Snooker Season 2025/6

Admin Report:
12 year old Vincent's first league win - and what a player to beat :-) All the best for the future. PV

Away Team Report:
Our final match in the first round of fixtures. Could we achieve an elusive Premier League win..?

I was ahead for much of the opener against Ryan, which turned on the brown. He laid a deft snooker with brown in open play near its own spot and the white tucked behind blue on the side cushion at the top of the table. A one-cushion escape was on, but it was a tough shot with so much room round the brown. I did hit the brown - but it was at the fourth attempt - and by then the frame had swung decisively in Ryan's favour.

As mentioned in the Admin notes above, Vincent is only twelve. It was only his third frame in the Byfleet League. More significantly, it was third time lucky as he deservedly beat me for a debut win. It can of course be intimidating for anyone to join a new club or association where everyone else has known each other for ages. But when you're also much younger than them, there's an extra significance. It's to Vincent's credit - and to his teammates for their encouragement and support - that he equipped himself with such calmness and maturity. We hope this will be the first win of many and that he'll become a regular player over the years to come.
The frame itself - like the previous one - turned on a snooker which I missed and then left a free ball. I did have first shot on the pink with the rest, but left it up over the middle. You can only imagine Vincent's nerves as he faced the pot to secure his maiden victory, but he held himself together.

Chris got his first 2-0 of the season to level the match. He was ahead throughout in the third frame and fluked the brown at a key time. The fourth came down to the pink. Although Chris missed his first attempt at a pot across the top cushion, the pink ran safe to the side cushion. More importantly, the white came to rest tight in the jaws of the green pocket and direct line of sight to the pink for Pete was blocked by the black. It was a horrible situation to face. Pete played a two-cushion escape and missed the pink by a whisker.

The sharpest play of the night came from Shakeel, who made an assured 21 in the early stages of frame five. Again, this frame turned on the brown. Shakeel missed it altogether and left a free ball, but Andy - who'd come back into contention well - didn't have chance to take advantage.

More solid matchplay from Shakeel gave him the upper hand in the closer. Although, he did snooker himself on frame-ball yellow. As Ryan rightly noted, "there's been a lot of snookering tonight": certainly many more in this match than all the others we've played this season. Shakeel missed the yellow twice, hitting black in the process and Andy was now only five behind. A long duel on the green was settled when Shakeel slammed it into the middle - a shot akin to Darren Fraser's superb pink (also against Andy) earlier in the campaign. Another excellent pot - this time on the blue - put Shakeel 15 ahead on the pink and secured victory for Woodbridge.

This was the first time we'd played at Woodbridge and were made to feel welcome by Terry (who refereed a number of frames), Ray and the rest of the team. There was also hot food to follow which was an unexpected and welcome end to the night.

PV