The Billiards Team County Championships is a long-standing competition over many years and was staged this weekend at Landywood Snooker Club in Walsall.
It was an honour for Cumbria to be asked to send representatives for the very first time to the event.
All matches are timed over one hour each, with the player scoring the most points winning.
Team A was Paul Whelan, Mike Griffiths and Nigel Lewthwaite, while Team B was John Metcalfe, Mark Taylor and Tony Steele.
In the draw for the first round Cumbria A was drawn against Cheshire B and Cumbria B were drawn against Norfolk B. Both were tough draws against teams that have traditionally very strong players playing in their respective leagues.
Cumbria A found it tough going aginst Norfolk B with defeats for John Metcalfe against Matt Lyon (89-285) and Mark Taylor against Jack Easter (128-178).
However, Tony Steele playing in his first competition outside of the Carlisle League, managed to run out a comfortable winner against Richard Lambert (188-126).
Tony played really well with a good combination of the potting that he is well known for and some great cannons and in-offs. At one stage he looked well set to get a break of over 50, but broke down in the low forties.
Norfolk B won 2-1 and Cumbria B moved into the Plate Competition for first round losers. They went on to lose their next match 3-0 against Oxforsdhire, the eventual Plate Competition runners up.
Cumbria A got off to a flying start against Cheshire B. Paul Whelan beat John Tollitt (161-141). Nigel Lewthwaite, also appearing in his first every competition outside of Carlisle, played fantastically to beat Lee Thomas by over 100pts (220-105).
Mike Griffiths beat the vastly experienced Eddie Fielding after making a solid start to go 47pts ahead. Eddie then settled into the match with a 59 break.
Mike got immediately back ahead with a 24 break, and it was nip and tuck until the buzzer went, with Mike just far enough ahead to get over the line (170-149). Cumbria A won 3-0 and moved into the quarter final stages.
In the quarter final, Cumbria A were drawn against Cheshire Z. Paul Whelan and Nigel Lewthwaite carried on their fine form from the opening round with Nigel winning 189-164 against Gary Blackmore and Paul Whelan beating Phil Johnson by sixs (173-167) which was a game that was neck and neck for the full hour.
Mike Griffiths struggled with ‘anti-luck’ in his match against Ian White. Every first shot seeming to result in a near impossible second shot. Mike scored consistently during the hour, however Ian got a 59 break to push 30 ahead, and a couple of other 30 breaks which saw Ian into an unassailable lead.
It didn’t matter though as Cumbria A won the match 2-1 and progressed to the semi final.
They were up against the very strong and current champions Cheshire A with Paul Whelan starting-off against North West Billiards Champion John Hughes.
It was a match refereed by John Metcalfe in which both players struggled with the run of the balls and neither was able to build any substantial breaks.
In the last 15 minutes John was able to pull ahead with a couple of high 30 breaks which was enough for him to win 189-99.
Nigel played the in-form Matt Jackson and the Cheshire man had a 52 break early on, which put him in control of the match and he went on to win 287-138.
In the third match Mike Griffiths played Chris Achilles which was a high quality affair of the day for both players.
Mike started scrappily, but stayed just ahead in the first 20 minutes. A 46 break from him put him 50 points into the lead.
Chris hit back with a 59 and a 20-plus to go 35 ahead with less than four minutes remaining.
Mike hit a quick-fire 40 to go five ahead with only a few seconds left. Chris played an amazing canon to get in, but then missed a far easier in-off on a red to level the frame just as the buzzer sounded.
Mike had won 213-210 but Cheshire won the match 2-1 to progress to the final against tournament favourites Hampshire.
In the other semi final, Hampshire beat Norfolk A 3-0 with wins for John Mullane over Nathan Mann, Ryan Mears over Philip Welham and Terry Azor over Ian Dennis. Hampshire’s team went unbeaten throughout the day, winning all frames in their games to reach the final.
In the final John Mullane had breaks of 78 and 73 to beat John Hughes 290-138. Ryan Mears defeated Chris Achilles 302(50)-148 and Terry Azor completed the clean sweep 254-194 over Matt Jackson.
In the Plate final Cambridge A defeated Oxfordshire 2-1. Gary Norman and Martyn Gawthrop beat Ian Whiting and Paul Robinson respectively. Terry Colby defeated Mel Oakes in the other match. Terry was returning to the scene after 20 years away and being an ex international player.
It was a great day for everyone who attended with wonderful facilities at Landywood Snooker Club.
Cumbria did themselves proud in their first tournament and all players said they look forward to next year and hopefully doing even better than this 2024 debut result.
