UNBEATEN Maudslay and Engineers limbered up for their table-topping clash with comfortable wins over Chris & Gerry Show and Team BG respectively.
Maudslay, now with five wins from as many games, could even afford to put in their lowest team score of the season but were grateful that C&G Show took this game to also register their lowest score to date.
A shared leg was the sole consolation for C&G Show as only Rita Passey with 34 pins and Dave Williams with 32 played well, while for Maudslay there were 38 pins each for Paul Matthews and Stu Griffiths.
Team BG put in their lowest team score of the season and lost their unbeaten record, but gave opponents Engineers an early scare by turning a nine-pin deficit after the first leg into a five-pin lead following leg two.
Engineers, now with four victories from four, then put in a big 74-pin third leg score to lead by 11 pins and were never threatened after that as they eventually ran out comfortable winners.
For Engineers, three players made 36 – George Bird (12-stack), Pete Clewlow and Andy Clewlow.
Rob Baker starred for Team BG with 42 pins (12-stack) and Gail Stringer made 31 and Ray Cartwright and Mary Withers 30 apiece.
It was hard work for Lodge Farmers as they overcame eight-man Alley Cats, who even took the first leg and still held a slender lead after leg three.
However, Lodge Farmers finally got their act together with more respectable scores in the remaining two legs to run out comfortable victors.
For Lodge Farmers, Alan Rumble scored 38 (15-stack), Steve Smith 32 and Chris Pritchard 31, whilst for illness-hit Alley Cats Moira Gazeley and Pete Sollis made 33 each and Tony O’Connor 32.
A best score of the season for Jumbo Jet Set secured a win against Alcester Nomads, whose score was their lowest to date but would have won most other games.
Jumbos took the first leg by just two pins before the second leg was shared, but Jumbos pulled away to secure a comfortable win.
All Jumbos players made 30 pins or more, led by Len Quartly with 38, Pete Battle-Welch with 37 and Geoff Turrell with 36.
In response, Nomads’ best came from Mac Eaton 38 (14-stack), Bob Browning’s 37 and Alan Cummings’ 35.
Well Developed bowled steadily and looked odds-on for their first win of the season after taking the first four legs against Swan to lead by 15 pins.
However, the wheels came off as they put in a poor last leg score of 48 to leave Swan requiring a tricky 64 pins for a narrow win, which they achieved with their highest leg score in the game to win by two pins.
The only individual scores available are from Well Developed for whom Martin Brennan made 37, Ron Skidmore 36 and Janina Brennan and Dave Bevan 35 each.
Results: Maudslay 9.5 (312) Chris & Gerry Show 1.5 (270); Engineers 9 (326) Team BG 2 (299); Lodge Farmers 9 (309 – ten players and 260 – eight players) Alley Cats 2 (233 – eight players); Alcester Nomads 1.5 (322) Jumbo Jet Set 9.5 (343); Swan 6 Well Developed 5.