Bobby (bowling) Ball

Bobby turned into a human bowling ball
Daily Mail11 April 2012
The Weekender

Sign up to our free weekly newsletter for exclusive competitions, offers and theatre ticket deals

I would like to be emailed about offers, event and updates from Evening Standard. Read our privacy notice.

It was not so much rock on, Tommy as roll on, Bobby.

This was the moment Bobby Ball lived up to his name... by turning himself into a human bowling ball.

The hair-raising stunt came on I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! as his Bushtucker Trial task to earn food for himself and his fellow contestants.

The veteran comedian had to slide down a ramp on a purposebuilt sledge and try to knock over as many pins as possible.

Ball and two other jungle inmates - former EastEnders actor Sid Owen and pop star Antony Costa - were each given three goes, meaning they could earn a maximum of nine stars.

The sledge was at the top of a ramp which led down on to a slippery bowling alley.

But the gutter next to the alley had an unpleasant twist - it was filled with waist- deep muddy water and fish guts.

Owen was first to bowl and clattered into the six pins, leaving just two standing.

Ball bowled next, psyching himself up as he set off, shouting: 'Go! Go! Go!'

He looked set to pick off the remaining two pins, but slipped off the alley - taking just one pin, and meaning no food-supplying stars for the group.

Costa went next and picked up a strike and the first star of the day. 'Fantastic,' grinned Ball, giving him the thumbs-up sign.

But then gloom descended on him. Referring to his comedy partner Tommy Cannon, he muttered: 'I'm no good without Tommy. I'm a failure.'

Owen later earned the second star during his third and final bowl. Ball said later: 'I'm very proud of these two lads because they got both stars and I got nothing.'

Costa said: 'We are not failures. We went there, put our heads down and did our best and it was a very, very hard task.' But when they arrived back in camp, the female contestants thought they were joking when they said they had earned just two stars - meaning they would have just two meals between seven. The debacle came as the remaining contestants threatened to quit amid complaints about inadequate food supplies and squalid conditions in the Australian rainforest camp.

Depleted rice rations meant the group have been skipping meals.

Despite the physical nature of jungle life, the group - which includes Carol Thatcher, singer Jenny Frost and Emmerdale actress Sheree Murphy - is having to survive on less than 500 calories each per day.

With two celebrities - Elaine Lordan and Kimberley Davies - having already pulled out through injury, morale is at an all-time low.

Torrential thunderstorms have left the camp area waterlogged, with the celebrities complaining about the unhygenic conditions.

After suffering dizziness and nausea, they pleaded with ITV bosses for more food, threatening mutiny if they were not provided with some. In a bid to halt a revolt, producers sent down home-made fishing rods for the celebrities to use in the freshwater creek.

Following her eviction, food and wine expert Jilly Goolden complained about the austere environment. She said: 'The conditions were so harsh - it was much harder than I thought.

'I didn't think they'd let us get very hungry, but they did. Our ration was about four spoons of cooked rice each a day and that's not a lot.'

Carol Thatcher has become the surprise favourite to win the show. The 52-year-old daughter of former Premier Margaret Thatcher has so far stolen all the headlines with her behaviour.

She has been seen urinating beside her bed, eating a wallaby penis and violently vomiting over herself.

And yesterday Miss Thatcher further embarrassed herself by getting drunk on the measly supply of alcohol given to the group at lunchtime.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in