If I was asked for a top 3 of rules I would change about the Thursday night league , number one would be to scrap the ridiculous two-leg cup games. Its probably the worst idea that the league has implemented and it needs to go. The days of the 6-6 and having a one frame decider have disappeared and that is a sad thing.

These two leg matches do nothing other than help the top sides make up for their mistakes. The lower league teams are at such a disadvantage that it amazes me more sides just don't bother with second legs altogether. Two great examples occurred last night to make my point. The first was our match against the Lady Haig that I will get to in a minute. The second was the Willow Tree match against Racks. Racks are two divisions below the Willow Tree but managed an excellent 9-3 victory last night and that should be enough for them to go into the semis of the plate. But with the second leg to be played next week there is still a chance that they could blow it. On the flipside, the Willow Tree players will have to make a 30 mile round trip from Iver/Langley to Maidenhead and back and it could be all over in 30 mins should they lose the first four frames. The whole thing is ridiculous, we have had matches before where we have won 11-1 in the first leg and then have to drive through snow and rubbish weather to the other side of town just to play two frames. Scrap it !! Get rid of this silly idea , shorten the season and use the extra weeks you get for something else (promoting the leagues, more competitions , expand the singles and doubles to best of 5 matches over three or four nights instead of best of three over two).

Now that Ive had my whinge I can get round to the match last night against the Lady Haig. The first leg was at the Irish and we just about managed to grab six players. Myself and 'the most hated man in pool' were suffering with man flu and Andy was working so at least there was some good news. JY was brought out of hibernation for his first appearance of the year and Mr Averages and the 'microwave' were available. For the Haig, Tizzy, Craig Wilson, John Townsend, Danny , Lee G and John Kennedy made up the starting six. Craig tried to put me and Brad off our stride by offering us another amazing cant lose greyhound tip but we were having none of it. About as welcome as Turkey sandwiches at the break.

So first up was Mr Averages and he carried on where he has left us off for the last month - losing the opening frame. Craiggy taking out a nice finish despite a couple of good escapes by Pat when he was snookered on the black. 0-1. John Shiel levelled up at 1-1 and John Kennedy turned over Brad when 'the Bear' made an uncharacteristic miss on a red. 1-2

Payney made the scores 2-2 after Danny played a deliberate foul and was unlucky to leave the slightest gap in the corner pocket to allow 'the microwave' to sneak his yellow through and win the frame.

In what was to be an eventful night for myself I then played Lee and owned up to a foul that even afterwards no one was 100% sure off. I cleared up to my last two reds, potted one and screwed into the other by the black. The split was awful and left me nothing than an ultra-thin cut to the middle. I thought I missed the red and ploughed into Lees yellow but the red did move. My guess was that having hit the yellow , the white clipped the back of the red and that's what made it move. There was a few seconds pause after I hit the shot where everyone wondered what happened. Terry who was reffing didn't call the foul but I did, which was kind of stupid in a way because I then put him in a difficult position. He was reffing and it was his job to call it but he thought I hit the red, personally I wasn't sure that I did so the outcome was he gave the two shots on my say so and Lee cleared up. It was a tough one to call as everything happened so quickly but the room seemed equally split as to whether I hit the red first or not. Anyhow 2-2 became 2-3 maybe I will get my reward in heaven !

Tizz played JY and Tizzy got out the finest porcelain, showed JY a beautiful dish and it was 2-4. JY must have wondered why he bothered coming down.

Pat beat John K to claw us back into it at 3-4 but we went two frames behind again when Tizzy showed that you cant have too much off a good thing and cleared up again, this time against Payney who had gone in off on the break. 3-5

John S managed to do the double on Mr Townsend and the gap was back to one.

I then went up against Craig and managed to add a new excuse to the "reasons why I lost handbook". Having took out most of the finish I was left with one yellow across the bottom cushion , black no problem. As I was about to deliver the 'cue de grace' the lights above the table flicked off and on and I rattled it. I had a second take as I looked at craig to make sure that what had happened did happen and he just laughed. It was like someone using flash photography on a Tiger Woods backswing. Craiggy snookered me and despite the yellow being in the pocket I somehow managed to swerve round the red, hit the yellow in the face and it didn't drop in. Another couple of snookers later and Craig finished it off. I don't think I could have bought a frame tonight. 4-6

Danny then faced 'the Bear' and Brad was all over this frame as if it was one of his hot dates from the Flags. There was no way he was going to lose that frame, you could have had your mortgage on it. Even a three ball plant on reds wasn't stopping him. The cry of "HAVE IT !!!!!!!" and "IF YOU CANT TAKE IT DON'T DISH IT OUT !" could have been heard in the Jehovahs Witnesses building down the road. 5-6

After so many good frames and excellent finishes it was a shame that the last frame was decided on a bad mistake and fortunately for us it was by Lee. JY took out a great clearance but under the pressure over screwed his last yellow and that made him miss the cut on the black. Lee got his two shots from a snooker and had only one yellow left on the bottom cushion. He tried to gently flick it out to leave it into the corner but hit it too hard and made it a tricky cut or a double into the middle. In a strange irony bearing in mind my frame with him he tried the thinest of cuts but missed the ball completely to give JY two on the black and 6-6.

All this brings me back to my rant about two legged matches. This was where we should have been on a decider. We should have seen a Payney/Brad v Tiz match up or something like that for the game. At 4-6 down we should have been fighting for our cup lives rather than have the comfort of saying 'well as long as get to at least 5-7 we can win it on the return leg'. It was a very good game overall. Tizzy was man of the match with two superb clearances, especially the first against JY where he went for a "bangers and smash" on his second last yellow and got his reward.

Second leg (horrible saying ) is next Thursday and this one could well go to the wire - as matches like this should !