Round 3 Match Report – Snooker & Billiards (Handicap) Team Leagues
3rd & 4th Nov 2020
Snooker
Biggest Winners: 7 v 1 – St Lawrence Miniature Rifle Club v Tower Pocket Rockets
Highest Break: 41 – Karl Le Fevre (St. Brelade Steelers)
Billiards
Biggest Winners: 17 v 13 – Tower T’ree v Tower Royals
Highest Break: 31 – Richard de la Haye (St Aubin)
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Team League Snooker
Services Short Cue Wonders 4 v 4 Tower Beans
Ryan Swann and Stephen Rive shared the opening frames of the night, both taking comfortable wins. In a tale of two halves, some loose play was punished by Ryan in the first and likewise Stephen capitalised on good scoring opportunities in the second to each win by margins of more than 40 points in two very one-sided frames.
Dave Ferre must have polished off his shooting boots before stepping out on Tuesday evening. Accordingly, he used them to full effect in taking both frames to Robbie Kilpatrick with some hard matchplay. A hallmark of the first frame saw Dave sinking a plethora of long opening reds and nicking colours thereafter. Never getting greedy when faced with awkward half chances to continue his breaks he kept things tight and awaited better chances, opting for tough safety play rather than tough pots. Such chances were often forthcoming, having forced Robbie into conceding a number of openings, particularly in the first frame. Robust displays in both frames saw Dave win his two by 59 and 60 points, respectively. Limiting Robbie to just 9 points scored in the second.
Darren Malzard took on Simon Wade in the penultimate match-up, and from a position of relative control in the first frame Darren fell foul of a bad kick on an easy last red which Simon duly potted and followed up with a very tricky snooker. A three cushion escape to the yellow, pinned to the baulk cushion by the green, looked most likely. After many narrow misses each leading to free-balls being awarded, the foul-and-a-miss rule stung Darren for over 20 points and turned the frame into an even contest. Darren made headway with the baulk colours to get back into the frame but momentum was sharply halted when Simon managed consecutive flukes on the pink and the black, a double followed by a triple, to nick the frame in his favour right at the death. Their second frame also ended up a tight contest. Again, Darren ran afoul of the foul-and-a-miss rule, conceding a string of points at the beginning to leave a frame long battle to make up the deficit, which was only complete when Darren knocked in the final black to square things at one a-piece, amidst better play and potting from both.
With it all to do to salvage a draw, in what always had the potential to be and indeed were by far the highest quality and quickest frames of the evening, an in form Lee Travers matched up against an out of form Andy Richardson on the night. A very solid potting display form Lee throughout including a well taken 27, saw him run out a clear 2-0 victor, playing his best and most fluent snooker of the season so far. In contrast to and amidst some uncharacteristic misses from Andy who just couldn’t get it going.
St Aubin B 5 v 3 Mechanics B
This top of the table clash had both teams in a joint share of the lead before this round of fixtures began. The reigning champions, St Aubin, squaring up with Mechanics B, a team who have had a great start to the league in their own right.
Not for the first time this season a wily Bob Rondel potted balls well beyond that which his handicap would suggest in his 1-1 clash with Martyn Le Gallais. A fluked blue in the first frame however, left Martyn needing snookers, an endeavour in which he was unsuccessful. In the second frame the scores were tighter with the final three colours remaining, Martyn taking the advantage after Bob went in-off the pink, which Martyn duly potted at the next visit to take the frame.
Following good results from Robert Le Moel and Paul Bullock this season, both with 3 frames from 4 at the start of the night, Robert ran out a comfortable winner in both frames playing against Paul (together on matching handicaps) who seemed to struggled with his game.
Chris Blampied was rather impenetrable in his first frame against Richard de la Haye beginning red hot with a 28 break on his first visit to the table following the break-off to wipe out the 21 handicap conceded. Chris went on to win the frame with ample breathing space and limited Richard to only 4 points scored during the course of the frame. Substitute, Richard responded in the second however, lifting himself to take the frame and get off the mark in his firsts snooker match this league season.
Aaron Canavan was unable to establish a foothold in a scrappy first frame against Bob Proper. Again giving away the maximum handicap of 84, awkward reds and tied-up colours left Aaron unable to score enough points during the frame to makeup the deficit and consequently conceded with the colours remaining after Bob cannily escaped from a number of snookers laid by Aaron. Digging deeper in the second, Aaron took advantage of a free-ball with a single red remaining to see out the frame with a classy 38 clearance to win on the black ball.
All in all, St Aubin keep rolling on after this result, becoming the only team to begin the season with three consecutive wins, and finding themselves in familiar territory near the upper placings of the league table.
St Brelade Steelers 4 v 4 St Thomas’ Tower
St Brelade find themselves no strangers to a draw this season, managing honours even for the third time in as many weeks, up against St Thomas’ Tower who have had an unexpected low scoring start to the season.
Bob Denison got off the mark at the third attempt after having his handicap reduced by 7 points at the beginning of the season. It was a solid performance from Bob in beating Gary Boschat by two comfortable score-lines in the opening two frames of this encounter.
A mouthwatering contest was always to ensue with Karl Le Fevre taking on Connor Davies, both playing off handicaps of -21, in this the first heavyweight clash of the season. A break of 40 in the first saw Connor establish a healthy lead only for Karl to answer with a 27 clearance of the colours, including an outrageous pot on the blue, to steal the frame on the black. Such are the narrow margins at the sharp end of the game. In the second, Karl looked to be cruising to victory with a nicely taken 41 break of his own. Connor’s response was to come back fighting. Having hung in there he’d managed to carve out for himself an opportunity to snatch the frame back, even looking the favourite but for a costly miss on the green. Karl Le Fevre called upon all of his experience to hold his nerve in taking green to pink to come out a worthy winner, just nullifying the ever present threat of Connor Davies in a meeting that lived up to the billing both names would suggest.
With the match level at 2-2 St Brelade’s talismanic captain Sean McDonald stepped up to face Andrew Vibert. Sean set-off with a comfortable win in the first, but in a tighter second frame both players had sights at winning the frame. Sean’s experience telling in the end to take the win and see St Thomas’ Tower’s 0-2 lead evaporate into a 4-2 deficit.
Substitute Craig Jones, standing in for Steve Thomas took to the baize for the first time this season, and lost his two frames to Herbie Bruggraber who before the evening had had a mixed start to the season with one win and one defeat. A much need win in the last two saw Herbie earn a draw for St Thomas’ Tower, sealing their best result of the season so far to slot just above Services at the foot of the league table.
Tower Pirates 5 v 3 Mechanics A
Ryan Shaw stepped in as a substitute for Tower Pirates and was ineffective in making up the large handicap difference of 49 points conceded to Paul Bradbury. Paul Bradbury ran out a comfortable 2-0 winner in what ended up being to very low scoring frames, with Ryan only scoring two points in the second frame.
Steve Wilson and Robert Salkeld were each other’s equal in their match-up both winning a comfortable frame each.
After winning last week, Stephen Morgan continued his good form scoring over 80 points in both frames, including a 37 break in the first, to win both against LLoyd Letherbarrow. In doing so Stephen levelled the match at 3-3 and climbed up the averages to take a share of the lead on 5 out of 6 frames, along with a good few others.
With the scores tied, in the final head-to-head of the evening both captains took to the stage with the win on the line. Ben Garnier came out the victor against Ernie Bird, who also dusted off his cue for the first time this season. The first frame was won on the black ball followed by a second that was a more comfortable scoreline for Ben, who also like team mate Stephen Morgan sits at the top of the averages with 5 frames from 6, after a commendable start to the season so far.
Tower Pocket Rockets 1 v 7 St Lawrence Miniature Rifle Club
St Lawrence handed the Pocket Rockets their first defeat of the season, doing so with some style, in what is so far the biggest win of the season. Taking this hard working team right to the top of the table.
Daniel Cavey did his best to claw back the 35 handicap conceded – on both occasions drawing level with Jordan Proctor only for Jordan to kicked on by capitalising on the crucial last reds to pull away and leave Daniel requiring snookers on the colours in both frames. Positional play was a bug bare for Daniel in the two frames finding himself out of place by small margins and in the end didn’t have enough to overturn Jordan.
With both Nathan Piziura and David Proctor on equal handicaps a tight contest ensued. Nathan was made to pay for missing blacks off the spot. Not one to need a second invitation when left in the balls, David made the most of his chances with back-to back breaks of 27 & 30 in addition to a 27 clearance in the second frame. Although Dave was off his usual reliable long game he never the less has been the most prolific break builder in the league so far, in doing so securing a 2-0 win against Nathan for the second season in a row.
The first frame between James Martin and Andre Bonjour came down to the black ball which Andre dispatched with authority to go 5-0 up on the night. The second frame was won more comfortably by Andre to confirm an already solid victory for St Lawrence with two frames still to play.
Again, the first frame between Pat Patterson and Alistair Simon was decided on the black ball in a scrappy frame with neither player able to find their groove. Never the less this made it 7-0 on the night setting up a tense last frame. Good nerve from Alistair saw him claim the last frame in yet another black ball decider, and ensured the Pocket Rockets were to avoid the dreaded whitewash. This was a well deserved win for St Lawrence, but with three frames going to the wire the play perhaps indicated a closer contest than the final scoreline suggests.
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Team League Billiards
After one complete round of fixtures (in which all teams have played each other once), a strange occurrence sees all teams tied on 44 points for an unprecedented four way share of the lead.
St Aubin 15 v 15 Services
With Robbie Kilpatrick well in the lead in the first frame, Richard de la Haye made a late dash with some strong scoring including 4 breaks over 20, the highest a 31, all in quick succession only to be piped to the frame win with a late break of 28 from Robbie Kilpatrick. Robbie managed 6 points to Richards 5, and was not to be outdone in the scoring department with breaks of 28 and 29 for himself, in what was a high scoring frame all round.
Guy Heys was consistent again, making more than 250 points for the third straight week, scoring 5 points in the process and taking the frame win against Paul Destro, who managed 4, in what is becoming a see-saw start to the season for the Services player.
Robert Le Moel scored 5 points but was beaten by Malcolm Malzard who scored 200 points on the nose, to hit his target of 5 points exactly.
Tower Royals 13 v 17 Tower T’ree
Daniel Cavey stepped in to the billiards arena for the first time this season becoming the sixth of a carousel of players to make an appearance for the Royals. Unfortunately he came up against Martyn Le Gallais who becomes the first player this season to blaze past 300 points scored in a single frame. Martyn racked up a total of 317 points in his match to bag himself 7 points for the team and rise right to the top of the averages, out scoring his target by just shy of 100 points. Over the course of three matches Martyn has averaged 280 points per frame, meaning he’s the player who has scored most heavily this season, just shading Guy Heys for the honour. Confined to less table time than would be expected and not having transitioned to billiards for sometime, Daniel only managed 3 points on the night, which is not a reflection of his true abilities.
Peter Allen picked up the pace after a tough first run out last week, scoring solidly to win the frame and make five points in contrast to a struggling Howard Smith who managed just 4 points for the third consecutive week to see his handicap dive down to just 34. He’ll be hoping some better form is just around the corner.
Stephen Rive remains in the ascendency with a solid 5 this week, staying top of the averages for points scored, but now sharing his lead with Martyn Le Gallais (at 17 points). Stephen was up against Peter Robinson who played well to score 250 points on the nose and earn him self a well deserved six points.
