Summary

A potentially huge result.[br/] Quote from Andy Slack :[br/] "Do we play you again this season? Oh - no - so you get the countback if we're tied at the end of the season. Bugger".[br/] Here's the rundown.

The Games

Lori (SL4) won 3 - 0 against a 3
We won the toss and The Rascals put up Lynette (3). Lori has a fantastic record against Lynette so I couldn't resist putting Lori in to try and get the first point. Lori played a good match and despite a couple of nervy misses on the black in the first two racks brought home a 3-0 win with a classy final black the length of the table. One of the shots of the night was the length of the table double in rack one for a good leave on the black. Did I mention Lori had a couple of nervy shots on the black though in the first two racks? Didn't matter though as Lori had a bit too much in the end for a former league MVP.

Mini (SL4) lost 0 - 4 against a 5
Marc was up next and The Rascals responded with Francis (5). Francis played really well taking the first rack with some very nice pool. Marc never gave up in this match and had a few really nice runs but Francis played one of the best matches I've seen him play and the balls didn't quite run our way.

Sparky (SL3) won 2 - 1 against a 6
Andy Slack put himself up next to try and get his team the lead. I think he was genuinely surprised when we responded with Mark B. Andy has been one of the best players in the league over the last few years and is possibly under ranked as a 6. Andy's game was affected by some miscueing in the first rack. [br/] It could have been easy for mark to be overawed at playing a 6. [br/] He wasn't. At all. Some good pots gave Mark the first rack and Andy was in all sorts of trouble. Andy responded with some great pool to win rack two. He started out rack three in the same style but didn't get it done and left Mark with a ball in hand with 5 balls and the black left. Mark L and I discussed whether Mark could run the table to win the match and decided that he probably couldn't so deliberately had Mark leave alone a ball that was blocking the black. [br/] HOW WRONG WE WERE!!! HOLY COW! This was a stunning runout! Two balls into the center pockets leaving a cut into the top corner on the 9 ball as the third ball. The ball blocking the black was a green stripe with a potential scratch as it was a fairly straight shot the length of the table. Mark played a great shot to sink the ball and bring the white away from the cushion. Mark now has one ball left and the black. I fully expected Mark to go for what looked like a reasonable cut on the final stripe since a miss would cover the black. Apparently not. Mark is apparently bored with Diet Coke because when faced with this particular Red Stripe he downed it with aplomb. A thunderous double up and down the table, perfect position on the black and a 2-1 win over a six. A spectacular result.

Mark (SL5) lost 3 - 0 against a 4
Next up was Mark Lavery and The Rascals responded with Matt Hummers (4). Mark played some good shots but came up just short in each rack. Mark's opponent played very well. There was however one tremendous shot of the night contender from Mark with the finest of cuts into the middle sending the White through a cluster of his opponent's balls, round the table dropping it perfectly onto the black. A bit of a shame that he completely missed the desired pocket to put the black in the wrong bag! However ...[br/] [i]New category - most flippant shot of the night.[/i][br/] Anyone remember this one?[br/] Mark L with an array of possible balls to aim at banked the white ball across the width of the table to play a plany into the center pocket. Delightful shot!

Mike (SL5) won 4 - 3 against a 5
The Rascals threw up Danny (5) against me and I proceeded to play some appalling pool missing shots and leaving myself snookered each time I made a ball. Meanwhile Danny was playing very well and I was quickly in a 3-0 hole. I continued to play horribly at the start of each rack but made some decent clearances when faced with elimination in racks 4,5 and 6 to take it to 3-3. At that point it would have been unbelievably rude not 2 win and I rescued some self respect with a good final rack.

Shot of The Night

Sparky: Since it was part of a tremendous run out to win the match it really has to go to Mark B for the spectacular double on the red stripe leaving perfect position on the black.

Worst Shot of The Night

For sheer volume of blunders I probably deserve this one but there were so many of them I really can't think of a specific one. So I'm cruelly awarding it to Mark B.

Sparky: Completely unfair but he must be in a good mood so I can probably get away with it. In the first rack, Mark had a stripe hanging in the middle pocket which he only had to hit to sink. He hit it but somehow missed it. Mark laughed it off and the miss didn't matter as he produced a memorable performance to earn a huge win.