Never a blog to shy away from controversy, it seems our comments of last week (on the validity of awarding a team a 12-0 victory for an unopposed fixture) opened up Pandora's box. Here's a view from one of our regular readers:
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Yep its da Brant master general here, 12 - 0 I thinks a great idea, well I did but now I think you should get an 8 – 4 especially if the ROSE cant get a team together again. As for a pool panel, what about t.dingley, d.simm, s.carmichael, d.rajput, a.brant & n.stapley.
Also, love the player profiles. In the spirit of sharing, please find attached a picture of me and my partner-in-crime Raymondo.
Yours truly
ANDOS !!-------------------------------
Thanks for getting in touch Andos. Whilst it's a grand gesture of you to offer to take an 8-4 if the Rose fail to turn up all season, we suspect that it is the results between the top teams that will settle this seasons league, not frames for...still optimistic straw clutching can always help so keep it up. Here's that picture for us all to share:
Match Report - Away versus Farmers Boy
After having last week off with a bye, it was business as usual for the Racks Pack this week. Like the rising of the sun, the turning of the tides and the glueing on of Brucie’s syrup, everything fell into its expected place. Firstly we hammered the opposition, secondly JY lost yet again, and finally Brad had rang in the morning to say he couldn’t make it, the afternoon to say he definitely could, and then 30 minutes before the start to say he wasn’t coming.
We had started off in Racks having a warm up session where none of us could pot a ball. Some of us were still a bit worse for wear from Sundays drinking session and the intake of far too much scotch, courtesy of my ‘remember to say when’ Dad. With Brad out of the picture and Ben not being available we had seven and it was ‘Magic 105.4’ Cameron who was in line to hit the pine for the first session.
Farrah and Dog appeared for a quick beer on their way to the Rose who saw fit to provide a team this week after the no show they put in against the Likely Lads. Having waxed lyrical in a previous blog entry about how players respond to pressure there was a certain irony to meeting up with Farrah. After mentioning his reaction in the Berkshire singles, he then became hero of the week for the Thatched when they beat Robert Uzzell’s team in the Slough League last Thursday. Recovering from a 5-3 deficit Chris stepped up at 6-5 ahead and clinched a 7-5 win with the last frame victory. This blog is reliably informed that the celebrations went on long into the night.
The Con Men were there as well, I played for them a couple of seasons ago when they were in Noctors so it’s always nice to bump into them and catch up. Dave, Adam, Jason and Tom were playing a team many considered to be the second best in racks – The Racks Maniacs - captained by the more than able-bodied Tony ‘the chef’.
Led by Coach Shiel, we headed down to the Farmers Boy and rocked up in time to mug Lee at the bar for the first round. The Slugger had come fresh from his gym workout and had pumped himself up to new heights of adrenaline in preparation for the task ahead.
Coach went first and survived a couple of outrageous flukes to set down the marker for the night with the opening frame (1-0). Vic was up second against Josh Blackman, and had bought with him his very own travelling fan club. They expected great things, but the only flair they got was in Vic’s trousers as he crumbled and Josh levelled for the Farmers at 1-1. His student squatter mates had already stolen our seats when our backs were turned and had to have a whip round to raise a pound between them for the football card!
Lee ‘the grinder’ was foot perfect in the next as usual (2-1) and then I stepped up with my attempt at two 8-ball finishes in the two matches. But rather cleverly I remembered that ‘Coach’ dropped me last time I did this. So I missed my last red, blamed the roll on the table, and then made an attempt at ‘pointless flair shot of the week’ by swerving round a ball to pot the red even though I could still see the edge of it. 3-1.
My quest for the PFSOTW was usurped when ‘the slugger’ doubled the black in to beat Mark ‘commando’ Hedges - the trip to the gym had paid off (4-1) and JY beat Richard ‘Bushtucker Trial’ Hurley who was the proud wearer of some shorts that left nothing to the imagination but everything to medical science. 5-1 at the break.
Positioning, potting and shot selection are just some of the finer qualities a good pool player needs. Sadly they were all lacking from ‘Magic’s’ appearance in the second half. A truly awful frame (the highlight being the schoolboy error ‘topping of the white ball’) was rescued at the end with a cut black where missing the in off was more luck than judgement. 6-1.
Vic saved his reputation in front of the tax dodgers against Albie Blackman, and was grateful to see Albie rattle a cross double on the black (7-1). I did my best to outdo Magic for the worst frame of the night but didn’t quite make it (8-1) and Lee ‘grinded’ out the next one in typical fashion (9-1). JY moaned about being played so late in the back half as he wanted to go and so decided the best thing to do was hammer the black in when there were still 12 balls left (9-2).
It was left to the man with more highlights than match of the day, the bronzed Adonis ‘Slugger’ Southam to rack up the double figure scoreline when he gave Mark Hedges another lesson in mediocre finishing – 10-2 the final score.
Handshakes all round and it was off lickety split to Racks to catch the last of the Racks Maniacs versus the Con Men. The CM, from 6-2 down, were on the verge of a Lazarus-like comeback at 6-5 and Tom ‘-Tom’ Parker was lining up a long black. But he got his directions all wrong and missed it letting Tony ‘the chef’ back in the frame and with a chance to clinch that 7-5 victory under pressure that we had been talking about only hours before.
He wasn’t helped by us all coming back and watching the frame in ‘crucible like’ fashion, whispering ‘he should . . .’ and making him even more nervous. In the end Tom missed three attempts at the black, Tony played a clever little double on his last red and the fourth Parker miss left Tony with two simple balls for the win 7-5.
Slugger and I then humiliated Coach and Magic in a few frames of scotch doubles (please, not more scotch let alone doubles!) before we headed off into the night.
On a separate note, this Saturday sees the MPL presentation night at North Maidenhead Cricket Club. Most of the team will be there, including Brad just to prove that he does exist and he’s not a figment of our imagination! Be warned that Eddie ‘Batman’ Barker may also be making an appearance, and no doubt once the presentation is over we will all be hitting the town. So lock up your daughters, or in Eddie and Brads case, your grandmothers.
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