Round 2 Match Report – Snooker & Billiards (Handicap) Team Leagues
27th & 28th Oct 2020
Snooker
Biggest Winners: 6 v 2 – St Lawrence Miniature Rifle Club v Tower Beans
Highest Break: 38 – Connor Davies (St Thomas’ Tower)
Billiards
Biggest Winners: 18 v 13 – Services v Tower Royals
Highest Break: 28 – Peter Robinson (Tower T’ree)
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Team League Snooker
Mechanics A 3 v 5 St Aubin
Giving away a maximum 84 handicap, Aaron Canavan had it all to do against Paul Bradbury, however it wasn’t his night. An uncharacteristic number of kicks and some good moments from Paul, taking plenty of reds with colours, meant Aaron was unable to get going and lost both frames by wide margins. His best coming in the second frame, breaking down on 33, missing a black due to another kick. Chris Blampied wasted no time in setting about reducing the 42 points conceded to Lloyd Letherbarrow by way of handicap, with a neat 36 on only his second visit to the table. Chris finished his first frame with as much momentum as he began with, taking green to pink to win the first frame emphatically. Struggling more in the second however, allowed Lloyd greater opportunity to stake his claim, eventually winning the forth frame of the night by just more than the margin of his handicap. Alongside some steady potting and play, Martin Le Gallais put the adept tactical side of his game to good use in taking a two frame victory against Bob Salkeld to level the match at 3-3 before Robert Le Moel took two comfortable frames in the last against Phil Papworth who was the unfortunate recipient of some unlucky in-offs throughout.
Mechanics B 4 v 4 St Brelade Steelers
The opening two head-to-heads of the night were both shared 1-1, by Bob Rondel and Gary Boschat and Paul Bullock and Sean McDonald, respectively. All of the frames came down to tight finishes with both St Brelade players (Gary and Sean) winning their final frames on the black ball. This set up Karl Le Fevre to take a two frame win over Robert Proper. Karl making a blistering start in the first frame with over a hundred points scored and making a 35 break along the way. Steve Thomas, however locked horns with a Richard Corbet in fine form. Richard winning 2-0 by relatively untroubled score-lines in both frames to become the only player to have won all four of his frames played so far this season, so as to take an early lead in the averages.
St Lawrence Miniature Rifle Club 6 v 2 Tower Beans
Stephen Rive made the best of a black ball finish in the second frame for parity against Jordan Proctor, whilst Andre Bonjour also drew with Dave Ferre in the fifth and sixth frames. Sandwiched in between, David Proctor found his groove (continuing his good form for the week which saw him make a 57 break in the Individual Snooker League) to take a comfortable 2-0 victory with breaks of 30 and 22 against debutant Simon Wade. Pat Patterson won frame 7, the most notable frame of the night for its exciting finish – after potting the blue Andy Richardson found himself angled on both the pink and later the black, eventually conceding enough foul points to cost him a frame that looked unlikely to slip through his hands. Pat also took the eight frame to seal a 6-2 victory and the biggest win of all the fixtures played in this round for St Lawrence, who climb to a joint lead in the league table (alongside St. Aubin and Tower Pocket Rockets, all on 10 points).
Tower Pirates 5 v 3 St Thomas’ Tower
Stephen Morgan picked up momentum this week after being man of the previous season, with a well deserved and assertive 2-0 win over Bob Denison, which included some good single ball potting and play in amongst the balls. Connor Davies began with a bang, sweeping aside Scott Le Noa in their first frame. Connor netted breaks of 32 and a 38 which looked certain to be more – a missed pink off the final red denying him the opportunity of a big clearance – leaving Scott with it all to do in the second. But a scrappier frame with difficult reds and some clever safety play from Scott limited the vast potential in Connor’s potting and break building game, so as to end things with a draw. The third and final match-up of the night saw Ben Garnier take two comfortable yet marathon frames against Herbie Bruggraber, including a well taken break of 28 from Ben. The final two frames played on the weekend saw Andrew Vibert see off Steve Wilson 2-0 to salvage much needed points for St Thomas’ Tower.
Tower Pocket Rockets 5 v 3 Services Short Cue Wonders
The only other team alongside St. Aubin to have taken wins in the opening two matches of the season, Tower Pocket Rockets took the decisive final frames of the match, which was evenly balanced at 3-3 to confirm what has been a difficult start for Services who find themselves at the bottom of the league after a particularly heavy defeat last week. Some on-point long potting from Daniel Cavey and a determination to keep things tight forced mistakes from Darren Malzard in the first frame, which were duly punished. Starting brighter in the second and building a good lead reversed the fortunes and Darren managed to see out the second frame. The second match-up between Nathan Piziura and Lee Travers also ended in a draw. The first frame of which was notable for Lee conceding a total of 40 points in fouls with some truly unlucky and bizarre fouls along the way, never the less, only losing the frame on the pink ball. Lee responded with more accurate potting and tighter cue ball control to take the forth frame on the black when up against some good match play from Nathan. With comfortable wins for each, Alastair Simon and Ryan Swann shared their frames one-a-piece, setting up the final frames of the evening between James Martin and Robbie Kilpatrick. James capitalising on his chances amongst some scrappier play to win both frames and seal the win for the Pocket Rockets.
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Team League Billiards
Services 18 v 13 Tower Royals
After a disappointing loss and score of 11 points last time out, Services took to the table with a point to prove and managed a resurgence of form after a below par opening week. Paul Destro was the man of the night scoring 221 points in the frame to earn 7 points against an out of sorts Peter Allen, who could only manage 3 points. Robbie Kilpatrick also scored well, just shy of the ultimate target of 250, but scoring 6 points in the process against Andy Richardson who was unlucky not to score 5 on his first time out in the billiards league this season. Malcolm Malzard scored a solid 5 points and claimed the frame against Stephen who for the second week in a row earned another 6 points for the Royals, taking him to the top of the averages with a total of 12 points scored.
Tower T’ree 14 v 14 St Aubin
The first draw of the season in the billiards league saw some good performances and solid scoring from all. Peter Robinson and Richard de la Haye both scored 5, with Richard narrowly taking the frame win. Guy Heys again racked up a high scoring total of 270 for 5 points, against Howard Smith who managed just 4 points. Guy setting the benchmark again scoring the heaviest of any one else for a second consecutive week. Martyn Le Gallais was a commendable second in this endeavour totalling 263 points to narrowly miss out on a 6th point against Robert Le Moel who, not at his best managed just to score 4.
