Billiards Season 2024

Away Team Report:
1 word describes last night – UNBELIEVABLE! I stated in my last report this could be our banana skin and how important the draw was going to be. Well once again, despite the valiant efforts of Lol and Steve, Lady Luck called the tune and kicked us where it hurts starting with, again, a very unfortunate draw. I think Chertsey must have been saving it all up for our visit after George’s unfortunate foul at New Haw! However, as you can see from the scores it was to say the least exciting with some excellent billiards being played by both teams. I would imagine this was probably amongst Chertsey’s best performances of the season. With them unfortunately having been already relegated they had no pressure on them, so went for everything and one way or “another” it seemed to come off. In the 1st frame Lol got off to an extremely nervous start allowing George to build a 40 point lead reaching 100. Then Lol just seemed to click and potted his way into a 20 point lead at 135-115 (including an excellent 25 break) and seemed certain to win. But renewed nerves and the lack of a decent leave contrived to allow George to sneak in a nick it by a single score. Steve’s frame followed a now familiar pattern with him building an early lead, his opponent then finding his form and with a fine run of 31 moving into a 20 point lead and Steve coming back with an even better 35 to again be set for victory. Unfortunately this time he was unable to hold on and missed a couple of half chances to win enabling Chris to steal the frame by the narrowest possible margin. With the division title now gone (and with no disrespect to Andy Twells), I found it very hard to conjure up the required enthusiasm for my frame. Andy potted extremely well and was almost keeping pace with me to about 80. However, with us still in with a chance of the runners-up spot I knuckled down, made a few breaks in the teens and ran out, in the end, a comfortable winner. I am very sorry to see Chertsey relegated as they do play “Billiards” and are always sporting in victory or defeat. Indeed, immediately after the match George and Chris were so apologetic for having beaten us to spoil our party and even more so for the fortunate way in which it was achieved. I would expect nothing less from this team of Gentlemen and I look forward to their speedy return to the top division.



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