BLOG Revisited

I have decided to relaunch the Bakers pool team blog, the team will be allowed edit rights, so it can be a public or private forum, lets talk about this at the next match

Also let's remember the rules of pool club

Gentlemen! Welcome to Pool Club. The first rule of Pool Club is: you do not talk about Pool Club. The second rule of Pool Club is: you DO NOT TALK ABOUT POOL CLUB ! Third rule of Pool Club: Someone yells "stop!", goes limp, taps out, the frame is over. Fourth rule: only two guys to a frame. Fifth rule: one frame at a time, fellas. Sixth rule: no shirts, no shoes. Seventh rule: frames will go on as long as they have to. And the eighth and final rule: if this is your first night at pool club, you have to play pool......

Winter league fixtures

Winter league fixtures


The full list of Winter league fixtures are:-


HOME TEAM (NAMED FIRST)
14/11/2011 RAFA PRINCE ALBERT
21/11/2011 HSS CLUB B RAFA
28/11/2011 HSS CLUB A RAFA
05/12/2011 RAFA CRCC
12/12/2011 IONA B RAFA
19/12/2011 NO MATCH NO MATCH
26/12/2011 BANK HOLIDAY NO MATCH
02/01/2012 BANK HOLIDAY NO MATCH
09/01/2012 CUP GAME 1st ROUND CUP GAME 1st ROUND
16/01/2012 RAFA MARLBOROUGH B
23/01/2012 THE LAMB RAFA
30/01/2012 BELL & GATE B RAFA
06/02/2012 PRINCE ALBERT RAFA
13/02/2012 RAFA HSS CLUB B
20/02/2012 RAFA HSS CLUB A
27/02/2012 CUP GAME 2nd ROUND CUP GAME 2nd ROUND
05/03/2012 CRCC RAFA
12/03/2012 RAFA IONA B
19/03/2012 NO MATCH NO MATCH
26/03/2012 MARLBOROUGH B RAFA
02/04/2012 RAFA THE LAMB
09/04/2012 BANK HOLIDAY NO MATCH
16/04/2012 RAFA BELL & GATE B
23/04/2012 CUP FINAL CUP FINAL

Shoalin Grandmaster Peter Kempster, 128th Dan, total clearance discipline

The Shaolin Monastery or Shaolin Temple is a Chán Buddhist temple at Song Shan near Zhengzhou City Henan Province in Dengfeng, China. It is led by Venerable abbot Shi Yingxìn. Founded in the 5th century, the monastery is long famous for its association with Chinese martial arts and particularly with Shaolin Kung Fu and 8 ball pool, it is the Mahayana Buddhist monastery perhaps best known to the Western world.

The Shaolin Monastery and its famed Pagoda Forest were inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2010 as part of the "Historic Monuments of Dengfeng.", also the pool sections coin op table and club bar have been deemed of the highest quality by pool players such as "maltese joe" and "monkey o'brian", when leading world championship players were beaten 8-1 by the shaolin first team, Maltese Joe uttered the famous line "doze chinks can play dat pool innit mate, who wuz da bloke who took on that stupid clearance playing number 9?".

The 'bloke' joe refers to is the new leader of the Shoalin pool section, "Grand plank master Peter Kempster, 128th Dan, total clearance discipline", 'the plank' has been demonstrating his clearance skills in attempts thought to be impossible on the pool table since 1980 in local essex leagues, the toughest leagues in the world.

Qoute from "Grand plank master Peter Kempster, 128th Dan, total clearance discipline"

"If you can generate enough backspin to rip the baize, through years of practice, then on any given shot in any given frame, you can pull off tremendously pointless screw shots, allowing you not to worry about where any of the balls are on the table, making tactical play a thing of the past, its a link between your soul and the tip of the cue, however you do lose the majority of the frames you play, even against small children"

List of Total 8 ball Clearance styles currently taught at the temple by Kempster

Xiao Hong Quan - Little Red Fist - 8 Kronenburgs with red bull chasers
Da Hong Quan - Big flood fist - 6 pints of abbot
Tong Bei Quan - Through the black fist - 6 pints of guinness and 6 pints of abbot
Liu He Quan - Six harmonies fist - 6 pints of carling and full 3 course steak meal, plus irish coffee
Taizu Chang Quan - Emperor Yon's long fist - Yard of Ale between shots
Qixing Quan - Seven star fist - 7 bottles of becks and 7 shots of aftershock
Da Pao Quan - Big cannon fist - While eating kebab and having consumed all the drinks above
Xiao Pao Quan - Small cannon fist - while eating small kebab but without the guinness above

Crouching Kempster, Hidden Daleboy

Weekly Shoalin Review:

Confucius say "big monkey only danger to small monkeys when using his seat on the sofa"

Shoalin Highlights this week

• 128th Dan Kempo's clearance attempt with ball in hand after foul from the break by opponent
• Start potting furiously, give the impression you have not looked at the balls at all
• With two yellows left give opponent false hope by seeming not to have planned the difficult ball and play maximum screw on on penultimate yellow to pointless effect
• Swerve, arm held high in the air, around the blocking reds and miss the final yellow but still hit it off the cushion
• Walk away from the table giving impression that you forgot about the two visits and the ONE remaining, a classic Chinese king fu deception move, ref calls you back to the table
• Return across the rice paper and double the last yellow and pot the black to shouts from your pupils 'shoalin.......!"
• opponent is very upset as he has been 8 ball SHOALINNNED by a blind (short sighted) master of the impossible clearance
• Dale
• Inspired by SHOALIN above, play like you have a blindfold on
• Lose badly.

This concludes our Shoalin temple update this week. Pay homage to the SHOALIN TEMPLE in your waking moments today

2011 Fixtures Scanned

Sorry about the scan, no time to retype today.

New Season Tactics and Selection

With the new season just 1 day away i thought i would put on the BLOG a few key tactics for matches, lets just say we should keep these simple guidelines in our minds when playing, i do this every year in hope someone will take some notice :-)

• Before just potting a ball, try to think why you are potting it and which shot you want to play next.
• Make a clear decision before your first shot of a visit on the outcome of the WHOLE visit to the table; Examples = "clearance including the black" or "get my opponent in a snooker" or "cover that pocket so my opponent can't win"
• If you decide to play safe, think about where you would NOT like the white ball to be if you had to play the next shot
• IF ALL ELSE FAILS, You are playing terrible and feel off form, nothing is going right, here is a winning tip, just worry about keeping your HEAD still and stay down on the shot......The basics always come to the rescue

I think we are all very close as a team in terms of being friends, this is an important factor when playing any team sport, however with pool its slightly different, in MY singles matches all i worry about is WINNING MY GAME, even if we are 6-0 up or 0-6 down, its why i played a few seasons in the Wednesday league as last man.......i am good under pressure as i am playing for ME in the singles, it may be something that can help you out with pressure. If we all worry about WINNING our OWN games the TEAM will benefit.

If we had done a little better in the singles last season we would have been in the top 3 of the league overall, our doubles performance placed us level 2nd in the league on points.....such a small difference as winning ONE more singles frame can swing a match in our favour.

I think the reason we were strong in the doubles last year was that i changed the selection policy, i now try and play four 'on form' players as two pairs, this obviously pays off given our doubles performance last year, thus i will continue that policy this year.....

Best of luck to everyone and all please make the effort to attend every game.

Thanks

Tony

Fixtures Winter League 2010-11

RAFA BAKERS Fixtures Winter League 2010-11

22/11/10 HOME v PRINCE ALBERT

29/11/10 NO MATCH

06/12/10 HOME v FARMHOUSE

13/12/10 AWAY v MARLBOROUGH B

20/12/10 AWAY v BELL & GATE A

27/12/10 NO MATCH

03/01/11 NO MATCH

10/01/11 HOME v SUN

17/01/11 K.O.CUP 1^st ROUND

24/01/11 AWAY v BELL & GATE B

31/01/11 NO MATCH

07/02/11 HOME v H.S.S. CLUB

14/02/11 AWAY v PRINCE ALBERT

21/02/11 NO MATCH

28/02/11 AWAY v FARMHOUSE

07/03/11 HOME v MARLBOROUGH B

14/03/11 HOME v BELL & GATE A

21/03/11 AWAY v SUN

28/03/11 HOME v BELL & GATE B

04/04/11 NO MATCH

11/04/11 AWAY v H.S.S. CLUB

Bakers Pool Team - HDPL Winter League 2010/2011

Yon kindly attended the meeting on Sunday, he will bring the fixture list to the next practice night, plus we will have the final tables.

FIRST LEAGUE FIXTURE = HOME on 22nd of November 2010

Thus I suggest the following pre season fixtures:

First Practice Night = Monday 8th of November 2010

Second Practice Night = Monday 15th of November 2010

Can i also suggest we change practice night into something that that resembles match conditions, this will allow everyone to practice snookers, snooker escapes and of course potting. No drinking practice required for our team.

Can we aim to try and get at least 6 or 9 members of the team and we draw names out of a hat and play small matches in teams of 3, it will take slightly longer but will give Terry and Stuart more drinking time :-)

Regarding team structure this season, I assume that nobody has objection with the structure from last season.

Captain = Me
Vice Captain's = Yon & Mitch
Fixture and Results Secretary = Monster
Drinking & Driving Safety Officer = Terry

We will use this BLOG to publish our 100% of our fixtures, upcoming venues and results, i will ensure this does happen this year

Singles & Doubles Draw

SINGLES (18th October):-

Mitch (OLD MAYPOLE)

Pete (BELL & GATE)

Terry (MARLBOROUGH)

Monst (IONA)



DOUBLES (25th October)

Tony & Dale (C.R.C.C.)

Yon & Scott (MAYPOLE)

Pool Season 2010 : Match day 1

Away Hyneholt PH 12 April 2010: The bakers made a good start to the season with a convincing away win versus the Hyneholt of hainault. The team won the singles portion of the match by four frames to two.

The highlights of the singles being a long black by Alan Bruniges, playing in his first match for Bakers and Dale Bennett keeping his cool to pot a tricky black ball with the cue ball in a difficult position. There was some controversy in Peter Kempster's frame as his opponent claimed a deliberate foul after a poor snooker escape attempt, however the Hyneholt official team must be applauded for their fairness as they told there own player to continue (and stop moaning) as they felt Peter made a genuine attempt to escape and just mis-hit his shot. However it must be said the call by the Hyneholt ref in the first instance was correct in his call, the player however asked 4 times if it was a deliberate foul, clearly making him a special breed of moaner, however his fellow team members were very clear in their thoughts and obviously are very sportsmanlike....well done the Hyneholt.

The Doubles portion of game closed the overall match as bakers closed all three frames for victory, the main highlight being Scott Rose's 4 ball clearance under lots of pressure to close the victory in the first doubles frame.

This left the bakers with a away victory of Seven frames to Two.

Singles - Won 4-2
Monster loss (good clearance by opponent)
Mitch win (drawn out tactical frame)
Peter loss (deliberate foul controversy)
Tony win (bad black positional from tc lead to tactical end of the frame)
Dale win (ahead all the way thru the fame and potted a good black)
Alan win (great black after failed initial clearance)

Doubles - Won 3-0
Scott and yon (tactical frame with great black by Scott
Alan and Monster (win)
Peter and Mitch (win)

Overall Match: WIN 7-2

Next match HOME, versus the BELL & GATE 19th of April 2010

2010 League Fixtures

Havering & District Pool League Fixtures for RAFA Bakers Pool Team 2010

12/04/10 - HYNEHOLT - away .... 26/07/10 - home
19/04/10 - BELL & GATE - home .... 02/08/10 - away
26/04/10 - P.A.L.S. - away .... 09/08/10 - home
17/05/10 - HSS CLUB - away .... 23/08/10 - home
24/05/10 - MAYPOLE - home .... 06/09/10 - away
07/06/10 - PRINCE ALBERT B - away .... 13/09/10 - home
21/06/10 - CHERRY TREE - away .... 20/09/10 - home
28/06/10 - FARMHOUSE - home .... 27/09/10 - away
05/07/10 - WINCHESTER - away .... 04/10/10 - home
12/07/10 - DRILL - home .... 11/10/10 - away
CUP GAMES
14/06/10 & 19/07/10
COMPETITION
18/10/10 - SINGLES
25/10/10 - DOUBLES
NO MATCH
10/05/10 & 16/08/10
BANK HOLIDAYS
03/05/10 & 31/05/10 & 30/08/10

New Squad Members Needed

This is a summary of the advert running in the Havering press

• The RAFA Bakers 8 ball pool team require 2 new players for the remainder of their current season in the Havering and District Pool League
• The team name is RAFA BAKERS, the team has been established for 25 years and are based out of the RAF association club in Romford, new players must join the club as a member for a small fee.
• The team play a match every Monday Night at 8:15 PM
• Players must be 15 years old or above
• Contact is Tony via 07968068016 or tonycossey@gmail.com or http://bakerspool.blogspot.com
• All Applications considered, we will run a "try out" night if we have more applications than places in the squad

New Rules for 2009 Summer Season

There are some new rulings that will come into effect this year that we all need to note.

1. If a player pots a ball direct from the break shot, you need to nominate, you can nominate either colour, thus if you pot a red but yellows are in the better position you can nominate the colour you prefer. However if you CHANGE colour if you don't pot a ball next shot then the player who follows has an open table.

2. In cup matches only we are playing scotch doubles, simply the doubles pairings take alternate shots not alternate visits, plus there is a 'no conferring' rule, the 'conferring' rule will be reviewed after the first round of the cup in june.

3. Our little disagreement last year about the rule where missing a league meeting costs the side who missed the meeting 2 points, in which the RAFA were relegated, lead to chaos in the 2nd division as they won the title (and the money) at a canter, they did not lose a game, the opposition captains accusing the RAFA of fixing the previous season so they could easily grab the purse of monies from the rest of the league......Well thats a really a joke and sounds like sour grapes to me, also it shows how poor the 2nd division is in terms of quality. One thing to note the RAFA did not miss a meeting in the winter league......lessons learned no doubt

One further note lets make a NASSIVE effort tomorrow night to beat the RAFA at our shared home venue in the 1st game of the season, we should also make a HUGE effort to get on with the players as no doubt we will share a practice table with them through the season.

Also the RAFA club payed our £80 membership fees and our food is free, hence no subs this year, however the RAFA club requires a £20 members fee, this is normally £28 but discounted since it is April. Those who came to practice last week know that the table is very nice, medium to fast baize with tight pockets IF the ball is hit with pace, its a big improvement over the bakers table.

This is the PROPER league now so lets make an effort to attend all games and ensure we maximise our persinal performances so we can put a good few wins under our belt.

RAFA BAKERS Havering 2009/10 Fixtures

RAFA BAKERS Havering 2009/10 Fixtures

RAFA 6th April away.
NO GAME 13th April
DRILL 20th April home.
WHEATSHEAF 27th April away.
NO GAME 4th May
BARKING P.C 11th May home.
FARMHOUSE 18th May away.
NO GAME 25th May
BULL 1st June home.
NO GAME 8th June
KO CUP 15th June 1st round
SUN 22nd June away.
MARLBOROUGH 29th June home.
NRCC 6th July away.
PRINCE ALBERT A 13th July home.
KO CUP 20th July 2nd round
RAFA 27th July home.
DRILL 3rd August away.
WHEATSHEAF 10th August home.
BARKING P. C 17th August away.
FARMHOUSE 24th August home.
NO GAME 31st August
BULL 7th September away
NO GAME 14th September
SUN 21st September home.
MARLBOROUGH 28th September away.
NRCC 5th October home
PRINCE ALBERT A 12th October away.
SINGLES KO 19th October 1st round
DOUBLES KO 26th October 1st round

Bakers Fixtures Havering Winter League 2008/9

Bakers Fixtures Havering Winter League 2008/9

1st Half of Season
24/11/08 HOME v Farmhouse
01/12/08 AWAY v Prince Albert
08/12/08 HOME v Wheatsheaf
15/12/08 CUP 1st Round
22/12/08 AWAY v Sun
05/01/09 HOME v Marlborough
12/01/09 HOME v BPC
19/01/09 CUP 2nd Round
26/01/09 AWAY v Bull

2nd Half of Season
02/02/09 AWAY v Farmhouse
09/02/09 HOME v Prince Albert
16/02/09 AWAY v Wheatsheaf
23/02/09 HOME v Sun
02/03/09 AWAY v Marlborough
09/03/09 AWAY v BPC
16/03/09 HOME v Bull

Pool Team Costs

Guys,

Yon and I were discussing the annual costs of running the pool team, currently myself and Yon bear the brunt of the costs, we want to start allocating this more fairly.

Costs for the Year

£80 = Summer League Team Registration Fee

£60 = Winter League Team Registration Fee

£80 = Per player Winter League Fees (First 8 players)

£168 = Home Game Food for 12 Home games Summer League

£98 = Home Game Food for 7 Home games Winter League

£40 = Compulsory end of season party fees for tickets organised by the league

Thats a grand total of £526 for both Winter and Summer Leagues.

Thats about £50 a man a year, plus of course we now need to join the M&B club..... 

I am sure you will agree i think its a lot farier if we spilt these costs on a weekly basis, so we pay a £5 sub every home game, even if you do not turn up......lets all discuss possible solutions

Bakers stay in havering division 1

Bakers stayed in the top division of the havering league, only thanks to a vote by the league captains on Sunday at the monthly league meeting, attended by myself and Yon. The RAFA missed 3 league meetings, thus were docked 6 points as per league rules. This points deduction left them below bakers in last relegation slot, however the league official (John Radley) seemed to think this unfair. however a drawn out debate ensued, in which the Wheatsheaf pointed out that the League title this year was decided on a 2 point deduction on the same rule, hence the RAFA must accept the rules, given the decision at the upper end of the table. The decision was put to the vote, the outcome was almost 100% in bakers favour, hence we stayed up, JUST.

Victory for Bakers at the Bull in Romford

The Bakers mission to stay in the Havering and district league top division was provided with a major boost last night, Bakers produced an impressive away win at the third placed Bull pub in Romford.

Monster opened the singles play at slot 1, after a tactical frame his opponent skillfully closed the game with a 4 ball clearance, the long pot 8 ball being the most impressive shot.

the home side requested that the doubles be played at this point to allow some of their players to attend shift work, Bakers agreed and Tony Cossey and Scott Rose played the first doubles fixture, after the Bull player went in off on their second visit, Cossey swept home a seven ball clearance to clinch the first of the 3 scheduled doubles games

Tony Cossey was also in the next game of singles, again Tony looked like he was going to clear up, again from 7 balls out, however a poor positional shot on the last colour, left a double on the 8 ball, which just refused to drop in the middle pocket. The opponent attempted to made the black safe from the next vist, however a spectacular shot on the 8 ball closed the frame for Cossey

Stuart was next up for bakers, again he played solid pool from a tactical disadvantage, always in with chance thanks to some solid tactics, however his opponent made his tactical advantage tell by clearing the last 3 balls to win, again however a good frame by Stuart.

Yon played next and went through a whole range of emotions in his frame, firstly missing a awkward 8 ball, then seeing his opponent make an amazing miss on a dead straight black, Yon then missed another hard black leaving the opponent another simple simple final shot, which he AGAIN missed, yon sheepishly then dished the final ball to win.

Mich played the next frame, his opponent leaving mitch a mountain to climb after clearing down to the 8 ball, then laying that ball near a pocket. In true Mitch style he took on average 22 minutes to decide on each of his shots and cleared up to win. :-)

Peter had the slot for last frame and after a scrappy affair, his oppoent made a decisive move to clear, however a poor positional shot left him without the final black, Peter swept in to mak it 4 - 2 in the singles and of course 5-2 overall as one doubles had been preplayed.

The final two doubles frames being shared to leave Bakers winning the match 6 - 3.

Winter League 2008/09

The havering winter league draws close, this is money competition, where each of the league entry fees forms a prize fund shared by the highest placed teams.

To enter this competition, we need....

• 4 Singles Players
• 2 doubles Pairs (The singles players can't form ANY part of the doubles pairings)

I think the format of the fixtures differs as well, but we need to discuss who forms which part of the side, especially with shift patterns and conference calls to deal with :-)

Speak at Monday's fixture.........Also Yon will send around the details of the XMAS party.

Bakers Home Win Versus Winchester

Bakers ended a run of 8 league defeats with victory over the Winchester club in Division 1 of the Havering & District pool League. This was an important voctory as the Winchester Club are in same region of the league table and this was considered by the Bakers Squad as a 'must win' game.

• Things started badly with Mitch Dawson losing the opening singles frame, the tactical nature of the frame slowed play, but Mich was visibly upset with his last visit.
• Tony Cossey avenged defeat to the same opponent in the corresponding fixture earlier in the season with 4 ball clearance after his opponent fouled while attempting a clever 'bank' shot.
• Stuart Mac was involved in an entertaining frame but was edged out by the Winchester captain. However Stuart once more proved he is 'hard to beat' and he never gives up on his frame, giving each shot full thought, an attitude we could all replicate which would add to our success.
  
• Dale Bennett admitted to playing like a 'plank' but this week was a winning 'plank' in his close fought frame
• Scott Rose was involved in the most controversial frame of the night, his opponent fouled under the 'hit one cushion' rule introduced this year, this lead to friendly but intense debate amongst the two teams. Eventually the ref (Stuart Mac) made the brave (and correct) call of 'FOUL', Scott then swept to victory by clearing his remaining 3 reds and the black after the foul.
• Gary 'Monster' Dennis swept to victory whitewashing his opponent with a two visit clearance of the table. Damm he is ruthless.

This put the bakers 4 frames to 2 up and gave us Victory in the Singles.

• Dale & Tony then played the two weakest opposition players in the first doubles, this was a strange tactic employed by the Winchester club as defeat would hand victory to Bakers in the overall match. The frame was streatched out by a blocked pocket with a red and a yellow on the edge of dropping. After a foul by Bakers the Winchester pairing made an attempt at a clearance, however after the player failed to clear, Tony Cossey cleared the tricky remaining balls for Victory, handing an overall match win for bakers
• I missed the last two doubles but the frames were shared one each, leading to a 6 frames to 3 victory for Bakers

The Bakers have some crucial fixtures in the coming month, these games involve playing close league position rivals, these fixtures will dictate the fate of our season. BE THERE guys....And Win.