This week’s Thursday Billiards League action in Carlisle preceded the visit of multi-time World Billiard Champion Dave Causier.
He comes to QZone on Saturday, to show off his skills in an exhibition and attempt to break his own 619 high break record in the Club, which he achieved at the 2021 British Open.
All the local players are looking forward to it and anyone wishing to, can turn up on the night for the bargain price of £10.
Last night there were ten one-hour timed matches played and once again there were some very tense and close finishes.
However, afterwards there was a quick thank you to Brian Makepeace and Peter Milburn who are both regular Tuesday snooker/billiard league players.
They had gone along just to watch, but decided to get involved and referee a game each. Without any doubt a ref will buy both players two or three minutes “extra time” simply by retrieving balls and doing the scoreboard!
Dave Midgely was playing his InterQzone team-mate Michael Waring, where both played to their particular strengths, with combinations of billiard play and great potting.
Michael had a good start on the handicap system and early on was able to maintain and extend his lead with use of the double-baulk safety game, whist Dave was struggling to put any breaks together.
When Dave did start to get going he had breaks of 27, 18 and 21 which got him to within eight points of Michael.
With 30 seconds to go Michael left the red handing over a pocket and Dave quickly potted it and followed through for six points and then scored a cannon for two pointss just before the buzzer went for the end of the game. Both players were content for the game to finish a draw, 310-310,
Paul Heslop won his game last week by two points and he went even closer this time winning by just one point against Stuart Burgess! 259 vs 258. There were no big breaks, but it was another entertaining and tense finish to the match.
The Leagues have really been mixed up as some of the leading players have dropped points. Peter Stanyer was unbeaten, but in yet another tense finish, Mark Taylor pipped him at the post by three points – 264 to 261. Mark had a 32, while Peter had a 27 and a 24.
It is great to see Peter Dean get off the mark, even though he lost playing one of the aces in Nigel Lewthwaite.
Nigel had a 100 point handicap to find and aided by breaks of 21, 23,36 and 42 he won for a well-earned bonus point on 327. Peter finished with 301 which was just enough to grab a bonus point.
The match between John Metcalfe and Ian Cleminson was a match of two halves. In the first half hour John couldn’t buy a point from anywhere and was struggling with potting as well.
Ian was playing very well, consistently scoring breaks in the teens and a 20 break and with 25 minutes left was 83pts in front.
But then fortunes changed with a few ‘flukes’ from John in breaks of 20, 26 and 37 to see him take the lead with two minutes to go.
Both players were then frantically trying to find their next scoring shot, which never came and so John won 325-318, but both players received an extra point for scoring over 300.
Paul Cowing was presented with a hefty 127 handicap to overcome against Archie Walker. Paul managed a 33 and a 22, but scored regularly on his way to a 286-223 win.
The unbeaten Neill Walby faced David Turley, and once again it proved a very close game. David eventually eased over the winning line by just six points – 263 to 257.
Team-mates from The Rock, Paul Scott and Simon Elston played each other in what they billed as the ‘Battle of the Clowns’. Both players scored highly with Paul coming out on top 347 to 283.
There were two games also played on Wednesday as Paul Whelan had two matches back to back against Neil Walby and John Metcalfe.
In the first match against Neil it was a battle for him to recover the handicapped start and with some good potting Neil was able to win 270-257. Neil had a break of 22 and Paul had breaks of 24 and 27.
In his second match against John Metcalfe, Paul had breaks of 24 and 36 to recover his handicap quickly and extend it before John had breaks of 24 and 32, to close the gap a little. But in the end it wasn’t nearly enough as Paul was on top form and won 323-248.
