Round 1 Match Report – Snooker & Billiards (Handicap) Team Leagues
20th & 21st Oct 2020
Snooker
Biggest Winners: 6 v 2 – Mechanics B v Services Short Cue Wonders
Highest Break: 79 – Karl Le Fevre (St Brelade Steelers)
Billiards
Biggest Winners: 18 v 15 – Tower Royals
Highest Break: 31 – Martyn Le Gallais (Tower T’ree)
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Team League Snooker
Services Short Cue Wonders 2 v 6 Mechanics B
The only team to win more than 5 frames, Mechanics B capitalised upon 4 black ball frames and some sharp potting to take an early league lead. In particular, (player of the match) Bob Rondel stormed out of the gate to win the first two frames of the evening with some superb potting throughout and a break of 24 in the second frame to boot. The six frames that followed were a far more scrappy affair, Darren Malzard taking advantage of some neat safety play to battle to a two frame win against Bob Proper and tie the scores at 2-2. This was followed by Paul Bullock and Richard Corbett taking the remaining four frames against Ryan Swann and Lee Travers respectively, three of which were decided on the black ball to round off some solid performances and bag the biggest win of the first round of fixtures.
St Aubin 5 v 3 Tower Pirates
A mistake by Steve Wilson in the first frame of the evening left Robert Le Moel with an easy blue and a thin cut on the pink to settle the first frame. The second was won more comfortably by Steve, with Robert needing snookers on the final colours. A similar pattern repeated itself in the second match-up, when Stephen Morgan also ran in off the blue, leaving Chris Blampied to take the blue and pink and the frame. Stephen, sharper in the second frame scored breaks of 36 and 23 to even things at 2-2 with a commanding win in the 4th frame.
With Scott Le Noa 26 ahead in the first frame an unfortunate foul on the yellow opened the door for Aaron Canavan, who obliged with a clearance of the colours to take the frame on the black. Aaron moved up the gears in his second frame, though an uncharacteristic missed red on 73 de-railing his chances of what looked like a likely century. Further breaks of 31 and a clearance of 37 in the same frame saw him finish the frame with class, completely shutting out Scott, who was unable to score a point.
A comfortable win for Martyn Le Gallais in his first frame against Ben Garnier was followed by a fight back from Ben in the second. There was plenty of drama on the colours, 27 ahead Ben accidentally snookered himself on the yellow, conceding 12 points in fowls, Martyn closed the deficit with good pots on the brown, blue and pink but an in-off on the black cost him the final frame of the night.
St Lawrence Miniature Rifle Club 3 v 5 Mechanics A
Honours were even in three of the four match-ups, with David Proctor, Jordan Proctor and Martin Houguez all splitting frames with counterparts Paul Bradbury, Robert Salkeld and Phil Papworth. The deciding score line going in favour of Lloyd Letherbarrow, overturning Andre Bonjour to take a tightly contested second frame and claim the only 2-0 of the match in favour of Mechanics.
St Thomas’ Tower 3 v 5 Tower Pocket Rockets
This all F.T.I. clash saw St Thomas Tower come out on top. With the scores tied at 3 a piece, the final two frames were won by Alastair Simon with a high scoring (62-69) black ball finish in the first and a comfortable win in the final frame to see off Andrew Vibert. Proceeding this Daniel Cavey took two black ball frames to emerge a hard fought victor against Bob Denison, Connor Davies and Nathan Piziura took one frame each, and Herbie Bruggraber evened the tie with a 2-0 win and a break of 26 against opponent James Martin.
Tower Beans 4 v 4 St Brelade Steelers
The only match to end in a draw saw all four head-to-heads also drawn. Aubrey Rive and Gary Boschat cancelling each other out, followed by two tight frames shared between Stephen Rive and Sean McDonald, both going to the black ball. Though the notable highlight of this first round of fixtures came in the 5th frame, with Karl Le Fevre’s smart potting earning him a punchy frame winning break of 79 against Dave Ferre. Only time will tell how high the bar will be raised in the weeks to come, but a handy benchmark for highest break at this early stage of the new season. Rounding off the match, Steve Thomas recovered well to dust off the cobwebs and take the colours to pinch the final frame on the black, having been frozen out of his first frame with Andy Richardson scoring 70 points without reply.
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Team League Billiards
Tower Royals 18 v 15 St Aubin
Tower Royals come into the season sporting a relatively fresh line up, in stepped Aubrey Rive, Stephen Rive and Scott Le Noa, and they did so with a bang, all exceeding their target of 5 points to score an above average 6 points each. Scott claimed a decisive victory against a below par Richard de la Haye who was only able to score 3. However, Guy Heys who scored the most points (295) of all in this first round of fixtures and Robert Le Moel also scored 6 points each and both took victories over Stephen and Aubrey to complete a high scoring match.
Tower T’ree 13 v 11 Services
In contrast the second match was a low scoring affair, both teams commencing the season with sluggish scoring. Martyn Le Gallais however performed well narrowly missing out on a 6th point, but still scoring over 250 points in the frame to beat Paul Destro who could only manage 3 points.
Malcolm Malzard just falling short of a 5th point but taking the overall win couldn’t hold Howard Smith’s late charge to a 4th point right at the death of the frame. So, what could have been a two point swing end up honours even. And, to tie off the last frame Peter Robinson narrowly outscored Robbie Kilpatrick in the frame with both solidly scoring 4 points each.
