The Stragglers Skittles Team play nave moved their Clevedon Skittles League 'home matches' to The Conservative Club - known locally as 'The Consti' - in Clevedon, Somerset.
For those not familiar with this popular pub game - played throughout the West and South West of England - the object of the game is to knock down 9 'pins' set up in diamond formation at the end of a prepared 'alley'. Each player in the team has 6 hands of 3 balls each, in each match. The hands are played in pairs, alternating with a pair of players from the opposing team. If a player clears the 'diamond' with less than 3 balls in any particular hand - known as a 'spare' - the 'pins' are re-set until all 3 balls have been delivered. Clearing all 9 'pins' with 1 ball is known as a 'flopper' in Somerset. League skittles is normally scored with points allocated to each winning 'pair' and the winning team.
The Winter game is normally played with teams of 12 players and the Summer game with 6 players in each team. The team with the greater number of pins knocked down is the winner.
There are many variations of the league game. 'All In' rules score all pins knocked over, 'Front First' rules only score those 'pins' knocked over after, and including, the front pin in the diamond. There are also regional variations. Some competitions require the balls to be delivered first touching a 'plate' set centrally into the alley at the delivery end, Other competitions require the ball to be released from the hand behind a white line drawn across the alley.
Some country village fetes and fairs include a version of the game, played on grass, where the highest score of the day wins a live pig!
The game of skittles was taken to the Americas by early British settlers but was then prohibited by anti-gambling laws. Later the game was resurrected with 10 pins set out in a triangle and repackaged with a mechanical 'sticker-up', special clothing, bigger balls (of course) and pop corn . . . . . . . and then re-exported to the rest of the world as part of the 'American Dream'!