Week 17 of 30 - 2010/11 Season

Matches to be played on 09/02/2011:
                       
Laughing Fish      2    Eight Bells  3  - played Sun 20/02/2011        
Hurst A      3      St Francis    2        
Brewers Arms      5      Watermill B  0           
Watermill A      4      Brewers Bravos  1            
Greyhound      5      Hurst B   0            
Plough Lower Beeding      3      United Services Club 2            
Mill House Z      5      Woolpack  0          
Plough Plumpton      5      Horns Lodge     0       

[Ros]

Laughing Fish vs Eight Bells - match postponed until Sunday 20th February.

Roy knows about this.

[TIR]

Greyhound 5 Hurst B 0

Ted Stringer 2410 Colleen Park 2120
Geoff Fairs 3210 Steve King 2120
Trevor Rees 6960 Ian Giffen 2750
Peter Burchell W/O
Paul Goodwin 4370 Chris Kirkham 2480

Very close first game.
Good company, shame about Darrel hope he is ok again soon

[specialone]

Saints lost 3-2 t Hurst. Myself and Mat(great comeback) for Saints. RR bullied our double hip replacement OAP.
MD

[Sparky]

Plough LB 3 - 2 HH USC

Kieran Budd 2230 - 4280 Sparky

Steve Whyte 5310 - 1100 Andy Guy

Des Gasson 840 - 1460 Mick Kirwan

Geoff Parsons 2550 - 1210 Ron Wales

Mark Webber 3610 - 2500 Terry Gasson

Zeds back to winning ways, but Woolpack unlucky not to come away with 2pts............

SuperG  2100, Jan Hinkins  1770
Jan started off with 700 including some fine shots into the 100 hole. Graham was just establishing himself with a 3k break going, when a ball came back fast off the back cushion and took out a peg. Jan established a lead of a thousand and Graham took a while to establish some breathing space with a 2k break towards the end.  

Mick Holmwood 7340, Anne Stockinger 520
Mick struggled to get both balls in off the break, but as usual played the rest of the table superbly.

Barry Timson 2750, Nigel Bransby 1270
Both players struggled to get the break and traded shots as the table got loaded.

tommo  6180, Russell Jennings  840
tommo started 3-down one-up, split, but couldn't repeat it a second time (table fast and whippy). Russ tried hard but without luck and tommo's 50-play proved decisive.

Alan Downs 3570, Malcolm Fuller 2470
Thebest game of the night, very cut and thrust, chances for both players right up until the bar, which went at the wrong time for Malc.

Pleasant evening with the Woolpack, and a pity the table didn't play as well as this last night. ::) (for which I must apologise to Boball and assure him that measures are to be put in place.)

[specialone]

Div 1 Woolie unlucky not to come away with two points against prem Z's?
Would that be four drawn legs Tommo, or is my maths not the only poor maths this week?

[ron]

Plough P/G 5 - 0 Horns Lodge

Darren Newnham 8490 - 310 Roger Dudman*
Jan Bithell*6650 - 1250 Tom Massey
Ron Sheridan 2470 - 60 Mike Lethem*
Dave Knight* 5450 - 1070 Kevin Stevens
Chase Newman 5010 - 2980 Geoff Winson*

Another great evening with the Horns Lodge team, always a good laugh....

Feb 10, 2011 7:48:06 GMT specialone said:

Div 1 Woolie unlucky not to come away with two points against prem Z's?
Would that be four drawn legs Tommo, or is my maths not the only poor maths this week?

To quote Orwell, 'four legs better than two legs' ;D

[bobhall]

brewers arms won 5-0 brewers bravos lost 4-1

[bobhall]

hurst a 3 st francis 2
papa hall 1900 matt 2610
jenny 1290 shaun 4500
2-0 down and they said there plan was working (little did shaun no he was left with the 3 big guns and we showed how to play)
mama win no 1 3180 bob 990
bob win no 2 9530 peter 650
pete take the match edwards 5410 chris b/p
pete was tempted on chasing my score but decided to go for the team win

a good night i hope shaun enjoyed his silver service tray with his own delights on them and a nice bottle of port to help him relax

Feb 10, 2011 11:27:04 GMT bobhall said:

a good night i hope shaun enjoyed his silver service tray with his own delights on them and a nice bottle of port to help him relax

What a nice touch. 8-)  This tradition should be immediately adopted by all teams in honour of  Ex-Presidents of the League, whenever one is present! ;) :D

Feb 10, 2011 11:22:28 GMT bobhall said:

brewers arms won 5-0 brewers bravos lost 4-1

All matches this week were won by the home teams! :o

........up-to-date table


Premier:

Mill House Z    17      16       1       67       18       83
Plough PG       17      12       5       53       32       65
Eight Bells     16      12       4       48       32       60
Watermill A     17      11       6       48       37       59
Greyhound       17      10       7       46       39       56
Laughing Fish   16      10       6       45.5     34.5     55.5
St Francis      17       8       9       43       42       51
*Plough LB      17       4      13       30       55       33
*1pt deducted                                  

Divn One:

Brewers Arms    17      11       6       51       34       70                                    
Hurst A         17       9       8       47       38       66.5
HHUSC           17       7      10       39       46       59.5
Hurst B         17       8       9       39       46       56
Brewers Bravos  17       6      11       40       45       55.5
Horns Lodge     17       5      12       30       55       42.5
Watermill B     17       4      13       25.5     59.5     35.5
Woolpack        17       2      15       23       62       30.5

[spudgun]

WATERMILL A:4 BREWERS BRAVOS:1
Our season continues to go from Bravo to Booboo

Kim:4410 Spud:2780
Kim did enough to despatch me but he claimed he didn't feel he played well. By extension, that must mean i must have played like donkey droppings. To be fair, i did.
Chris:2480 Lynne:1020.
Chris' opening break was the difference in this one as neither retrieved the break for the rest of the frame.
Norman:1640 Bravo:5240
Old clever cloggs was our only winner with a decent display against an unlucky Norm.
Geoff Rose:4690 Nikki:2400
Geoff sealed the deal with a good 3k break but everyone commented on how well they thought Nikki played. Geoff proved himself to be a total gentleman and bought her a drink.
John:2190 Paul:2110
A really entertaining final frame that came down to the bar. Paul found that, as always seems to be the case, the one time you don't want to sink two balls down is the one time you do. Would have been 90 behind on the last ball otherwise.

The Bravos need to find a little Kenny Dalglish of their own it seems. Never mind, it really was an entertaining evening with the Watermill guys.

Cheers all

All reports now in except for the Brewers Arms v Watermill B (home team whitewash)....... awaited for with bated breath by both Warrior and Tommo for the 'Tipsters' and 'Table Ladder'. ;)

[spudgun]

Don't know if it helps at all but all but one of the Arms' winning scores were 5k plus. Had a freindly with Andy when i got back and the table really was playing well. Young Liam replaced Trevor on the night if that helps with any tipsters.

[bobhall]

Brewers Arms kept a firm hand on the leadership of division 1 with a maximum over The Bees. Gavin Offord fell foul of a 6K from Richard Jeffrey in frame 1 and The Farmer took out The Flying Dutchman in a captains’ match for leg 2. Dilly hit 5K to displace Paul Blackburn and secure the match. Another 5K came from Liam Churcher in his game against Gavin Boyd and 6K from Derek Taylor over Mark Ridley made sure of the last frame report from roy

[Ros]

Laughing Fish 2 - Eight Bells 3
(Rearranged match played last night)

Denise*1230 - Chris Ashford 3020

Trevor 800 - H* 5260

Doug* 12010 - Andy Brooks 2040

Nick 5090 - Ray Carpenter* 1920

Ros* 3650 - Les Whiteman 1400

As the tipsters predicted, the draw was crucial on this one. With Trevor cast in the role of 'sacrificial lamb', H having a break that he would rather have given his team mates and the 'swan menace' flying against the in-form Andy - it worked pretty much in our favour.

The thick break caught Denise out on the first shot, Chris quickly retrieved the balls for a useful break. Play then stayed at the back for most of the game, with Chris having more luck - 2 x 200s :o - than Denise.

Surprisingly, H was also caught out by the break on the first shot! :o But with one ball potted, he quickly cleared and was on his way. No big breaks for him tonight though.

With the Bells 2 down, Doug's mind was fully concentrated. Breaks of 5k, 4k and 2k, plus small change at the back, made up his 12k total. 8-)

Ray was off early and Nick didn't capitalise straight away, with play going to the back. The game was tighter than the scoreline reflects, with Ray having several chances before Nick made sure with 2k to the bar.

I started off gently, with just under 1k, but Les just couldn't get the balls back. Two more 1k breaks gave me the game and the match.

Nothing wrong with the table tonight, although we all got a bit caught out with the pace: H (I think), Doug and Nick all managed at least one 'two up shot'. :o

A very sociable night at the Fish, with copious quantities of Hophead and Olde Trip being consumed, along with the odd glass of red. ;) While Ray found out the hard way that an evening on orange juice was not going to produce his best shots!

Highlight of the evening was Linda's food, described by H as "a sort of bolognese pasta bake" - I would describe it as a Lasagne, but made with penne pasta instead of lasagne sheets, complete with a yummy bechamel sauce on top. We all greedily tucked into seconds ;D Thanks Linda!

Feb 21, 2011 10:53:08 GMT Ros said:

Laughing Fish 2 - Eight Bells 3
(Rearranged match played last night)

Well done Ros,
League table will be updated on Wk 18 thread (and on the website !)
And regarding the 'tables ladder' this match will count towards this week (Wk 19).

tommo

[H]

Feb 21, 2011 10:53:08 GMT Ros said:

Nothing wrong with the table tonight, although we all got a bit caught out with the pace: H (I think), Doug and Nick all managed at least one 'two up shot'. :o

I did indeed manage a "two up shot", and lost a 4k break thanks to leaving a split short as well.

The cloth on that table just doesn't seem to want to play any faster, no matter how much I iron it. That said I didn't have a lot of time with the table pre-match last night since I'd only just got back from my weekends recording session!

On another note - what do people think about ironing cushions?

[specialone]

I wouldn't bother, people are only going to sit on them and crease them. If you are going to do it get a female to do it, they can do my boxers whilst they are at it.
Mad Dog

Feb 21, 2011 13:34:26 GMT H said:

The cloth on that table just doesn't seem to want to play any faster, no matter how much I iron it.

Can't compete with Shaun on the hilarity stakes, so will try a serious reply............

Had the same problem whilst at Handcross with a slow cloth. The best results I ever got from it was after a) brushing it back-to-front, b) spraying it with BCE TableSports Cloth Cleaner; c) ironing it and d) 'smooth block' -ing it the right way. This technique was advised to me by (the great) Simon Tinto.

In our final season there the cushions had had it completely, the ball kept coming inside off the break and if you lost them down the back end they would just accumulate as the back cushion was 'dead'.  
When an excuse for a move came, we took it, and are now enjoying our billiards once again on a table with bouncy cushions. 8-)

[Sparky]

Feb 21, 2011 13:34:26 GMT H said:

On another note - what do people think about ironing cushions?

It is my understanding that regular ironing would accelerate the degradation of the rubbers in the cushions and so they would be less bouncy (throw longer).

[H]

Thanks Graham. Its something I noticed Nigel doing at the Welly, and have tried it a couple of times at the Fish. What I have noticed is that the cushions throw long initially, then seem to start "bouncing" more as the evening goes on. Seems to make the exercise more of a problem than an advantage!

Yes, the whole point of ironing the cush (the right one specifically) is to smooth it down/flatten it so that the break shot doesn't keep coming inside.  (On Tarratt tables, you quite often get the left hand cushion throwing long, and the right one cutting back.)

You are experiencing what used to happen to us at the Black Dog. Mick Wright would be continually smoothing the right hand cushion with his hand to achieve the same effect as the iron.  Trouble is, during the course of the evening, the effect of the ironing wears off and by the fifth game the table is playing up again!

[H]

Ultimately if people cant learn to put left hand side on their break shots then its their own lookout!!

Feb 22, 2011 12:23:39 GMT H said:

Ultimately if people cant learn to put left hand side on their break shots then its their own lookout!!

Even with loads - and I mean loads -  of left hand side (and I mean a combined 200 years of experience) the break has been virtually impossible on the Mill House since Christmas. Until last week I moved the spot forward to the limit, and now it's gettable.  The acid test will be tomorrow with the Hurst B re-visiting.

[BB Warrior]

Feb 22, 2011 12:23:39 GMT H said:

Ultimately if people cant learn to put left hand side on their break shots then its their own lookout!!

Sadly, a lot of the time I think that some players (especially the "newer" players to the game) simply don't know what they are doing wrong when they miss the break shot....... as nobody has ever explained to them how to adjust the angle / side they put on the ball, based on where the balls end up when they have played the shot.

I have lost count of the number of times that I have heard players say "it doesn't do that on our table"..... a comment which is often followed by "I always aim at the white peg / spot on the wall / mark on the table / etc etc" and when they get the break back, they always seem to miss again and then blame the table! ::)

The break shot should be possible on any table..... unless it is so far out of alignment that no "normal" shots are possible..... although the condition (and width) of the side cushions will affect the way in which the break shot should be played.  

Many players do not realise that playing the break shot thick with no side can end up with the same result as playing it thin with left on a table where the white ball wants to kick inside...... and some players do not even realise that they are (or aren't!) putting side on the ball anyway! ::)

Moving the red (or white) spot can make the break easier on a table and it is amazing how much of a difference "regular maintenance" (ironing & brushing the table, cleaning the pockets and the balls) can make to even the hardest tables, providing they are basically level to start with. 8-)

I have a lot of sympathy with (and admiration for) Tommo and the Zeds team, it must be very hard to have to go in and set the table up from "new" for every home game that they have, when it would only take the smallest change in the positioning (or a change in weather) to completely change the way that the table plays.  I couldn't do it week in and week out.... I would choose to go to a venue where the table can stay in position.... but based on the scores that the table gets most weeks, I think that they must do a great job. 8-)

[specialone]

Use the force!

[Sparky]

For my tuppence worth......

Feb 21, 2011 16:50:07 GMT tommo III said:

Had the same problem whilst at Handcross with a slow cloth. The best results I ever got from it was after a) brushing it back-to-front, b) spraying it with BCE TableSports Cloth Cleaner; c) ironing it and d) 'smooth block' -ing it the right way. This technique was advised to me by (the great) Simon Tinto.

I have used almost exactly that system from time to time, and it works well for a while as it shrinks the cloth slightly but eventually stretches again, and suspect that regular usage would make the cloth worse.............i.e. use only rarely (important match on new cloth).

Feb 21, 2011 23:38:59 GMT H said:

What I have noticed is that the cushions throw long initially, then seem to start "bouncing" more as the evening goes on. Seems to make the exercise more of a problem than an advantage!

Just the conclusion I reached especially as it dis-advantaged the Home team more.

Feb 22, 2011 10:52:53 GMT tommo III said:

Yes, the whole point of ironing the cush (the right one specifically) is to smooth it down/flatten it so that the break shot doesn't keep coming inside.  (On Tarratt tables, you quite often get the left hand cushion throwing long, and the right one cutting back.)
I was told a long time ago by !!! (alias) that this was caused by the way the cloth was stretched over the cushions, as it is natural to go from a particular end when working which would then make it run from the front one side and from the back on the other.

You are experiencing what used to happen to us at the Black Dog. Mick Wright would be continually smoothing the right hand cushion with his hand to achieve the same effect as the iron.  Trouble is, during the course of the evening, the effect of the ironing wears off and by the fifth game the table is playing up again!
I will occasionally rub my hand on the 'break' contact point, as taught by !!! (alias), to clean off excess chalk but I reckon too that this has the effect of smoothing the nap but frequent use would deposit grease/oils from the hand and eventually make things worse

Feb 22, 2011 13:33:19 GMT tommo III said:

Until last week I moved the spot forward to the limit, and now it's gettable.

Certainly what I would try as a cure but if you go too far forward you will improve the White but leave the Red short, then start hitting harder which risks the White jumping out the hole >:(
There can be many arguing factors that create a difficult top, but the fact that people try to get their table playing well is what counts to me ;) ..................... as opposed to the neglected or deliberately 'bent' tables.

However the only real answer to all the difficult tables is to....

Feb 22, 2011 18:37:40 GMT specialone said:

Use the force!