All 3 teams in action this week!
Harwell RBL A v Wallingford A
After 3 weeks of BYES, the A Team finally get back to competitive matches with the visit to newly promoted Harwell RBL A (can someone switch the lights on please! Lol!).
Aaron Tame, in his usual position of 'opener' played Graham Davies. Now Graham is an experienced player & on his home table had to be 'watched' by Aaron. However, after several fortunate bits of 'run' from Graham (he actually had loads!), it came down to the colours. Aaron showed great character potting an outrageously good 'length of the table' blue & followed it with another full length of the table pink to seal the win, 49-41 & put the A Team 1-0 up! Awesome pots Aaron & well worth the wait!
Next up was Nigel 'VC' Prior v John Vaughan Senior. This was to be an exemplary frame from VC who gave a demonstration in potting & cue ball control as he compiled an excellent frame winning break of 51! I particularly liked his penultimate shot when he potted a red, disturbed a red off the rail with the cue ball & oh so nearly retained perfect position to pot the disturbed red (& I'm pretty sure if he had, he would have cleared the table!). Smooth VC, smooth! It was an annihilation frame, 65-8 & put the A Team 2-0 up!
Just a point to note was that Tom H-W was refereeing that frame & the irony being that the superb 51 break displaced Tom's previous Premier Division Highest Break of 34; in fact when VC was on 30 & dropped perfectly on the straight pink, Tom looked over at his assembled A Team mates & grinned... well it may have been a grimace! LOL!
Pete 'Captain' Billingham was on 3rd playing Kev Calkin. Having seen that the table was running fast (it really is a lovely table & cloth & just needs a decent set of lights to make it a vastly improved venue!), Captain didn't 'push the boat out' & just got the job done, winning 57-18 to make it 3-0!
Tom Hamilton-Williams (to give him his new full married name, which he is quite insistent on, eh Clare?) was up 3rd v Simon Saunders. It was to be a cracking frame! Simon banged in a 19 at the start to pull a lead, but Tom wasn't phased in the slightest & responded by knocking in a fabulous 23 to come back. It was to be that format throughout, punch & counter-punch & it wasn't until Simon cleared brown to pink that the frame was decided, 63-34 to make the frame score 3-1 to Wallingford. No disgrace there Tom as Simon is a quality player & their best by far!
Last up, Dave 'Anchorman' Greathead v what appeared to be the youngest player I've ever seen in the League, Olly Mulford who looked to be about 12 years old! I even went over to chat with the Harwell Captain, John Vaughan Senior to compliment him bringing in new young players & had a surprising revelation that Olly actually has a growth defect problem & was actually older than John Vaughan Junior (19 years old)! Anyway, in the frame it was like David v Goliath & Dave stuck to his task against the deceptive opponent & won convincingly 62-33 to make the final score 4-1!
Well done lads, a valuable 4 points away from home!
Wallingford B v Wantage
(match report by Captain Andy)
Meanwhile, back 'home' the 'Battle of the Comrades' came to Wallingford for the second time this season. The B team needed to continue where the A team left off, but Wantage Comrades A wanted to avenge their 5-0 mauling at the cues of Wallingford A.
First up spear-heading the attack was Simon Ellam who was drawn against, on his day one of the best players in the league, Ian 'Sid' Barnes. Suffering with a cold, Barnesy was out of sorts potting some good balls but also missing some easy ones & with the odd miscue thrown in. Simon, showing some of the good solid potting that won him his match against Wallingford A led Ian through most of the frame. With all colours bar the yellow left on Simon was 10 ahead, but with 2 visits Ian pots all bar the black to take the frame 45-35. Wantage 1-0 up.
Dave '100%' Rowe was up next against the very good potter, Sean Dorrian. With honours even at about 20 points the Miss Rule raised its ugly head. Their ref, Duncan Nielson called a miss on an attempted escape from a snooker behind a spotted brown with 3 reds left on the table between black and pink spots. Sean persisted with his escape plan off the side cushion with varying amounts of side. However each of 5 or 6 attempts ended up with the white almost in the same position back in bulk without contact on a red. His 6th or 7th attempt clipped a red and left no pot on. Dave potted a few more and got some more snookers eventually leaving Sean full ball snookered behind the brown with the last red in the jaws of the green pocket. To round Sean's nightmare off he swerved round the brown and potted the white through the fag paper gap into the green pocket, without hitting the red!!!! Skill!!! Dave won by a final frame score of 67-23 to level it at 1-1 in frames.
Phai 'Thai Typhoon' was up next against Phil Hall, providing an excellent show of potting from both parties. Phai shows his bottle, not to be overawed by some not too shabby potting from Phil and he puts on his own show. The miss rule is becoming popular; Rob calls 2 misses on Phai and to be fair the reds were a big target (and Phai was trying to be cute and glance the edge of them). With the scores at 51-49, Phil flukes a snooker on the green and then again on the brown 2 shots later! However Phai takes the brown, Phil takes the blue, Phai goes in off the pink and Phil pots it to take the frame 76-53. Unlucky Phai! Wantage leading 2-1.
First up spear-heading the attack was Simon Ellam who was drawn against, on his day one of the best players in the league, Ian 'Sid' Barnes. Suffering with a cold, Barnesy was out of sorts potting some good balls but also missing some easy ones & with the odd miscue thrown in. Simon, showing some of the good solid potting that won him his match against Wallingford A led Ian through most of the frame. With all colours bar the yellow left on Simon was 10 ahead, but with 2 visits Ian pots all bar the black to take the frame 45-35. Wantage 1-0 up.
Dave '100%' Rowe was up next against the very good potter, Sean Dorrian. With honours even at about 20 points the Miss Rule raised its ugly head. Their ref, Duncan Nielson called a miss on an attempted escape from a snooker behind a spotted brown with 3 reds left on the table between black and pink spots. Sean persisted with his escape plan off the side cushion with varying amounts of side. However each of 5 or 6 attempts ended up with the white almost in the same position back in bulk without contact on a red. His 6th or 7th attempt clipped a red and left no pot on. Dave potted a few more and got some more snookers eventually leaving Sean full ball snookered behind the brown with the last red in the jaws of the green pocket. To round Sean's nightmare off he swerved round the brown and potted the white through the fag paper gap into the green pocket, without hitting the red!!!! Skill!!! Dave won by a final frame score of 67-23 to level it at 1-1 in frames.
Phai 'Thai Typhoon' was up next against Phil Hall, providing an excellent show of potting from both parties. Phai shows his bottle, not to be overawed by some not too shabby potting from Phil and he puts on his own show. The miss rule is becoming popular; Rob calls 2 misses on Phai and to be fair the reds were a big target (and Phai was trying to be cute and glance the edge of them). With the scores at 51-49, Phil flukes a snooker on the green and then again on the brown 2 shots later! However Phai takes the brown, Phil takes the blue, Phai goes in off the pink and Phil pots it to take the frame 76-53. Unlucky Phai! Wantage leading 2-1.
Rob takes on new boy Dave Williams, well new to me! (Apparently, he's actually a very accomplished Pool player who is expanding his repertoire). Rob starts confidently with lovely crisp potting, red, black, red; 'the boys playing well'! That put the 'mockers' on it as he misses a relatively easy black trying a delicate positional shot. With Rob seeming to lose that confidence and Dave growing in confidence, he pulls off a couple of 20+ breaks and with the run of the balls going with the flow leaves Rob in his wake. Rob's only contribution was that initial break and the scores ended up 58-9. One of those frames to forget, oh for a missed black could have been so different. Wantage seal the win 3-1 (but 'Captain Fantastic' was still yet to play!).
The Captain takes on the well seasoned (and now target for hate mail ref!), Duncan Neilson. The only reason Andy takes the frame is because Duncan makes more mistakes. There was a bout of safety to start with Captain being left having to play containing safety. One awkward get out, cueing over the brown in baulk to glance off the righter most red on black cushion saw no contact-could well have been called a miss and maybe should have considering a miss was called on Duncan later in frame... which Andy didn't take because a) he wouldn't have accepted it and b) wasn't listening! Duncan potted a few reds and missed a few colours. One memorable red he fizzed in length of table 6 inches off yellow side cushion and missed a much easier colour. He did manage to pot a black in the latter stages but a little late by then. Andy did sink one or two decent pots in amongst a fair bit of dross and stumbled to a 48-18 win. Thankfully it's only the numbers that are remembered! Final frame score 3-2 as Captain Andy salvages some pride for the B Team.
Marlborough C v Wallingford C
(match report by Captain KP)
This was the first league meeting of this pairing, who in 2 weeks time, play each other in the Cup! (Time for a 'shot across the bows'?).
Frame 1 saw 'Captain' Kevin Pickworth lead from the front, playing very impressively against Andy Patterson. With his opponent needing 2 snookers on the brown (which he got), Kevin held his nerve to come out a deserved winner 62-50 & put the C Team 1-0 up away from home on a very difficult & unforgiving table! After the frame, Captain Kev expressed his thanks to his 'Cue Doctor' (your most welcome KP!), for making such a good job on his tip, which he said made all the difference!
In the second frame, Pete Beaumont took on D&DS&B League Chairman, Terry Harper. Peter found himself 20 behind on the colours, but burst into life with a 14 break. On the following visit 'putted' pink & black to pip Terry on the line, 41-35. C team 2-0 up... away from home & looking good!
Frame three was young Joey Edwards against the experienced Ken Cooper. The story of this match was Joey potting some wonderful long reds but unfortunately couldn't string a colour or break together (it will come!). Joey going down 16-62 & the fight back from Marlborough began!
In frame four, it was Hugh's turn playing their strongest player on the Marlborough side without a doubt, that's Ade Jackson (Brother-in-Law to ex-A Team Legend, Stu Mogford). Although Hugh managed to keep in striking distance of his opponent with 2 decent double figure breaks, Ade drew away coming out a comfortable winner 17-62 to level the match at 2-2!
And so to the deciding frame five. Young Jake Crockett to take on another Legend, the D&DS&B League Secretary, the ever present Vic Hartley! Like Joey earlier, Jake put in some wonderful long reds but as with Joey's frame, couldn't put a break together. In truth it was a very scrappy frame frame which could could have gone either way, both players needing blue and pink to win. With Vic potting a fantastic blue & leaving himself plum on the pink, he sealed the win 36-28 to take the match for Marlborough by 3-2.
Like Joey, Jake has got all it takes to be a very good player. The more frames the youngsters get under their belt, the better they will become!
So, with the A Team getting a valuable 4 away points, they dragged themselves up to 3rd in the Premier, just 1 point behind the B Team, but with a game in hand. Gotta make that game in hand count!
With the B Team salvaging the last point of their 2-3 loss, that was enough to keep them in 2nd in the premier, 1 point behind Abingdon Con A (who went down 3-2 at Abingdon RBL!), on the same number of games.
With the C Team going so close to the win after their 2-0 lead, they are now exactly mid-table in the 3rd Division, but just 2 points behind Didcot Con B with 1 game in hand! Again, gotta make that game in hand count - points on the board lads, not games in hand!
Next week is 2nd round of the Jim Taylor Cup & the A Team travel to Abingdon RBL, whilst the B Team host Didcot Con B.
No match for the C team next week & the question is... when is Captain Kevin going to get his first Team win as playing Captain? (Perhaps Vice Captain PB should take the reigns for a match?).
As always, see you on the practice tables!
N.B. This time of year is always 'fixture congestion city', so with 'House' competitions & League comps all having November 'Play by' dates, make sure you arrange them... & quickly! Don't want any of us getting scratched for not playing!
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