Post Messenger Recorder -

December 8th proved to be another night to remember. There was a perfect score, a skunk and a cross corners called against a loan hand. The Trolls have had a tough start to the season and tonight was no different. It all started when Jolene Hook called a loan hand in hearts after Don Williams turned down a diamond. Jolene had the left, king, ten and nine of hearts, plus a suit ace. Don took her cross corners with the right, ace, and queen of hearts plus the king and nine of spades. Jolene led the left bower and Don took it with the right. Don came back with the nine of spades and Jolene trumped it with the nine. She led the king of hearts and Don took it with his ace, making his queen good and thereby taking the 4 points. To add to the Trolls’ unfortunate luck, Bruce Frisch and Keith Vobraska never won a game all night and ended the night with a 79, this week’s low score. Jeff Judd and Don Williams on the other hand put up 111 points for the Hay Shakers.

With both the Norsk Pranksters and the Ope Haus Express still in the mix for a first-place finish in the first half, you had to expect a tough match was about to take place. The Pranksters jumped to an early lead and held it through the first three rounds. Then the Express added a little more fuel to their burners and found themselves up by 17 after five rounds. The Pranksters fought back and retook the lead after 6. But then things fell apart for the Pranksters. In the seventh round John Scheidegger and Dave Steinhauer skunked Jordy Schmitz and Rodney Latham. The Express never looked back and won by 30 points.

You knew it was going to be a close match when the Shufflers traveled to the home of the Cowboys, and it was. The Cowboys took an early lead and held that lead until the third round where the score was tied. It remained tied until the end of the fifth round, when the Shufflers took a 6-point lead. The Shufflers jumped to a 19-point lead after six and held on to win by 10.

The match between the two rodents, the J&M Bar River Rats and the Ott Haus Cheese Eaters, also started out as a very close match with the first round ending in a tie. Then the Cheese Eaters took a 4-point lead only to find themselves down by 20 after the fourth round. But Kurt Beutal and Honker (Dan Palmer) wanted nothing to do with a close match. With a score of 90 after 6 games, Kurt and Honker held their opponents in the last two rounds to just 3 points each to secure a perfect score of 120 points and a 63-point victory over the Cheese Eaters.

Team Uff-Da was assured a share of first place with a win and a chance to win the first half outright come December 15th. Team Uff-Da had three couples break 100, with Mary Humphrey and Bruce Milestone securing 110 points for the team. Only Jerome Krantz and Chris Booth were able to reach 100 points for the Pipe Benders. Team Uff-Da locked in at least a share of first place with a 41-point win over the Pipe Benders.

Standings: Uff-Da, 7-1; Cowboys, 6-2; Express, 6-2; Hay Shakers, 6-2; Pipe Benders, 4-4; Pranksters, 4-4; River Rats, 3-5; Shufflers, 3-5; Cheese Eaters, 1-7; Trolls, 0-8.