Oxfordshire v Warwickshire 9th September
“ The long hot summer just past me by …. “ – you know, I violently campaigned for Warwickshire to have the BYE in August because I believed that most people would be on holiday and that we’d struggle to raise a team – it would appear that I was a month early as it was a depleted Warwickshire squad that turned up at the Oracle snooker club to take on Oxfordshire. Five of the A team were missing, 6 if you count Singhy, and there were 7 of the Ladies squad AWOL too. Several of the B team squad were quickly “promoted” as Warks A began badly against Oxford A, losing the first section 8-3.
Better form in the 2nd section as Warks took 4 of the first 6 frames, but they fell away as Oxford won the next 5 frames to go 15 – 7 in front. Another dismal performance saw Warks lose the 3rd section 8-3 which saw Oxford take an unassailable lead of 23 – 10 which secured them the match and the final section saw them romp to a 9-2 victory, taking the final score to 32 – 12.
They won the final section 7-4 to notch up an overall win of 31 – 13. Both Martin Kirby, Scott Varden and Russ “ 70’s Porn Star” Blinco won 4 out of 4 with Russ being awarded the player of the match trophy.
The B team still had an outside chance of winning the regional title and the addition of Martin Kirby and Ian Jones, coupled with “new boy”, Steve Self, gave the squad a promising look on paper.
A close contest in the 1st section with Warks taking a 6-5 advantage. In section 2 with the score at 8-7 to Warks, there began a winning run, which saw the Lads take 15 frames in a row, which secured them victory with Tonksy getting the winning frame.
A spirited 4 out of 4 from Ali Wilkins gave her the player of the match trophy with no one else doing better than 2 out of 4.
So the next match sees the squad travel to Northampton for the final AWAY fixture of the year on Sunday October 14th – thereafter we have home matches against Worcester and Bucks on Nov 18th and Dec 2nd respectively.
The best anyone scored was 2 out of 4 with the Man of the Match trophy being awarded to Jason Page.
Team: Mark Winham, Gaz Calcott, Neil Pincham, Lee Steptoe, Nige Griffiths, Ben Gilbey, Jason Page, Baz Hinde, Mark Chapman, Paul Mason and Keith Garner.
Finally to the Ladies who started 4-0 down because they only had 10 players.
In the 1st section, the Girls had been 4-2 in front, but they lost the section 7-4. a much better performance in the 2nd section which they won 7-4 to level the match at 11 – 11.
Oxford dominated the 3rd section to win 8-3, thus taking a 19 – 14 advantage into the final section. No change of fortune in the final section which Oxford won 7 – 4 to give them a 26 – 18 win.
Russ 70’s Porn star Blinco celebrates winning M of M with a couple of stars from Gay TV