THE Motley Crew have started their 2016 campaign in the Gasket Guy British Championships.

The Crew’s men’s, ladies’ and mixed teams will be fighting for a place at the grand finals of the competition, held in Torquay this September alongside rivals including One Step Beyond, Pinups and Mrs Brown’s Boys.

The first to start their campaign was the Motley Ladies who travelled away to the Royal Oak, Bere Regis, where they faced The Oakettes.

The home side started out hitting 72, taking a six-pin lead after the first with the help of a 15 stickup from Kelly Mitchell.

The Crew were not deterred however and continued to chip away in the second but with stickups from Oakettes’ Cirsty Joyce (14) and Nikki Coombs (16) Motley ladies found themselves 20 pins behind.

Into the third, and the Bere Regis side continued with steady skittling with a 65 hand and another stickup from Coombs (15).

The Weymouth visitors knew they needed to find some power on the long alley and replied back with a staggering 93-pin hand.

Stickups were aplenty with 15s from Sam Mutch and Jane Taylor, 16 from Lin Hill and a 17 from Sue Perren, giving the Crew an eight-pin lead.

With the alley noise increasing on the fourth from both sides, the Oakettes weren’t going to allow the previous hand to upset their rhythm and hit back with 81 with 16s from Marion Legge and Theresa Rogers.

The Motley ladies, thinking they were on the up, struggled to match the home side’s hand, hitting 57 and trailing by 16.

Motley dug deep in the fifth, attempting to take advantage of the fact that the home side had a hand with no stickups.

The Crew were clinging on to claw pins back and had stickups from Megan Taylor (14) and Natalie Thorne (15) to hit 70 and pull eight pins back on the Oakettes’ lead.

A mixed bag from the Oakettes on the last hand left the visitors wanting 74 to win.

But the Crew could not hit what was needed to secure the away win and, with just 58 on the board, the Oakettes took the win by 15 pins.