Another great day at Crumb Bowl, the largest one-day tournament on the circuit, this year with 52 coaches! Organised by Glowworm and held in Sutton Benger, in between Swindon and Bristol in South West England, this is the 5th year for this tournament, which sells out two months before the event, and is designed for new players as well as allowing more experienced coaches to have a good competition.

I took Undead, aiming to continue my unbeaten run in 2016 (8-2-0 so far, and practising for Eurobowl in Sweden). I also took the Sann Clan, my two sons (Dark Elves and Halflings) and their friend, in his first BB tournament. Aged 9, 11 and 12, they were joined by the Pinkshirts, a group of players from Caterham School, who surprised everyone by turning up in yellow shirts, and will henceforth be known as the Catzbowlers! There were also contingents from London’s ECBBL, Bristol’s BUBBA group, local Cakebowlers, BRGA, Team Wales, and individuals from across the Midlands, South and South West.#

It was 1,100,000 gps for team build, with 5 normal skills and a double, or 5 normals and 2 stacked normals. 21 of the 24 races were represented, including 5 stunty teams competing for the Stunty cup.

My round 1 was against Hawca’s Skaven, a new opponent for me, but someone I know well as he is the UK National Co-ordinator! I got a few early kills, including a Guard Blitzer, but as long as the gutter runners were alive it was always dangerous, I kicked, he scored, and I squeaked an equalising touchdown, and felt confident at 1-1 and receiving. Sadly, the kick went short in the second half, and I didn’t get enough knockdowns on the LOS, so didn’t make a tight enough cage around the ball so when I failed the kick-off I was in trouble! 2-1 down, and it was a huge struggle to equalise in the end. Hawca had chance for a one-turn score, but his Rat Ogre managed a triple Pow when he needed a push!

With only 3 games in the day, a draw was enough to put us both out of the running for the tournament, and it was time to relax!

Well, time for noodles, anyway – always an awesome lunch at Crumb courtesy of Nudlz, with pudding from Turners Pies, that the Thrud crew had brought with them.

Round 2 was a local one for me, Canteloup’s Skaven, and this one was again tricky because my first casualty came in turn 11. There was a hairy moment with him needing 2 4+ rolls with rerolls to go 2-1 up, but it wasn’t to be, and I ran in for the 2-1 win.

In between games the younger contingent ran off some steam – always a good option to have at a tournament!

I was top of those with 1 draw and 1 win, because there were max of 3 bonus points for TD and 3 for cas, so I played against Gorgoroth, who was on the least points of those on 2 wins. He played a solid drive with Chaos Dwarves, exploiting a gap in my defense, and not needing any rerolls, and then got a blitz at the start of my drive, which combined with a deep kick put me in a whole world of trouble, from which I couldn’t recover, and it finished 1-0, which was enough to win him the tournament!

So the Sann Clan finished on 1-1-1, 0-2-1, 0-1-2 and 0-1-2, not the most successful, but a good experience as ever!



