"What an awesome weekend of skittles competition!"
"A brilliant atmosphere from start to finish"
Saturday 19th September 2009 saw yet another thrilling climax to end a grueling 5-month long campaign by a record 164 teams in the 6th Blackthorn British Skittles Championship Grand Finals. The 48 qualifying teams from across the skittling counties got underway under a sun-kissed Sand Bay Leisure Resort, Weston-super-Mare to find the Men's, Ladies and Mixed Blackthorn Champions for 2009. It was teams from Gloucester, Devon, Dorset, Worcestershire, Somerset and home town Weston that entered the packed out arena for the final match of their epic campaigns.
Amazing individual and team performances, together with grit and determination on a sweltering stage after a whole day skittling, saw three of the last six take away the winner's trophies, medals, Blackthorn goodies and the coveted title of Blackthorn British Skittles Champions 2009.
The winning prize money of £1,650 for the Men's, £1,000 for the Ladies and £1,200 for the Mixed teams, were awarded as follows:
Men's Champions: Weston St. John from Weston-Super-Mare
Ladies Champions: Coleford Bowlovers from Coleford, Gloucestershire
Mixed Champions: Orchard Mix from Mere, Dorset
Runners up in each event with Men's receiving £800, Ladies £500 and Mixed £600 together with Blackthorn goodies were as follows:
Men's runners up: Numpty Dumptys from Worcester
Ladies runners up: The Sinners from Exeter, Devon
Mixed runners up: Wild Bunch from Frome, Somerset
The last 16 teams in each of the 3 events lined up according to the previous evening's live draw and got the ball rolling shortly after 10am. For teams that fell at the first hurdle, a plate event was held and the results were as follows:
Men's plate winners: Morganite from Worcester
Men's plate runner-up: Mixers from Totnes, Devon
Ladies plate winners: Baker St. Follies from Gloucester
Ladies plate runner-up: Gloster Belles from Gloucester
Mixed plate winners: Dorchester Pic n Mix from Dorchester
Mixed plate runners-up: Mix Ups from Pensilva, Cornwall
All 48 teams who reached the Grand Finals received a special rate accommodation sponsored by Martyn Leisure Resorts and Hotels for the Saturday night and were entertained by an amazing performance from Skool Disco, DJ Alan Webb and a late bar Karaoke.
Press officer winner - Dave Rowe
Mr Alan Walsh, Bristol Cities Reserve Team Manager presented 2009 Home alley award to Mr Danny Pearce from The Railway Hotel, Burnham on Sea.
The Press Officers Award for presenting the best local press coverage for the event was won by last year's runner-up Dave Rowe of The Saints with last year's winner, Brian Sage of Wrington Sports taking the runner-up spot. Third was Paul Watkins from Uffculme Bellies.
A huge thank you to all the teams that took part making this an incredible Blackthorn Championships!! Get ready for 2010!
To register your interest or to find out more about the Blackthorn British Skittles Championships 2010 click here.
To view all the results and tables you will need Adobe Reader installed on your computer - it's available as a free download from Adobe if you don't already have it. Click here to get Adobe Reader.
)
)
)
)
)