Kent
Team Knock - Out Final
The Good Intent vs
The Kelsey Arms
Medway
Tunbridge Wells
The teams were the only entrants into the competition to find the
Champion team to represent Kent in the National team finals, to be held later in
the year at the Post Office Club, Reading.
The match was played at the Anchor & Hope in the Maidstone league,
as this was the only league that could hold the match, as Kent Secretary Chris
Saville from the Dover & Deal league was guesting for the Kelsey Arms team.
The Good Intent was captained by Kevin Clark, and the Kelsey Arms by
Peter Sainsbury.
In this competition, the team players are written on card / paper, and
placed face down, to be drawn out at random, by the opposition captain, thus
determining the order of play, and the luck of the draw as to who your opponent
is.
Peter won the toss after the draw had taken place, and, under the rules
governing the competition, elected to take the first break in legs 1, 3, and 5.
The balls are returned after the player breaking first fails to score,
or knocks over a peg during his opening break, so the second player enjoys the
opportunity of playing the break without the problems of trying to sink those
balls that are on the table after the first effort.
First up for the Kelsey Arms was Neale Chamberlain, with his opponent
being Simon DeGray. Both players
struggled on a tricky top, but eventually Neale came out on top to put the team
from Tunbridge Wells into the lead 1 - 0.
The Good Intent's first break in the 2nd leg went to Mark
Brewster, who was up against the Kelsey Arms captain Peter Sainsbury.
Again both players struggled for a while, until Mark decided to play
reverse break, and built up a lead of 5K over Peter, with about 8 mins to go.
Peter however, got the break back and eased his way into the game,
gaining in confidence on the break, until, with about a minute to go, had caught
Mark, and then passed his score. When
the bar dropped, Peter was 700 in front, and this proved to much for Mark, and
the Kelsey Arms led 2 - 0.
In the 3rd match, Doug Phillips faced the Good Intent captain
Kevin Clark, and again both players failed to capitalise on the opening break
chance. Kevin however, retreived
the break after Doug had played a poor shot, and calmly scored a 7K break, and
after that a 4K break to record the highest score of the night, of over 11K.
2 - 1 to the Kelsey Arms.
In the 4th match, Dave May was up against Ian Wright, and a
very scrappy game it was indeed, with neither player able to come to terms with
the table.
Ian led for almost all of the game, but there was never more than a few
hundred in it, and Dave was at the table when the bar dropped, and potted all
the balls except the last one, to lead on the score board by 170.
This meant that Ian needed the 200, and Dave the 100 for the win.
Both players tried 3 times for the respective hole on the table, before
Dave potted the ball to give the Good Intent victory in the leg.
Good Intent 2 Kelsey Arms 2
The 5th and final leg was under the All England Equal Time
rule, and both sides had agreed that the table time was 20 mins, and 24 seconds.
Chris Saville opened out for the Kelsey Arms, and once again the table
proved tricky for the opening break, and Chris came off at 1300.
Opening out for the Good Intent was Charlie Hallett, who, like Chris and
those before him, found the table tricky, but managed to score 1650 on his
opening break. Chris managed to get
the break back soon after, and found the pace of the table and made 6K break,
taking a fair amount of time to achieve this.
Charlie unfortunately did not have enough time, and although getting the
break back towards the end of the game, he had no chance of catching Chris's
score.
The final score finished as
Good Intent 2
Kelsey Arms 3
The teams were as follows
Good Intent
Kelsey Arms
Kevin Clark ( Captain )
Peter Sainsbury ( Captain )
Mark Brewster
Neale
Chamberlain
Simon DeGray
Doug Phillips
Dave May
Ian Wright
Charlie Hallett
Chris Saville