LONDON CALLING…. (Berkshire A v London A)

Before we got to the main event of Berkshire A v the current National Champions London A, there was a small matter of sorting out some photographs of the C team. A reporter from the Reading Chronicle was putting together an article on the county setup and the leading role was going to be played by the C team. Having won the Region 7 title last season it was a good excuse to try and put them all into the newspapers and gain a bit of recognition for all those involved. Dean and Lee had put the word out that the photographer was coming and the waft of Lavender and Rosehip Radox from the far end of the pool hall where the C were practising was almost overpowering. All the C team were carefully groomed for their starring moment and as if the photo opportunity wasn’t enough reward on an early Sunday morning, the lady photographer that came along was also a picture herself. Must remember to keep her business card safe for when the A team clinch this years title…..

After a number of dodgy gags and laughing at the photographer telling Chris Fawcett of all people to “crouch down a bit” the fun was over and it was time to concentrate on London. We were 3 wins from 3 and a victory today could put London almost out of the running and set us up nicely for Surrey next month and the halfway stage.

Sefton was missing and depending on who you spoke to it was either a broken collarbone, sprained ankle or simply that he missed his lift, no one seemed to know. Rob Sparks was ill which wasn’t too encouraging as someone mentioned that he is actually a doctor of some description. Talking of suddenly feeling a bit queesy, it meant the return to the side of John “you can go your own way” Shiel. Thankfully Justin “Im not saying anything about him after the Kent game” Stokes was also back and restored to the first XI along with Pat “I get the sweetest” Phelan.

In the first session Vikas had a gameplan of meeting fire with fudge as Pat and Vid led out against the young whippersnappers of England Under-21s Jack Pople and Joe Prince – honours even 1-1. After one of the London players dropped his chalk onto an object ball and Giuseppe won his frame we had a 2-1 lead. Unfortunately we weren’t going to see another lead for a long time. Keith missed a straight forward red with the black in open but these days that’s about as noticeable as the QE II losing a deckchair. We lost six of the next seven and only kept ourselves respectable when Vikas beat Sean Halligan. 7-4 down after the first session and probably the worst 11 frames we have put together so far this season. Having said that the opposition didn’t miss much and Andy Breen played a fantastic positional shot from his last red to land plum on the black and beat Craigy.

Second session and Pat and G pulled us within one but as we found out all afternoon, every time we closed the gap it opened again. We would win two in a row but then lose two in a row we just couldn’t get any real momentum going. Keith, Justin and Mo helped hauled us back from 11-6 down to 12-10 at halftime.

John Shiel came in for Craig and Rob Uzzell replaced Scott Matthews for the second half. Both of them won their frames and gradually we began to claw ourselves into the match. The tension was starting to get to a lot of players as we reached 14-14 not least Sean Halligan. Having put the black safe on the cushion Keith managed to not only land on it but also pot his first long black down a rail since the Spring of 1998. The pain of defeat was too much for Sean and he broke his cue across his knee. In fairness that’s normally most peoples reaction when losing to ‘The Wonder’.

We were finally level again and after 3 hours of hard slog we edged into the lead 18-17 when Mo beat Kyle Merrigan and Vid hit a cracking black under pressure to beat Joe Prince. But following the pattern of the match we immediately went behind again. Pat came up short on the black and missed a thin cut. G couldn’t make it 4 out of 4 as Andy Breen took him out and John lost to put us two behind.

This months “Golden Microphone” awarded to the commentators curse went to Craigy. With Scott up against Sean “does anyone want to buy a 7 piece cue” Halligan, Craigy went with

“don’t worry Scott your bound to get a go , he’s having to borrow someone elses cue”

It took Sean 5 minutes to find a cue and about 1 minute 30 seconds to find pockets for all seven balls and a black – Scott dished for the second time in the match.

But we dug in again. Brad had an excellent finish against Jack Pople and Justin clinched a Man of the Match performance by bringing us to 22-20 down and two to play.

It was down to Uzzell and Captain VIk to try and salvage the draw. Rob looked in all sorts of trouble but turned it around with a brilliant shot to pot his last ball and clear the black. Unfortunately he turned it around the other way when missing the cut and then failing to hit the black by a whisker when snookered. Rupert Ward got the rubber mallet out and put the final nail in the Berkshire coffin. Merrigan won the last frame to make the final score 24-20 to London.

It was a great match but we never really got going. We didn’t run out the 6 or 7 in a row that we had done in previous matches and maybe the credit for that goes to London. The one time we hit the front they pulled out two break and finishes and hit straight back. One or two frames in our favour could have turned it but it wasn’t to be. Justin took the man of the match honours on his return to the A with 3 from 4 just shading Giuseppe who lost his first ever county match having been undefeated with the C team last year.

It wasn’t all bad news though. In a spectacular collapse Surrey went from 14-13 down to lose 15 of the final 17 frames against Hampshire for a final score of 29-15. Using all my fingers and toes I make the current league table:

Berkshire - 115
Hampshire - 105
Surrey - 102
London – 98
Kent – 92
Sussex – 72

Its not going to take you long to realise that the Surrey game next month on the 6th June is now massive in terms of whether we can win this or not. A good result could keep us top but with Hampshire playing Kent and London playing Sussex , all the sides directly below us could gain ground if we don’t put it all in. If you cant make it then let Vikas know as soon as possible. Im not about next month so that should help you all relax knowing that you cant get slated on here, unless of course someone else fancies the job ??? Applications are welcome.

Remember that you can see the tables and averages on the region 7 website but they normally don’t update it until a couple of weeks after the fixtures.

Tables - http://www.region7pool.com/intercounty-tables.php

Averages - http://www.region7pool.com/intercounty-ranking-ab.php