Melksham’s Wiltshire Wonders are set to defend their British title

Once again the Wiltshire Wonders are flying the flag for the county in their bid to retain their British Men’s Skittles Championship. 

The Wonders from Melksham, stormed to victory last year for a second time, having also won the top prize back in 2011.  This year, they’re definitely on form with seven wins out of eight in the preliminary regional group rounds to bag their place in the finals. A third win would equal the current record.

“The finals can’t come quickly enough for us,” said captain John Wiltshire.  “It seems like an age since we qualified and we’re impatient to get on with it all now.”

The Wonders will be joined by the Rant Raiders of Malmesbury in the mixed competition who won their group by just one point. 64 teams from all over the UK have booked their places in the grand finals this weekend, on Saturday 15th September after a summer of local league matches and play off rounds.

Around 1,000 qualifiers and supporters will converge on Torquay’s Riviera International Centre for a gruelling day of group rounds and knock-out matches to determine the winners.   As well as trophies, medals and team shirts, the winners in each category stand to win a skittles weekend away for 10 people.

By the time the winners step up on to the podium, there will have been around 500 matches played representing about 30 days of continuous skittles play, around 150,000 balls bowled and 3000,000 skittles stuck up.  The Championships are staged annually by Torquay-based Serious About Events who also organise around 20 skittling weekends in south coast resorts in winter/spring. For more information, visit www. seriousaboutevents.co.uk