Last night saw the A Team enter into battle (again), this time in the Semi Finals of the Jim Taylor Cup. The neutral venue was Didcot Con (again) & the teams were Abingdon Con A, Challow B, Challow C & Wallingford A.
And the draw for the A Team was... Abingdon Con A! Undefeated so far this year & a BIG ask for us!
The opponent draw was, as it turned out, pretty good for the A Team; Nigel 'VC' on 1st v Dave Lewis, Jon 'Hawkinator' v Nigel Barker, Kev 'Cuz' v Jamie Saczak, Captain Pete v Colin Bark & if it went to 2-2 Tom would face Ollie!
There was further good news in that we were drawn on the same table that we played on v Wantage in the Semi Final of the John Evans Cup a couple of weeks ago... & we 'drew' referee Tony Aldridge (best ref in League...sorry Vic, but you were busy in Serbia!).
Nigel knew the huge importance of getting the team off to a winning start & in typically determined fashion, set about the task in hand. There were no big breaks, but then again, it wasn't that sort of night! VC drew on all his experience & played a percentage game, taking what was on & running to good safety when needed. No heroics needed & was being spurred on by his watching team mates! Dave Lewis didn't threaten too much & Nigel 'toughed it out' to win the first frame with a solid gritty match play performance, winning by 55-18 to give the A Team an all important 1-0 lead! Quality! There's a reason why Nigel's top percentage player so far this season... & that was the demonstration as to why!!!
Jon 'Hawkinator' was drafted in at the last moment (bribed by a large Latte at his office that morning by Captain!) for Dave 'Anchorman' (who went down with a reappearance of the dreaded lurgy! Get well soon Dave... Over 50s Final soon!). When Jon saw that he'd drawn Nigel Barker he admitted later to being 'secretly well up for it!'. (Does the 'Hawks' know any other way?!). Jon started off trading points with Nigel, but, playing great match play, laying a couple of nice snookers which paid dividends. He got his chance after he laid a particularly horrible one from which he gained 22 points in fouls as Nigel hit the pink & black (twice!) when the referee called 'misses'. Jon followed up by knocking in a lovely 21 break to pile on the pressure! With one of the last reds on the table near the side rail near the baulk line, Hawks slammed it down 3/4 length of the table into the corner bag (awesome!)... frame ball & leaving Nigel needing snookers (lots!). This just hammered home the 82-28 win. Fabulous! A massive frame & huge blow for Abingdon Con A! Jon & the A Team were buzzing! 2-0 up (& cruising..?)!
In the 3rd frame Cuz was up against v his old Oracle C team mate Jamie. Cuz was up against it from the start! 15 points down but he then pulled back to within 10 points... & then Jamie laid a horrible snooker! He tried a couple of 2 cushion escapes which both resulted in 'misses' & to be honest, it was nigh on impossible to escape from! None of the watching A Team (or their Chief Cheerleader 'Big' Dan Sheridan) could see a way out (4-5 cushions with a lot of luck... or off the knuckle of the middle pocket? Smelly, as some would say!). The 5 misses were to cost him but in typical 'never say die' fashion, Cuz battled on & with 1 red left was 30 points behind! Unfortunately Jamie knocked it in, then took a black & then the yellow before the handshake. Final frame score was 22-62 & the match score was now 2-1.
4th frame & Captain was to face Colin Bark (who'd knocked in a 43 break in the recent Doubles semi finals v Captain & Cuz, so was definitely not to be trifled with!). It was an edgy start & Captain kept knocking in loose reds (VC reckoned about 6-7) but all the big colours were 'safe' or tied up! It was a case of red, safety, red, safety. Colin responded with some quality length on his safety shots & put Captain in a bit of difficulty with about 5 reds spread around the pink & black area, 2 of them on cushions. There was a big target area behind the green, brown or blue & captain struck the cue ball to clip off the red on the cushion with a lot of right hand side to swing it round 4 cushions... & up behind the green! It was to be the decisive shot (& later admitted it was probably one of the best safety snookers he'd ever played!). Colin gave away 12 points in subsequent 'misses', leaving an opportunity to which Captain didn't need a written invitation to exploit. Red, colour, red, deep screw off the pink, red... down to the colours & the final frame score of 53-6 meant a match winning frame, 3-1!!!
So... Tom didn't need to face Ollie in a 5th frame decider (probably best really, as the Novices & Singles Finalist would've just heaped on the misery for Ol!).
It was a fabulous team effort & a huge win for the A Team which puts them into their second Cup Final! Well done lads! There they will face Challow C (from the 3rd Division), who 'turned the tables' on their 1st Division Challow B rivals by 3 frames to 1... albeit 2 of them being black ball games! And the A Teams win inflicted the first defeat this season (in League or Cups!) on Abingdon Con A! (Let's give them another in the John Evans Final, eh?!).
And the draw for the A Team was... Abingdon Con A! Undefeated so far this year & a BIG ask for us!
The opponent draw was, as it turned out, pretty good for the A Team; Nigel 'VC' on 1st v Dave Lewis, Jon 'Hawkinator' v Nigel Barker, Kev 'Cuz' v Jamie Saczak, Captain Pete v Colin Bark & if it went to 2-2 Tom would face Ollie!
There was further good news in that we were drawn on the same table that we played on v Wantage in the Semi Final of the John Evans Cup a couple of weeks ago... & we 'drew' referee Tony Aldridge (best ref in League...sorry Vic, but you were busy in Serbia!).
Nigel knew the huge importance of getting the team off to a winning start & in typically determined fashion, set about the task in hand. There were no big breaks, but then again, it wasn't that sort of night! VC drew on all his experience & played a percentage game, taking what was on & running to good safety when needed. No heroics needed & was being spurred on by his watching team mates! Dave Lewis didn't threaten too much & Nigel 'toughed it out' to win the first frame with a solid gritty match play performance, winning by 55-18 to give the A Team an all important 1-0 lead! Quality! There's a reason why Nigel's top percentage player so far this season... & that was the demonstration as to why!!!
Jon 'Hawkinator' was drafted in at the last moment (bribed by a large Latte at his office that morning by Captain!) for Dave 'Anchorman' (who went down with a reappearance of the dreaded lurgy! Get well soon Dave... Over 50s Final soon!). When Jon saw that he'd drawn Nigel Barker he admitted later to being 'secretly well up for it!'. (Does the 'Hawks' know any other way?!). Jon started off trading points with Nigel, but, playing great match play, laying a couple of nice snookers which paid dividends. He got his chance after he laid a particularly horrible one from which he gained 22 points in fouls as Nigel hit the pink & black (twice!) when the referee called 'misses'. Jon followed up by knocking in a lovely 21 break to pile on the pressure! With one of the last reds on the table near the side rail near the baulk line, Hawks slammed it down 3/4 length of the table into the corner bag (awesome!)... frame ball & leaving Nigel needing snookers (lots!). This just hammered home the 82-28 win. Fabulous! A massive frame & huge blow for Abingdon Con A! Jon & the A Team were buzzing! 2-0 up (& cruising..?)!
In the 3rd frame Cuz was up against v his old Oracle C team mate Jamie. Cuz was up against it from the start! 15 points down but he then pulled back to within 10 points... & then Jamie laid a horrible snooker! He tried a couple of 2 cushion escapes which both resulted in 'misses' & to be honest, it was nigh on impossible to escape from! None of the watching A Team (or their Chief Cheerleader 'Big' Dan Sheridan) could see a way out (4-5 cushions with a lot of luck... or off the knuckle of the middle pocket? Smelly, as some would say!). The 5 misses were to cost him but in typical 'never say die' fashion, Cuz battled on & with 1 red left was 30 points behind! Unfortunately Jamie knocked it in, then took a black & then the yellow before the handshake. Final frame score was 22-62 & the match score was now 2-1.
4th frame & Captain was to face Colin Bark (who'd knocked in a 43 break in the recent Doubles semi finals v Captain & Cuz, so was definitely not to be trifled with!). It was an edgy start & Captain kept knocking in loose reds (VC reckoned about 6-7) but all the big colours were 'safe' or tied up! It was a case of red, safety, red, safety. Colin responded with some quality length on his safety shots & put Captain in a bit of difficulty with about 5 reds spread around the pink & black area, 2 of them on cushions. There was a big target area behind the green, brown or blue & captain struck the cue ball to clip off the red on the cushion with a lot of right hand side to swing it round 4 cushions... & up behind the green! It was to be the decisive shot (& later admitted it was probably one of the best safety snookers he'd ever played!). Colin gave away 12 points in subsequent 'misses', leaving an opportunity to which Captain didn't need a written invitation to exploit. Red, colour, red, deep screw off the pink, red... down to the colours & the final frame score of 53-6 meant a match winning frame, 3-1!!!
So... Tom didn't need to face Ollie in a 5th frame decider (probably best really, as the Novices & Singles Finalist would've just heaped on the misery for Ol!).
It was a fabulous team effort & a huge win for the A Team which puts them into their second Cup Final! Well done lads! There they will face Challow C (from the 3rd Division), who 'turned the tables' on their 1st Division Challow B rivals by 3 frames to 1... albeit 2 of them being black ball games! And the A Teams win inflicted the first defeat this season (in League or Cups!) on Abingdon Con A! (Let's give them another in the John Evans Final, eh?!).
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