Match Reports
Match reports for each game will be posted on this page - as long as we remember!
9 January 2012 vs Misntead Social C
Ashlett C - 3 Minstead Social C- 2
First things first, happy new year to you all! It was time to dust off the cues and restart our season with a home match against Minstead. Having already beaten them 3-2 away in both league and cup, we fancied our chances. The line-up tonight was Pikey, Nard, Badger, ELC and Noodles.
First up tonight were ELC and Nard.
Nard was against a tough opponent who had beaten him in the away match and had also given ELC a bit of a lesson in the cup match! Right from the off it seemed that the Minstead man was on good form as he compiled a nice 25 break from what appeared to be a reasonable safety shot from Nard! A few more points were added and Nard found himself the best part of 40 points down. A safety battle ensued and Nard took the honours gaining a 4 point penalty and a free ball. Having worked the opening though, Nard was very disappointed not to take advantage of it. A missed pink from Nard pretty much sealed his fate as his opponent capitalised with a 17 to put him 51 ahead with only 27 remaining. A good yellow was potted at length by Nard purely for pride and when he missed the following green he conceded the frame losing 60-11. 1 fluke, 0 in off, 0 Marchi.
Having had a 92 on the line-up in pre match practice, (He’s not playing badly at the moment Tim! Not even a trace of side used either!!) ELC was feeling confident. As I was playing simultaneously to ELC I didn’t see his frame clearly. It looked to be a nip and tuck affair though with the scores getting to 38 all. This was when ELC lit the afterburners and left his opponent in his wake! A string of beautiful pots, exhibiting a Rolls Royce cueing action, (Tim!) took ELC to a very comfortable win 75-38. 0 flukes, 1 in off, 0 Marchi.
So honours even after 2 frames. Next up were the pikey and Noodles.
The Pikey was up against a player that had given Badger a lesson in the away fixture but had lost to Mr guaranteed point, Chinese Alan, in the cup game. We were hoping he was going to reproduce his cup form tonight! Pretty close frame this one with the Pikey taking the early advantage to open a lead of about 20. He was going to need more than that though to win this one! Back came his opponent to level the scores at 24 each. A bout of safety with a couple of reds left led to fouls from both players. Neither could really get an advantage though and they went into the colours with all still to play for. Down to the green and the Pikey was trailing by something like 10 points. A good pot on the green was followed by a good brown leaving good position on the blue. All the pikey needed to do was drop the blue in to give good position on the pink. To everyone’s surprise he missed the blue! Fortunately for the Pikey it went safe. A missed double from his opponent left the Pikey a long blue which he despatched with aggression! He missed the pink though and let his opponent a half chance on the pink. Unbelievably he managed to leave it in the jaws of the pocket for the Pikey! He chose not to take the cushion first option to release the white that I think we all would have taken, and played it direct. This left a testy black to take the frame. The long pot was missed and although it wasn’t a gimme, his opponent potted the resulting leave to take the frame 59-49. Great frame! 0 fluke, 1 in off, 0 Marchi.
Noodles was up against the man with every gamesmanship trick in the book! He had put his extra squeaky chalk in his case and was ready for action! Noodles has been having cue troubles of late and had reverted to an old cue to try and resolve them. It seemed to have worked for him tonight as he potted really well. This wasn’t the only facet to his game tonight though as he played a frame of total snooker, giving his opponent some near on impossible snookers to try and get out of! It was pretty obvious from the start Noodles would be the victor here, and having been well and truly out played, his opponent called an early halt to proceedings with all the colours still in play. Noodles took the frame 56-10. 1 fluke, 1 in off, 0 Marchi.
So we were going to have to rely on Badger to bring home the points for us with the scores 2-2!
Badger looked to be playing well in warm up compiling a 47 break in the process. He took the warm up form to the match table opening up an early 25 point advantage. When his opponent finally got off the mark he couldn’t really make anything of it and after just a few points he left Badger in again. The big break didn’t come but he was steadily amassing points and we were confident that this was going our way. The concession came from the Minstead man with all the colours remaining giving Badger the win 61-22. Special mention for Badger tonight as well because we were served a noisy dinner whilst he was playing and there were chinks of plates and cutlery going on all over the place! Despite this he kept his concentration well and once again backed up his hero status amongst his team mates! 0 flukes, 0 in off, 0 Marchi.
So an excellent result sealed our third victory in all competition against Minstead this season! We are now just 1 point behind them in 4th place but with a game in hand.
Player of the week this week goes to ELC. An excellent display of potting from our sextagenarian former skipper showed him rolling back the years to secure a valuable point for his team! Well played!
Away next week at Salterns where we are hopeful for both a win and some good food!
Nard
19 December 2011 vs Shirley Cons D
Ashlett C - 3 Shirley Cons D- 2
First things first, apologies for the lack of match reports for the last couple of weeks! Our last match was away at Woolston social ‘D’ on the 5th of December and we won the match 3-2 courtesy of wins from Badger, ELC and Noodles. Last week we were due to play at home against Northam ‘B’ but they called me in advance to say they couldn’t get a team together so the game has been postponed until next year. This week we played our last match of the first half of the season away at Shirley cons ‘D’. The team for tonight was the Pikey, Badger, Noodles, Nard and ELC.
First up were ELC and Badger.
Badger was up against an unpredictable opponent who we had seen play both brilliantly and fairly averagely last season! Early pots were exchanged but it started to look like it was going to be an average night for the Shirley man as Badger started to take control of the frame. Opening up a lead of 25 going into the colours it certainly appeared to be all over. This was indeed the case and Badger potted enough of the colours to seal a pretty comfortable 63-35 win. 0 flukes, 0 in offs, 0 Marchi attempts.
ELC was one of 3 players playing through a bout of the man flu tonight! Ever the professional though he carried on regardless and put in a fine display for the mighty Ashlett! His opponent, it would seem, had mistakenly thought he was there for a billiards match rather than snooker as he put in a string of in offs the like of which our own in off expert (ELC) could only dream of! I’m sure ELC would tell you that he was just continually falling into his trap but don’t believe him! With the advantage of his opponent scoring freely for him, ELC added some decent potting of his own including a couple of fine efforts with the spider in hand which I’m sure he was particularly pleased with! The frame ended in ELC’s favour 68-24 and put him in pole position for the coveted front seat on the way home! 0 in off, 2 flukes, 0 Marchi attempts.
So we were 2-0 up and looking good for a big win! Up next were the Pikey and Nard.
I didn’t see much of the Pikey’s frame as I was playing simultaneously but from what I did see it looked like a tight frame! With 8 or 9 reds left they had all gravitated to the bottom cushion with the pink and black in there just for good measure! The table certainly didn’t look conducive to a free scoring affair! A usually meagre but in this scenario huge break in the teens from the Pikey’s opponent gave him a small lead and opened the frame up. I don’t know how the scoring went from here really! All I know is that the Pikey played an excellent snooker in behind the yellow at one point which gained him a foul and that ultimately the Pikey’s opponent won the frame by potting the pink. The Shirley man won by 56-43. 0 in off, 0 flukes, 0 Marchi attempts.
Nard’s frame was a tight one tonight and he was far from at his best! He certainly was getting the rub of the green as every time he missed a pot he was getting away with it! Indeed in the latter stages of the frame he was managing to snooker his opponents with almost every shot! To the Shirley man’s credit though he certainly knew his angles as only once out of at least 7 or 8 snookers did he fail to get out of it! Down to the brown and the scores were all square! A poor attempted pot on the green by Nard left his opponent to pot green brown and blue and give himself a great chance of taking the frame having a 11 point lead with 13 on! Another poor effort to pot the pink left Nard thinking the frame was surely over as his opponent had a relatively easy pot to the middle bag. To his astonishment the pot was missed and having been thrown a lifeline by his opponent, Nard looked intent on grabbing it with both hands! He faced a far from easy shot next though! The cue ball was about 3 inches off the top cushion and about 8 inches from the corner pocket whilst the pink was about an inch off the side cushion and about 3 inches baulk side of the middle bag. Nard wasn’t fancying the safety so decided to put all his eggs in one basket and take on the pot! In she went as clean as a whistle for what I reckon is the best single ball pot Nard has had in a match frame! The black was over a corner bag and was despatched to give Nard the frame 54-52! 0 in offs, 0 flukes, 1 failed Marchi attempt.
So the match was won but we still had Noodles to play.
Noodles was up against an opponent that he had beaten on their last meeting so I was confident that he’d bring home the bacon for us! Unfortunately a combination of his man flu and his opponent’s good fortune meant that it wasn’t to be. I can’t say I watched this frame that intently but it certainly looked that Noodles was getting some tough luck, including going in off when put in a fluked snooker! With 3 snookers required at the end of the frame, Noodles turned to me to ask if he could give up! Permission was granted and Noodles capitulated 40-66. 2 in offs, 0 flukes, 0 March attempts.
So obviously we would have liked a bigger win but at the end of the day as Chinese Alan would say, ‘a ‘w’ is a ‘w’!’
Player of the week this week goes to ELC. The main reason for this is for showing great self-control when his opponent was going in off left, right and centre, to not join in! Well played!
So we sign off now until the 9th of January when we will be at home to Minstead.
Enjoy your holidays everyone!
Nard
28 November 2011 vs Sway Social (Peter Marchi KO Cup 2nd Round)
Ashlett C - 3 Sway Social- 2
A welcome break from the league program this week for the 2nd round of the Pete Marchi cup. Tonight’s opponents were sitting pretty at the top of division 2 so although we are a division above them we were expecting a tough tie. The Pikey was given a rest for this match so back in came Chinese Alan. Team for this match was Badger, Nard, Noodles, ELC and Chinese Alan. No tactics in the line-up this week so we went for a normal 1-5.
Up first were number 2, Nard and number 5, Chinese Alan.
Having literally not picked up his cue since his last shot at Minstead in the previous round of the cup, there was a little concern that there may be some rustiness tonight for Chinese! He wasn’t worried though telling me that you never lose it! I was playing at the same time as Chinese so didn’t really watch his frame but from what I did see it looked like the players were pretty evenly matched. The table seemed to be pretty poor and anything hit hard resulted in a thunderous kick! Down to the colours and Chinese Alan found himself trailing by a few points. The Sway man then potted at least 1 of the colours to leave Chinese needing a snooker with pink and black left. Unfortunately he managed to pot the pink when attempting a snooker so the frame ended in defeat by 49-39. 1 fluke, 1 in off, 0 Marchi attempts.
It was a clash of the captains on the other table! Nard felt like he was cueing well but the outcome of the majority of his shots would have suggested otherwise! Both players were left early opportunities but both players wasted these with a 14 from Nard being an unlikely highlight! Into the colours and Nard found himself off the pace by 7 points. Low value colours were shared so Nard was now 5 behind with blue onwards remaining. A poor shot from the home captain left Nard with blue, pink and black all in close proximity to pockets! The blue was routinely despatched leaving the pink over the middle bag. Nard had a massive twitch on this shot and ended up hitting the ball about 5 times harder than he had intended! The pink hit both knuckles and the back of the bag before jumping out of the pocket and rocketing across into the opposite baulk corner pocket! Nard then got out his 6 incher and rolled in the black to take the frame 51-38. 2 flukes, 0 in offs, 0 Marchi attempts.
So it was 1 a piece and very much in the balance. Up next were number 4, ELC and number 3, Noodles.
I didn’t really see much of ELC’s frame as I was conversing with my opposite number and watching more of Noodles frame. From what I’m told though it was a pretty even affair until a mid-frame break of 21 from ELC put him in the driving seat. ELC quickly put himself safe in the frame barring snookers and his opponent, despite getting one of the required fouls, never really looked like getting the other one he needed and ELC finished the frame winning 52-31. 0 flukes, 1 in off, 1 missed Marchi.
Noodles frame started promisingly with a fluked red on his first shot! Black and red followed and it looked like he was going to take advantage of it! Playing the black next he managed to pull off a comedy foul and spread the pack with his cue! The frame went pretty scrappy from here and despite not managing to do any heavy scoring, Noodles’ opponent managed to open a small lead. Another comedy shot from Noodles came when trying to play a delicate roll up behind the brown. He over hit the shot by about a foot! Colours left and Noodles was up against it, trailing by 25 points with 27 on. A couple of good safety shots from Noodles just wouldn’t quite bring him the snookers that he was looking for and his opponent finished the frame with 3 excellent pots of green through blue to seal the win by 54-15. 1 fluke, 1 in off, 0 Marchi attempts.
So not for the first time we were reliant on Badger to pull us through!
At the start of this frame Badger seemed to be struggling with the fact that the table was quite low and his old knees didn’t seem to be up to the job! His opponent started the frame well and looked to be a good potter and opened up a small advantage. Badger seemed to be getting frustrated and we were expecting him to start chasing the Hollywood pots! Fair play to him though as he embarked on an extended bout of safety and waited for the opportunity to come to him. Some good reds were potted with no joy on the colours and the frame ticked along with neither player really taking hold. We needn’t have worried as our long term number 1 grabbed the frame by the scruff of the neck right at the end potting a brilliant long blue followed by a regulation pink in the middle to take the frame 43-25. 0 flukes, 0 in offs, 0 Marchi attempts.
Player of the week this week has to go to Badger. An extended bout of safety, which isn’t something that Badger is usually known for, undoubtedly put him in the ascendency in this frame and followed up by some good potting at the climax of the frame, he was triumphant! Well played!
So our cup run continues! We’ll have to wait and see where our inevitable away game is in the next round! Back to league matters next week with a trip to Woolston social.
Nard.