Life Bowling League after defeating their closest rivals Zurich in a tremendous last-night battle.

In what some observers claimed was the best team match ever rolled at Warwick Lanes, T&E took the first game comfortably with a league high game of 1165 to Zurich's 1048.

The second game built up to a high-scoring crescendo with both sides rolling strikes at will and members of other teams watched as it moved into a 10th frame with Zurich holding the edge.

But Dean Lightbourn rolled three strikes in the 10th and a 290 game to snatch victory for T&E by two pins, 1158-1156.

Zurich won the third game by 1092-1063 to round off a fabulous league season.

Steven Riley and Lightbourn led the way for T&E, both with 727 series, while Mike McCallum starred for Zurich with 697.

Stevedoring Services, led by Casey Burgess' 687 series, beat JC Travel Place and leap-frogged them in the league table to take third place by half a point, the narrowest possible margin.

Genuine Draft took sixth spot by inflicting a fourth successive defeat on seventh-placed finishers Thompsons. And Team Metro, with George Ben bowling a 651, got the better of Team Electric to claim fifth spot, four places higher up the league than last year.

New Mix Ups may have finished second from bottom, but they produced their season high series of 2915 to beat the one team below them, New Breed.

The record-high 13 700-plus series has been proof of the high standard of bowling this year.

There were also 284 600-plus series and 1,209 200-plus games, an average of 40 per week. And the average game over the 30-week season was a record-high 182.98.