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| About the League |
 The Berkeley and District Skittles League was formed in 1957 and currently consists of 112 teams in 7 divisions playing from September to April every year. Matches are played on 20 or so alleys in pubs and club in Berkeley, Sharpness, Cam, Dursley, Coaley, Wotton-under-Edge, Slimbridge and Frocester all in the southern end of Gloucestershire.
In the League campaign, each team will play every other team in their division twice, one match at home and the other away. Each division (usually) has 16 teams so each team will play 30 league games during the season. All players must be registered with the League (for one team) but there is no limit to the number of players that a team can have registered. Teams may be single-sex or mixed, but players must be over 16 years of age in order to register and play in the League.
League matches are played with 8 players per team over 8 legs. At the start of the match the captain from each side lists the names of 8 players down each side of a scoreboard.  Traditionally the home team is on the left hand side of the board and although captains may toss a coin to decide which team bowls first, generally play commences "as the board" - i.e. the first player (setter) of the home side bowls first, followed by the setter of the away side.
Play then alternates between members of each team whereby each player bowls a hand of 3 balls at 9 pins set in a diamond until the 8th player (anchor) of each team has bowled. This is repeated until 8 legs have been completed.
The winner of the match is quite simply the team with the highest total number of pins knocked down. Two points are awarded to the winning team (nil for the losers) and in the event of a draw, teams are awarded one point each (uncommon - any one division generally only has a handful of drawn matches during a season).
As a general rule, an individual player over 8 legs would (hope to!) score around 50 pins with a team's total score being around 400. However this can vary somewhat as some alleys are "high-scoring", some "low-scoring" due to the difference in the lengths of alleys, the size of the diamond, the size/weight/condition of the pins and balls, but also players' scores may be influenced by the amount of alcohol consumed!
At the end of each season, generally two teams from the top and bottom of each division are either promoted or relegated. 
Two cups are also played for during the season with matches taking place on a neutral alley.
All teams take part in the Bob Green Memorial Trophy (All-in Cup) which is played for on a knockout basis using the same scoring as per the league, although should a game be tied after 8 legs, additonal legs are played until a winning team can be determined.
The other cup is the Front-pin First Knockout which is optional for teams to join. Matches are still played by 8 players per team over 8 legs but the rules of play vary slightly in that a player doesn't score in each hand until the front pin has been knocked down. Again additional legs are played in the event of a tie.
Teams in the League are made up of players of all ages (16 - 70+) and are made up of neighbours, drinking buddies, colleagues, workmates, relatives, sports teams, clubs, etc... and with 112 teams in the League, it means that in a region of around 8 miles in diameter in the southern end of rural Gloucestershire, around 900 people are involved in bowling over 21,000 balls to knock down somewhere around 45,000 pins - every week! And let's not forget the stickers who have to send all those balls back and stand all those pins up again!
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