THE Wellington Ex-Services Skittles League has got under way with Reservists winning the first trophy of the season - the Jim Blackmore Super Cup - against Holywell Lake which was played at the Conservative Club.

With chairman Dave Derrick and league secretaryJamie Milton present, the captains Darren Sparks and Steve Dowson tossed up to decide who would get the game underway. Steve called tails but the coin landed heads up so Darren chose for Holywell lake to play first.

Holywell Lake started with some steady skittling in the first two hands with a 52 and 56 hand. On their third hand - with the ball chopping out and going through - they scored 49. Now it was Reservists’ turn to get the alley to come to life. With Glen Escott starting with a solid 9, up stepped R. Troake with his first ball right on the front pin - the first sign of a spare was there for the taking. Which he did with ease finishing with a 13 spare. Reservists kept up the pace with a mixture of 8, 9 and 7, giving them a first hand of 69.

With this Reservists carried on with the same form. This time R. Troake got a flopper and made his second spare of the night - a solid 15. Also in this hand captain D. Sparks picked up a 13 spare as well ending the second hand with a 70 hand. So now with a 31 pin lead the Reservists looked comfortable in the game.

G Escott started the third hand with a good 15 spare and with some more tidy skittling from the rest of the team and a 12 spare from P. Chamberlain they finished the hand with a 72 hand, now giving them a half way lead of 54.

Holywell Lake returned to the alley to try and get back in the game and to pick up their first spare of the night but sadly this just didn’t happen. They did though improve on their first three hands slightly with 55, 57 and a 54 hand. Holywell Lake ended the night with a final score of 323 (C Wood, S Newberry 43)..

Reservists returned knowing all they had to do was carry on as they left off which they did picking up pins with 8 and 9s with a 63 and 58 hand. With the game already won they went into the final hand where R. Troake yet again hit the front leaving a spare chance which he picked up again and finished off with a nice 17 and a overall score of 66. It did not end there as P. Powell got in the ‘spare gang’ with a good 16 leaving Reservists finishing on a 73 hand and a total of 405.