Can you bowl and flopper or a beaver?

June 7, 2008: Marston Inn licensees Nigel and Carol Davis are looking for people who can bowl a flopper* but they will happily take on those who only achieve a beaver* too.

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	l Marston Inn landlord Nigel Davis prepares for his pub's charity skittles tournament

While a lot of pubs are converting into gastropubs and turning their back on traditional pub games, things are different at their 600-year-old, Marston St Lawrence, near Banbury, hostelry, where Nigel and Carole have installed a skittle alley.

Carol said: “We thought we would bring back a traditional English pub game which the whole family could play.

“Since opening, the skittle alley has been a rollaway success with adults and children alike.”

And now Nigel and Carol want to find more skittle players in the area, as on June 21 they plan to host a tournament to raise money for the Warwickshire and Northamptonshire Air Ambulance teams.

“We would like to find other teams in the area who would like to play and we also need further players ourselves,” said Carol.

Skittles isn’t the only game played in the Marston Inn’s large garden. The pub has a thriving Aunt Sally team, and inside drinkers can play shove halfpenny and many other traditional pub puzzles.

*A flopper is a player who knocks down all nine pins with one ball. A beaver happens when a player knocks down no pins.