C and the Bs, 475 to 489. Loughborough A, however, still managed to secure the top position, despite being on equal points with Birmingham A (4 points each), however, had the higher 8 game pinfall, on 3849 to Birmingham A’s 3737. Both C and the Bs and The Old Codgers secured just 2 points from the second round, missing out on the opportunity to progress to the finals.

 

Group M

Teams:

  • Baldwin/Herbert – Charlie Baldwin/Chris Herbert (second place Group A qualifiers);
  • J11 – Jack Adams/James Corrie (third place Group B qualifiers);
  • DILLIGAF – Nicky Donowski/Phil Manning (first place Group E qualifiers);
  • The Bowling Dead – Dan Chan/Lee Burrows (first place Group D qualifiers).

The all ex-student Group M saw high scores in the first game. DILLIGAF narrowly lost to The Bowling Dead, 498 to 505, and Baldwin/Herbert lost to J11, who continued on their high scoring streak, winning 526 to 424. The second game saw DILLIGAF come back on form, winning over Baldwin/Herbert 522 to 450. This continued into the final game, with DILLIGAF winning once again with a 491 to J11’s 470. DILLIGAF secured 4 points from the second round, winning the group and progressing to the next round. They were joined on 4 points by J11, who unfortunately were behind on pinfall, scoring just 3779 to DILLIGAF’s massive 3901 overall handicap pinfall. Baldwin/Herbert and The Bowling Dead only managed to get 2 points a piece out of the second round, but definitely didn’t go down without a fight.

 

Semi-Finals and Finals

The semi-finals saw top place qualifiers of the four second round groups be seeded, DILLIGAF in first, Loughborough A second, Trent B third and Just Sit On My Face fourth on overall pinfall for the day. Seed 1 (DILLIGAF) faced Seed 4 (Just Sit On My Face) in a one game play-off, which ended in DILLIGAF continuing on their high scoring streak, beating Just Sit On My Face, 488 to 411. The other match saw Seed 2 (Loughborough A) narrowly win over Seed 3 (Trent B) in an exciting match. Loughborough A won by just 10 pins with both team members coming on to a striking streak late on in the match, ending the game 452 to 442. Trent B and Just Sit On My Face faced each other to fight for third place, the loser coming fourth overall. After a long day, the match between these two teams was very friendly and played with high spirits, neither minding who came out on top. Just Sit On My Face proved to have the higher constitution of the two teams, winning the match 447 to 425. Two pairs down, the finals match was underway, with consistent Loughborough A and high scoring DILLIGAF facing each other for the title. The match was one of the closest of the day, with no true winner being obvious until the last frame, when DILLIGAF fought back with a number of strikes to secure a victory for the day by just 9 pins with a 458 to Loughborough A’s 449.

 

Prizes

The men’s prizes in both the student and ex-student sections came as no surprise, as clear victors of the day were Loughborough honorary Mark Hodds (Loughborough A) and ex-Leeds Met student, Phil Manning (DILLIGAF). Mark Hodds won Student Male High Game Scratch with a 278 and Student Male High Average with a massive 227.4. Phil Manning practically mirror-imaged Mark Hodds in this respect, winning Ex-Student Male High Game Scratch with a 279, and Ex-Student Male High Average with a 227.1. Student Male High Game Handicap went to Will Beeson of Nottingham Trent, who scored a 308 handicap (258 scratch) game, which was well above his average. Just missing out on winning Ex-Student Male High Game Scratch by just one pin, ex-Warwick bowler, Jack Adams, was not disappointed to have missed out, as he received Ex-Student Male High Game Handicap with a 304 (278 scratch). Nottingham Trent saw another of it’s bowers, honorary, Rachael McKenzie, pick up Student Female High Game Scratch with a 228, and her former University of Leeds teammate, Nicky Donowski (DILLIGAF) picking up the Ex-Student Female High Game Scratch with a 237. The Female High Game Handicap Prizes were won by new-to-the-scene student, Reena Kaur (Birmingham C) with a 268 (153 scratch), and on the ex-student side by Flossy’s Louise Parker on a 234 (192 scratch). Female High Averages saw ex-student Nicky Donowski pick up another prize for her average of 205.6 for the day, and Imperial student Hui Erh Tay take High Average on the student side, narrowly missing a 200 average, with a 199.6. Her fellow Imperial teammate, Gregory Gan, picked up Most Above Average, shooting an impressive 211.1 average, 46.1 pins above his entering average.

 

With all BUTBA members fires fuelled with competitiveness after a matchplay competition, the next stop on the calendar, the Loughborough Diamond Sixes, held at MFA Ilkeston on the 8th December, looks to be an exciting one to watch!

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