Thursday 29 November 2012

D&DS&BL John Evans Cup 2nd round

D&DS&BL Novices Cup 3rd round

D&DS&BL Week 11 Match Reports

It was a return to League fixtures for the teams this week with the A Team playing home to Fawley & the B Team travelling to Challow B.

In the A Team match, Captain opened v Neil Winney. Neil started with a tremendous long red after the break off & made 2 blues from it. Captain then made a nice 26 break (but missed a straight pink!) & ended up winning 68-33 to give the A Team a 1-0 advantage.

Next up was VC v Pete Lambourne (AKA Pedro). Pete started with intention & took an early lead, but VC was cueing smooth & slotting in some lovely pots. He quickly caught level & took control with a quick fire 32 break to run out a winner by 61-23.

With the A Team 2-0 up, Tom was on 3rd v Fawley Captain Simon Mulford. It was a fairly cagey frame with neither player taking a frame winning advantage. Both players had chances on the colours but it was Simon who clinched the win 41-32.

With the score now 2-1, Cuz was up next v Neil Murphy. Again, this was a close fought affair & Cuz played some disciplined safety when the balls ran bad. With Cuz in the lead on the colours, Neil looked to be 2nd best for the frame... but sometimes the balls run against you, as Cuz found when he went in off the pink! Neil didn't manage to put the 1st chance away but triumphed on his 2nd chance, winning 43-33.

So, after leading 2-0, Fawley (& credit to them) had fought back to 2-2. Step up Anchorman! Dave has been struggling to recapture his mojo this season & faced Ricky Delahunt. It was nip & tuck at the start, but Dave looked in determined mood, playing good match play & showing immense concentration (testament to his daily practice regime of recent!). Dave took control & despite a late come back from Ricky, Anchorman sealed a classic 'last frame decider' by 78-41 to give the A Team a narrow 3-2 win.

Meanwhile at Challow, the B Team were playing their last match of the 1st half of the season (they have 2 bye weeks so needed a win & as many points in the bank as possible).

It didn't start too well as Captain Kev opened v an 'on form' Paul Finch who made a lovely 32 break (missing a black off the spot when looking like making a 50+!) to win 70-20. 1-0 Challow B.

Next up was Pete Beaumont who put in a workman like performance v Barry Alexander (son of Chris from Wallingford Comrades) & levelled the frame scores at 1-1 by winning 43-24.

Frame 3 saw Duncan Wolage face Brian Orton. Both played good match snooker, but it was Duncan who clinched it by 62-40 to give Challow a 2-1 lead.

Rob House was next on v Gordon Izzard. Rob showed little respect for the League Match Secretary, but plenty of class making a lovely 30 break during a (very) convincing win 75-9 to level the match at 2-2.

Last up in the deciding frame was Andy Rance v Ian Izzard. Ian took an early lead by 20 points before Andy started his comeback & eventually ran out frame & match winner 53-46. A 3-2 away win to Wallingford which puts them 4 points clear at the top of Division 1.

Nervous times as they'll be chewing their nails waiting for results for the next 2 weeks of byes!

Wallingford Comrades Club Team Stats (Match 11)

 
28th November 2012 - Match 11
A TEAM Pl W L Pts for Av Pts ag Av % Breaks over 25
Pete Billingham 9 8 1 520 58 274 30 89 26
Nigel Prior 9 8 1 484 54 247 27 89 32
Kev Higgs 8 6 2 411 51 265 33 75  
Tom Williams 9 4 5 363 40 404 45 44  
Dave Greathead 6 2 4 250 42 329 55 33  
Jon Hawkins 1 0 1 64 64 96 96 0  
Kev Gray 2 0 2 55 28 119 60 0  
Nick Somarakis 0 0 0 0 ## 0 ## ###  
A Team return to league fixtures with a home match v Fawley.  After Captain & VC compile breaks of 26 & 32 respectively to win the 1st 2 frames, it all goes a bit wrong for Tom & Cuz & Fawley level 2-2. With Anchorman facing a final frame decider, plays his best frame of the season & carries us to a 3-2 win!  He's back!!!
B TEAM Pl W L Pts for Av Pts ag Av % Breaks over 20
David Rowe 3 2 1 135 45 115 38 67  
Dave Glaves 3 2 1 133 44 140 47 67  
Brian Orton 8 5 3 440 55 325 41 63  
Rob House 9 5 4 450 50 325 36 56 31, 30
Pete Beaumont 6 3 3 267 45 260 43 50 25
Andy Rance 10 4 6 395 40 490 49 40 27, 32
Bob Elliott 3 1 2 95 32 185 62 33  
Kevin Pickworth 8 0 8 240 30 473 59 0  
Simon Ellam 0 0 0 0 ## 0 ## ###  
B Team travel to Challow B & go 1-0 down as Kev stays in the red before Pete works hard to level at 1-1. Brian has a dip, but Rob slots in a nice 30 break to level it at 2-2. With Andy facing a final frame decider (& being 20 points behind), he plays solid match play to clinch a 3-2 win. They now top Div 1 by 4 points!

Sunday 25 November 2012

D&DS&BL Week 10 match reports

Only the A Team had a match this week (the B Team joked that they had been 'seeded through'!) in the first round of the John Evans Cup & travelled to Crown Technology.
 
Tom was drawn to play first v Olly Walker (who's been getting regular practice at the Comrades having membership to BOTH clubs!).  It was nip & tuck all the way through with neither player being able to pull a significant & frame winning lead.  It wasn't a surprise to his watching team mates that it ended up with scores tied after Tom sank the black!  And so to decide the frame it was a re-spotted black!  After winning the coin toss, Tom decided to play first!  He did no more than put the cue ball in the D & struck the black perfectly to 'double' it the length of the table into the yellow bag!!!  Big cojones!!!  Afterwards he explained that his safety game was 'still under development' & he wouldn't have known how to/been confident enough to play a safety shot on the black so thought he would 'go for it'!  Oh my goodness!  So Tom won 45-38 to give Wallingford a 1-0 lead.  Olly offered Tom a drink before he left & Tom refrained from asking for a 'double'!
 
In the 2nd frame, Nigel was drawn against Paul Claydon.  VC took control early on but it has to be said, aided by a few 'good fortune' shots (or 'Greathead's' as they're more commonly known!) & won the frame by 46-27 to give Wallingford a 2-0 lead.
 
And so to the first chance of the 'glory' frame to clinch the match, which fell to Cuz (for the second week running!) who was drawn against Andy Harper - a repeat of his opponent from the Week 7 League match about 3 weeks ago.  Fortunately Andy couldn't produce his fabulous long potting of that match & Cuz ran out winner by 46-22 to put Wallingford A through to the 2nd Round!
 
With the match result guaranteed, the pressure was lifted on the last 2 players, the first of which was Dave 'Daddy' Greathead who was anxious to get his season kick started with a win (he currently stood as played 4, lost 4 in the table... MOST unlike Anchorman!).  His opponent in this 'dead rubber' was Steve Digby (who charitably gave DG a couple of knock about frames in the recent League encounter when Crown only fielded 4 players).  Rumour has it that Anchorman had been in practicing quite a lot to get his game up to scratch & it showed as he won by the most convincing score line of the evening 61-29!  Whoop whoop!
 
Last in the draw was Captain who was to play Neil Coppendale.  Now Neil has something of a reputation as 'pots 'em off the lampshade' having had a right tussle with DG in last years fixture.  He didn't disappoint his team mates, slotting in some quick fire pots including some cracking low angle pots to the middle pockets!  Captain stayed in touch & despite the insignificance of whether he won (except in the averages table!), potted a pressure brown & blue before finally pouncing on a loose shot by Neil on the final black to win by 48-38.
 
So a nice big 5-0 for Wallingford A.  We could do with a few of those in the League now boys... starting with Fawley this Wednesday at home!

Wednesday 21 November 2012

Wallingford Comrades Club Team Stats (Match 10)

21st November 2012 - Match 10
A TEAM Pl W L Pts for Av Pts ag Av % Breaks over 25
Pete Billingham 8 7 1 452 57 241 30 88  
Nigel Prior 8 7 1 423 53 224 28 88  
Kev Higgs 7 6 1 378 54 222 32 86  
Tom Williams 8 4 4 331 41 363 45 50  
Dave Greathead 5 1 4 172 34 288 58 20  
Jon Hawkins 1 0 1 64 64 96 96 0  
Kev Gray 2 0 2 55 28 119 60 0  
Nick Somarakis 0 0 0 0 ## 0 ## ###  
A Team travel to Crown Tech in the 1st round of the John Evans Cup & win 5-0! Tom starts it all off (with a tremendous doubled re-spotted black!), VC follows with some nice 'run' before Cuz gets the glory leg (again!). Dave finally kick starts his season & Captain scrapes it on the black! Well done Team!
B TEAM Pl W L Pts for Av Pts ag Av % Breaks over 20
Brian Orton 7 5 2 400 57 263 38 71  
David Rowe 3 2 1 135 45 115 38 67  
Dave Glaves 3 2 1 133 44 140 47 67  
Rob House 8 4 4 375 47 316 40 50 31
Pete Beaumont 5 2 3 224 45 236 47 40 25
Bob Elliott 3 1 2 95 32 185 62 33  
Andy Rance 9 3 6 342 38 444 49 33 27, 32
Kevin Pickworth 7 0 7 220 31 403 58 0  
Simon Ellam 0 0 0 0 ## 0 ## ###  
No match for the B Team this week as they find themselves 'seeded' through to the next round of the John Evans Cup.