Match Report, League Match, May 17th 2006 Away versus Admiral Vernon

Cue Ball Bakers suffered an away defeat last night at the hands of opponents near the relegation zone of our own league division 1. Unlike the champions league final which was showing on the pub’s TV, this game was over long before the end. Playing with just 7 team members in this away venue should not have presented a problem as our league position dictated this should have been an ‘away’ win.

The evening started well with Yon & myself playing in the doubles, myself going for a clearance after our opponents break only to see the last ‘thin cut’ yellow lip out leaving a perfect black begging to be potted. However our opponents did not take advantage, they to attempted to clear when clearly a set of snookers would have been the best tactic, a clever Snooker from Yon after the opponents bungled clearance attempt left me a simple black to drop in.

Peter Kempster lost the first singles in a tight frame which came down both players conjuring up a series of touch snookers with just one red and the black left. The frame could have gone either way but Peter used his patented ‘touch of a hippo’ to leave his last safety short and leave an easy clearance. The opponent bungled the 2 shots on black and another tense series of shots left Peter’s opponent a shot on the back which he finally potted.

Yon in frame two played a frame based on his normal ‘waiting game’ which paid dividends with a 4 ball clearance with 2 shots. Stuart McClemments run of good form continued as he played a tactical frame to always keep the advantage with himself and keep his opponent on the back foot. This resulted in an almost inevitable victory with a straight black.

The shot of the night came from Mitch Dawson in the next frame with a 3 ball combination shot to start his clearance attempt to much praise in the pub. However in totally uncharacteristic form he missed two attempts at his last red to leave his opponent to clear, sleepless nights all round with that frame will be had. The Bakers newest player, Matt Townsend again put a impressive potting display together only again to be foiled by a tactical player blocking pockets, his slumped to a second defeat and again learned some lessons on league pool tactics.

This left the frame score at 3-2 to the Admiral Vernon, as we had no 8th player, we knew this was in effect 4-2, thus we needed the last two frames from Terry Greenwood and myself to draw.

Terry in his frame made a gallant clearance attempt to find his last red knocked onto the cushion by his previous shot, once he missed that ball, a series of snooker’s lead to his defeat and the bakers match loss, this leaving me to play the 7th frame with only pride at stake. My frame was a drawn out affair as the black was tied up early but with myself always keeping the advantage with some excellent touch snookers, the frame was decided once I snookered my opponent behind the black hiding his three yellows, with two shots I easily cleared to remain top of the teams singles averages.

All in all a bad 3-5 defeat, this left a bad taste in the mouth as we played one player short, not helped by the matched coinciding with the televised champions league final.

Highlights
•Arsenal losing in the last 5 minutes (sorry gunners)

Lowlights
•Our spare players watching the football instead of playing.
•Chelsea not beating Barca in the first place