Four years ago Colin Montgomery stood over (and made) the putt to win Europe the Ryder Cup having taken so much stick from the American “fans” that his dad walked off the course, unable to listen to it.
Easily making my top 5 sporting moments was Goran Ivanisevic winning Wimbledon in 2001. Having lost in three finals (twice to Sampras and once to Andre Agassi), he was a 150-1 no-hoper at the start of the tournament. Two weeks later, and after a last service game that was quite incredible, he beat Pat Rafter to finally take the title and exorcise the demons.
Maybe, just maybe, the sporting gods have handed the Racks Pack a similar opportunity…
Exorcising the Demons
After falling at the quarter final hurdle two years running we really couldn’t have picked a worse team to play in the quarters than the Thatched Cottage. The form was with them – they had beaten us the previous week - and we knew it was going to be tough. I had a feeling that we could be heading for yet another 7-6 decider.
There was a fire roaring away in the smokers area as we arrived at the TC so I wrote down “7-6” on a piece of paper and threw it into the blaze…
“Oh ye gods I demand you lift this curse from the pack!!”
JY “the Cinderella man” said that he could make it but wouldn’t be available for the second half. So Coach decided that it was probably easier to give him the night off and replaced him with The Slugger. Kev's ceaseless quest to attend every lap-dancing bar in Western Europe had prevented him from playing in last weeks loss to The TC, but he returned to the fold with wind his sails, chalk on his tip and lead in his pencil.
The first six frames were all nip and tuck. Coach should have been beat in the opener but Vinny made a terrible mess on the match-winning ball and then gave away two shots. John did his version of “Go your own way” with a bizarre set of shot selections but managed to get the job done and we took an undeserving lead. 1-0
The Slugger returned the favour in the next when he rather unfortunately left himself with only a tough long yellow and snookered on his other last ball one over the pocket. After missing the pot John Molley needed no second invitation and levelled the match. 1-1
Lol looked like being in command in the third frame until failing on his last ball. It left The Wonder with five reds and a black that were dispatched accordingly. 2-1
Uzzell then dug in against Magic with a street-wise performance of safety and potting and we were all square again at 2-2.
The Bear was up against Dog in the winner-takes-all, animal nicknames encounter, and the money for the favourite was landed when Brad put the hound down. Once Farrah beat Lee in the sixth frame it was 3-3 on the night and you just felt that there was a last frame decider on its way again.
A Racks Pack team huddle round the hotdogs and roast potatoes began. The order for the second half was now becoming quite crucial and everyone pitched in with a plan, including Andy Brant. Yes, THAT Andy Brant! Where there’s free food you find this half of the Right Said Fred of Thames Valley Pool, and tonight was no exception. We settled on Keith leading out against John “Lord” Molley and was quickly onto last orders as he put in his best finish of the season. Starting with a long red from off the cushion, he then put another into the middle by flicking it in off the difficult ball on the rail. Luckily that ball poked out just enough to leave the pot on and with the black gaping he made it 4-3.
Frame eight, and in what was probably the turning point of the match Lee ‘The Grinder’ played Steve Adams. Lee has not been at his best this season (as the averages will show) but he had an inspired frame this time around, and put in a wonderful finish just when we needed it. The black rattled for a second and then dropping into the corner to add a bit more tension. We had a two frame lead and now the pressure was firmly on the opposition. 5-3
Frame nine and the best one of the night for me. There can’t be many matches where you would see two players with more under their belts than Uzzell v Brad – frames of pool we mean! With these two you know there’s a lot those belts can hold a lot in, and tonight they were stretched to breaking point. It certainly was there to be seen on the Ruzzler!
The Bear engineered a situation where he had to play a clever shot of potting one red, screwing across the table to knock in another that was covered by a yellow, and leaving himself a long black that was in the jaws at the other end of the table. Of course Uzzell knew this, and played some excellent containing shots to stop it…and a long frame of cat and mouse was played out. Eventually Robert got to a situation where he was one more visit away from a chance of turning the frame round…and Brad was forced into taking on the double pot. He played it superbly. Potting the ball over the right corner he managed to fire the white back across and knock in the one over the opposite pocket, the white then flew up the table towards the black and stopped in the only place where he couldn’t put the black in directly. Instead The Bear played the white across the table, off the side cushion and back across to hit the black along the top rail and in. Terrific shot and easily the Flair shot of the week (although not pointless).
At 6-3 we were looking good and Kev bought home the pancetta with a clinical finish. Vinny gave away two shots away and The Slugger never looked in trouble as he knocked in the final balls to give us the win. 7-3
At last we could take that monkey off our back.
So as I said at the start, it’s all about those demons. Talking of which the others Racks team AKA Racks Pack-it-in (Racks Maniacs actually, but I see what you did there – ED) got through 7-6 against Woodlands Park. Steve Cox was the Racks hero, clinching the match. It brings about the scary possibility that he might stop moaning for a change. We had to listen to him bitch about how unfair our section was, what with us, The Likely Lads, Thatched Cottage as his Earls Angels team…only to then find out he transferred to back Racks Maniacs instead!! In the second semi final they have drawn the Foresters who came from 6-3 down to defeat the Thatched Cottage A 7-6.
Also on the subject of Demons, in an interesting development in the first semi-final we are now up against BAPL. Regular readers (all two of them) will now be putting the pieces together as they realise that not only have we exorcised one demon (getting past the quarter finals) we now have the chance to exorcise a second demon by beating BAPL (they beat us in the quarter final last year) with a further possibility of exorcising a third in the final against Foresters (they beat us in the quarter finals two years ago)!
Somebody get me a ouija board, some pins and a voodoo doll!
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