Blackball

The erstwhile Dennis Pennis, Paul Kaye plays the central character, Cliff Starkey, a Torquay oaf who wears his working class roots like a badge of honour yet is deeply talented at the decidedly middle class pursuit of bowls. Unlike his dear old grandpa (Cribbins), our hero decides not to join the local snobby club, which is dominated by the reigning champion Ray Speight (Cromwell). But Starkey's desperate need to prove himself leads to him taking on the club in a roundabout bid to play the best two players in the world, a couple of visiting Australians. An American sports agent (Vaughan in all his low rent fast talking glory) sees the potential in Starkey and threatens to make him the biggest thing in international sport, with Cliff's new girl Kerry (Evans) the first casualty.

Though it doesn't lack any number of comedic possibilities, Blackball fails to capitalize on most of them, leaving it blundering around an often uncomfortable netherworld of satire and slapstick. Kaye doesn't help matters by playing Sharkey like a cross between Adam Sandler and Basil Fawlty, emphasising the character's worst traits all the time. Cromwell adds a bit of gravitas and weighs with a nice, loose performance. But the movie is so directionless than it fails to hit the mark. Or the green for that matter.