Round 4 Match Report – Snooker & Billiards (Handicap) Team Leagues
10th & 11th Nov 2020
Snooker
Biggest Winners: 6 v 2 – St Aubin v St. Brelade Steelers
Highest Break: 62 – Aaron Canavan (St. Aubin)
Billiards
Biggest Winners: 17 v 12 – Tower T’ree v Services
Highest Break: 46 – Robbie Kilpatrick (Services)
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Team League Snooker
Mechanics A 3 v 5 Tower Pocket Rockets
With all but one of the head-to-heads on the night ending in a draw, the decisive early scoreline in this match was played out between Paul Bradbury and Daniel Cavey. Daniel Cavey winning both frames convincingly, along with breaks of 30 and 20 to take an early lead for the Pocket Rockets, a lead that wouldn’t be relinquish for the remainder of play. Following which, Lloyd Letherbarrow and Nathan Piziura took a share of a comfortable frame win apiece in playing out their draw – Nathan taking the first frame to give the Pocket Rockets a healthy 3-0 lead before LLoyd found an answer to halt their momentum in getting off the mark and posting the first frame of the evening for the Mechanics. Carrying on in the same vain Ernie Bird won the first of his two frames to cut the deficit to just a single frame before Alastair Simon could respond in the second to restore daylight between the two teams. Substitute Jerry Le Brocq making his first appearance of the season, won his first on a re-spot black against James Martin in what would be the two tightest frames of the evening. James Martin had the final say in putting together a break of 22 and taking the last frame on the pink to claim a third win from the opening four matches of the season for Tower Pocket Rockets. A result which sees them bounce back well from their bruising 7-1 defeat, suffered at the hands of St. Lawrence MRC last time out, and ascend back up the league table to the head of a closely bunched midfield.
Mechanics B 3 v 5 St Lawrence Miniature Rifle Club
Two 5-3 defeats in consecutive weeks for Mechanics B has seen their bright start to the season begin to dim, yet are still positioned well, sitting in a 3-way tie for third place in the league table. This is in direct contrast to a St Lawrence Miniature Rifle Club who are on the up, haven taken 18 points from a possible 24 in their latest 3 matches to confirm their blistering form of late, and see them sit (tied) atop the table.
In a tale opposite to the aforementioned Mechanics A v Tower Pocket Rockets meeting, this match began with three draws leaving the glory to be had by Pat Patterson who won both the final frames to claim the win for St Lawrence. A tight first frame was followed by a more comfortable second for Pat against Robert Proper. Beforehand the three draws on the night were played out between an evenly matched Bob Rondel and Jordan Proctor who each shared two close frames, followed up by substitute Jeremy Gogan and David Proctor who found parity against one another with wins for each by wider margins. Paul Bullock and Andre Bonjour then shared frames to set up the deciding two frames of the night.
St Brelade Steelers 2 v 6 St Aubin
A steely St Aubin keep marching on. St Aubin find themselves the only undefeated team this season, but it’s their consistency which is paying dividends, having taken wins in all four of their matches so far this season to establishing an early run away lead in the league (tied with St. Lawrence Miniature Rifle Club) five points clear of the chasing pack. In light of this St Brelade Steelers were going to have to put on a show if they were to take the bragging rights of this all parish of St Brelade clash. And, indeed it was Gary Boschat who clinched the first frame of the night for the Steelers to draw first blood. After initially struggling in the first, Gary dug deep on the colours, finding his range with some on-point safety play to prevent Robert Le Moel from moving clear. Gary laid a couple of excellent snookers to bring him back into the running and eventually he won the frame on the pink. In contrast to the first frame, Gary made up the 21 point handicap difference in short order only to let the frame slip away, culminating in a draw, Robert taking it on the pink. After early promise, St Brelade’s challenge to the reigning champions quickly fell away. Sean McDonald up against Aaron Canavan in fine fettle and at home on his favoured practice table put his local knowledge to good use, missing only one ball throughout the course of both frames the recently crowned island champion was in a ruthless mood. A well constructed break of 62 put Aaron on the path to winning the first on the colours. In a tighter second frame, a missed green by Aaron gave Sean hope. The St Brelade captain knocked in a 21 break but paid the price when he wobbled a red in the jaws when well placed on the next colour. Aaron stepped up and cleared the table with a break of 52 to punish the mistake and top off an emphatic display. St Brelade faltered further when Martyn Le Gallais led with a great display of potting in both frames to comfortably beat Karl Le Fevre to make it five frames on the bounce for St Aubin. This left Craig Jones, who stepped in as a substitute for the Steelers for a second week running, to rescue the last frame of the night for St Brelade in what were two closely contested frames with former island champion Chris Blampied played out to a draw.
St Thomas’ Tower 5 v 3 Services Short Cue Wonders
With no win in sight for a floundering Services team who have sat rock bottom of the league since the opening round of this seasons’ fixtures Ryan Swann took to the table and won a close opening frame against Bob Denison to start off on the right track for a struggling Services only to be piped in the second frame on the black ball to see out a draw in what looked to have been a promising opportunity to establish a good foothold in the match. Next up Connor Davies and Darren Malzard partook in two forgettable and scrappy frames. A litany of misses from both players in the first frame culminated in a marathon safety battle on the blue ball in which Darren needed and got the snooker he required only to play a poor safety a few shots later and gift the frame away. Again, in the second frame the blue ball proved to be the pivotal ball of the frame. A high quality snooker from Darren saw him earn 15 foul points from a very difficult escape turning the frame in his favour which he saw out on the pink. Low on confidence and unable to get off the mark so far this season, Robbie Kilpatrick was well beaten in both his frames against Andrew Vibert who scored well to put both frames beyond Robbie’s reach by the time the baulk colours were reached. Lee Travers, having a rollercoaster season of ups and downs in form and scoring, shared the final frames of the night with Herbie Bruggraber. When it looked as though for the second week running Lee might win the final two frames to sure-up a draw for the Services, this time it wasn’t to be. Herbie sealing the final frame with a commendable double on the pink.
Tower Beans 5 v 3 Tower Pirates
Dave Ferre got the ball rolling for the Beans with a well made break of 30 in his first frame against Steve Wilson – earning him the honour of having made the highest break for players in his category – but was unable to capitalise on such good scoring, managing only to accrue 15 points in the second frame, to conclude with a fair draw between both players. Stephen Rive then took on Scott Le Noa and won both frames comfortably amidst some good play and solid scoring from the Tower Beans player. Stephen Morgan, playing his way back into the kind of form that saw him win the averages last season, hit the mark against Simon Wade, extending beyond 90 points in both frames and making breaks of 31 and 28 along the way. In doing so Morgan blasted his way back to the top of the averages this season, standing alone as the only man to have won 7 of 8 frames. Could he be the danger man for a second season running? Right now he’s looking too hot to handle. Following a lacklustre performance last week, Andy Richardson found his groove, making breaks of 38 and 35 and winning both the final frames against Ben Garnier to bring home the first win of the season for the Beans.
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Team League Billiards
St Aubin 16 v 13 Tower Royals
Despite a break of 36 an out of sorts Richard de la Haye and substitute Daniel Cavey played out a very low scoring first frame of the evening. Richard making 3 points and Daniel 4, who also took the frame win. Things came alive in the next frame with Guy Heys continuing his high scoring momentum this season in his meeting with Scott Le Noa. With breaks of 25, 41 and 36 unfinished Guy ended up just two points shy of breaking the 300 point barrier, but scored a solid six points against Scott who could only manage 4 in contrast to the 6 he scored in the first match of the season, that being Scott’s only other outing in the billiards league thus far. Lastly, Robert Le Moel’s scoring was excellent on the night, accumulating a total of 240 points and ending up with 7, up against the ever improving Stephen Rive who lost the frame but was never the less close to a sixth point and an increase to his handicap for the third time this season.
Services 12 v 17 Tower T’ree
Malcolm Malzard was on the wrong side of the rub of the green in his match against Peter Robinson, when with two minutes left to go on the clock and double baulked, Peter managed a fluke and proceeded to make a break of 18 points to pip Malcolm for the frame win by just 3 points and deny Malcolm the opportunity of making his 5th point which was within touching distance. The tightest of finishes with the scores at 193 – 196, both players end up picking up 4 points apiece, Malcolm Malzard losing hold of his unbeaten status, in addition. Robbie Kilpatrick managed the highest break of the season so far with a nicely put together 46, but still couldn’t come out on top against an in form Martin Le Gallais who with a touch of good fortune at the death managed to score his target of 230 exactly to earn 5 points. Meanwhile Robbie was limited to just 4 points. The overwhelming overachiever of this round of fixtures though, was Howard Smith who reversed a run of three straight matches scoring only 4 points, this time out making a massive 8 points (and catapulting Tower T’ree to the biggest score of the week and sole leaders of the league) with a frame score of 288. The shadow cast by such scoring meant that Howard’s opponent Paul Destro, was also limited to score 4 points, meaning all three Services players each made 4 points to cap a disappointing night for them.
