Round 7 Match Report – Princess Garden Snooker & Billiards (Handicap) Team Leagues
1st & 2nd Nov 2020
Snooker
Biggest Winners: 7 v 1 – St Lawrence Miniature Rifle Club v St Thomas’ Tower
Highest Break: 35cl – Aaron Canavan (St. Aubin)
Billiards
Biggest Winners: 16 v 14 – Tower Royals v St. Aubin
Highest Break: N/A
——————————————————————————————————————————
Princess Garden – Snooker (Handicap) Team League
Mechanics A 3 v 5 Services Short Cue Wonders
Having been marooned to bottom place all season long, Services’ first win of the season relives them of their isolation at the bottom of the pile, putting them in touch with fellow strugglers St Thomas’ Tower and St Brelade Steelers who together share a three-way tie of the bottom placing in the league.
Ryan was on the balance of play unlucky to loose out on the first frame having looked solid and in control throughout. Paul Bradbury however, sprung to life with a break stuffed full of brilliant pots from green to pink, taking the game to a black ball finish. One slightly loose safety on the black and the frame was over with yet another blistering pot from Paul. Ryan kept playing as he had been to cruise to a well deserved win in the second, repelling Paul who could only manage a tally of 9 points. Lee Travers took the first frame on the pink but struggled to reach his best against Bob Salkeld who took the second frame for a draw. Robbie Kilpatrick was outplayed in the first against Ernie Bird, who’s good potting and scoring coupled with some small slices of rub of the green saw him comfortably over the line. Robbie, however responded emphatically in the second, scoring 94 points to Ernie’s 1, in a breeze to a draw, the third of the night. Darren Malzard found fluency in the opening exchanges of the first frame finding good length with safety play to force mistakes from Lloyd Letherbarrow upon which he capitalised with a number of early chances to rapidly close-up and then surpass the handicap, only to chug over the line in less convincing manner. The second frame went much the same as the first with Darren scoring well in flashes, however a resurgence mid -frame from Lloyd, who saw more of the ball than in the first, with consecutive good visits that threatened a fight-back. However, this was snuffed out with some fortunate run of the ball from Darren, first flunking a snooker and then flunking the final red to leave Lloyd too far adrift, and seeing the Services over the line for a long awaited first win.
Mechanics B 6 v 2 St Tower Pocket Rockets
In a week of big wins, Mechanics B weren’t to be left out. Bagging themselves 6 points this week lifts Mechanics B to the summit of a back-and-forth midfield squabble and with a substantial three-point cushion. Gaining ground over other reliable contenders for third spot; Mechanics A and Tower Pocket Rockets, who both fell backwards after bruising defeats.
The match was evenly balanced at the halfway mark with Bob Rondel and Bob Proper drawing against Nathan Piziura and Daniel Cavey, respectively. The frames between Bob and Daniel were particularly tense, both decided on the black ball. Indeed in the first Daniel can feel hard-done-by to have succeeded in taking points from the three snookers he needed only to loose out to a cheeky double on the black to the middle pocket by Bob. Thereafter, it was one way traffic, despite closer finishes than the scoreline would suggest, with both Mechanics players getting the better of their counterparts to close out the match 6-2 victors – their biggest win since the first match of the season. Richard Corbet began by beating Alastair Simon 2-0. The flash point of this match-up coming in the first frame when Richard took blue, pink and black to steal the frame away after good early work from Alistair in compiling a 26 break. Lastly, Paul Bullock won a comfortable seventh frame before taking the eighth on a re-spot black to beat James Martin.
St Brelade Steelers 3 v 5 Tower Pirates
Now, the only team without a win to their name, and falling to a narrow defeat, St Brelade’s struggles continue on. A black ball decider in the final frame, relegating the Steelers to a fourth consecutive defeat, this unfortunately, the worst run of form of any team as the season edges towards its midpoint.
Karl Le Fevre took a black ball finish in the first against Steve Wilson, and Gary Boschat made it a promising start for St Brelade when he beat a struggling Scott Le Noa two frames to nil, putting St Brelade 3-1 up. That was as good as it got, however, with the Pirates responding to take the final four frames. Ben Garnier defeating Sean MacDonald and Howard Smith stepping in for the pirates as substitute, beating Steve Thomas.
St Thomas’ Tower 1 v 7 St Lawrence Miniature Rifle Club
The only team to have notched up 7 frames of a night’s play and doing so for the second time already this season, St Lawrence built upon their blistering form of late with another resounding win to buttress their perch atop the table – putting daylight between themselves and St Aubin for the first time this season – ahead by two.
To begin the rout Jordan Proctor took two comfortable frames against Bob Denison. Andre Bonjour and David Proctor followed suit with convincing wins over Connor Davies and Andrew Vibert, respectively. Coasting at 6-0 the opportunity of a rare 8-0 whitewash seemed as though it was on the cards. However, Herbie Brugrabber had other ideas, wrestling the first frame away from Pat Patterson in the first of two tight finishes to rescue St Thomas’ Tower from the edge of a dreaded 8-0 oblivion. Winning the final frame, Pat closed the match out in St Lawrence’s favour, for a win of a quite unequivocal fashion.
Tower Beans 2 v 6 St Aubin
A good win for St Aubin sees them hanging on to St Lawrence’s coattails. This match following the same pattern as Mechanics B’s; the scores tied at 2-2 after four frames after which St Aubin lifted the tempo, winning the last four to dent the Beans’ standing in the league. A result which sees them ebb away from earlier front running and drift down to the bottom of the midfield pack.
Dave Ferre got back on track after a recent dip in form with a good win in his first frame against Aaron Canavan. Aaron responded in the second with breaks of 32, 23 and a 35 clearance to gain parity in stylish fashion. Two dramatic frames followed between Simon Wade and Byron Le Cornu – who returns to action for his first outing in the league this season. Byron’s acute tactical play spared him from the brink, coming back from 25 points behind off the back of some successful snookers to pinch the first frame. But, he was outdone in this regard in the second, when Simon achieved an unlikely victory to take the frame on the pink from 49 points behind, himself successful with a succession of well laid snookers. Chris Blampied proceeded to get the better of Stephen Rive, winning the second frame by a single point for a 2-0 victory. And, Robert Le Moel won two close finishes to also win 2-0 in competition with Andy Richardson.
——————————————————————————————————————————
Princess Garden – Billiards (Handicap) Team League
Tower Royals 16 v 14 St Aubin
In a match containing three very one-sided frames Bob Denison struck the first blow of the night, acquitted himself well on his first outing in the billiards league this season in beating Guy Heys 6 points to 3. In doing so, Bob also took the frame win, just breaking the 200 mark. In contrast Guy, who has been the heaviest scorer in the league thus far managed just 148 points on an off-colour evening. The impressive scoring continued when Richard de la Haye compiled 253 points to score 7 on his way to victory up against Stephen Rive. Stephen was unable to reach the target of 5, with a total of 129 points for a score of 4, and thus sees his handicap reduce for the first time this season (equalling Martin Le Gallais with the longest run without a handicap reduction). By far the best billiard player of the week was Peter Allen who joins an exclusive trio of players to have scored 300 points in a league match (in rarified company along with Martin Le Gallais and Guy Heys). With the match tied at 10-10, Peter took the frame win and sealed the match in Tower Royals’ favour, up against Robert Le Moel who was limited to just 4 points, unfortunate to be only 2 shy of earning a fifth point.
Tower T’ree 13 v 13 Services
This top of the table clash ended up being a low scoring battle, though lacked for neither drama nor good scoring. In what became a tense affair. Services however, retain their lead of the league with St Aubin unable to capitalise in their tussle with the Royals.
In what was the first twist of the match, a missed pot from Paul Destro cost him a fifth point, allowing Peter Robinson to come to the table and make an unfinished break of 9, to himself just earn a fifth point with his last shot before time being called on the frame – Peter taking the frame win. Howard Smith and Robbie Kilpatrick both comfortably scored 5 points each in a more free flowing encounter, with Robbie taking the frame win. Following which, Malcolm Malzard and Martin Le Gallais played out a cagey frame. The scores tight right to the line. After all was said and done Martin managed to take the frame win by a margin of only 4 points, however in doing so could only score 3 points to Malcom’s 4 leaving the teams tied on the night and separated by just a single point in the league standings.
