Dave Sykes (winner) receiving the trophy from Dave Tierney (President)

Members of the victorious team

As tradition would have it, the club’s AGM was held immediately before the President’s Trophy final.  It was good to hear that the club’s membership and usage levels produced a positive financial position at the end of the year.

Similarly positive, was the approach adopted by both players in this final.  James McManus and Craig Glover continued the good quality snooker that they had played to beat, respectively, Shiv Sibal and Paul Brockway in earlier rounds.

McManus took advantage of his 8 point handicap lead with  confident play, good potting and cue ball positioning to seize the early momentum in the frame.    

Mid game, with colours dispersed around the table in relatively safe positions, break building was difficult for both players.  Glover then overcame this difficulty, potting a brilliant red in the middle pocket will no angle, followed up with two blacks and two more reds.  

Both players then showed their class with some great pots and cue ball control.  Glover’s screw back from the pink to develop a red over the middle pocket was outstanding.

With only two points between the players on the final red, the tension was palpable in the snooker hall as the room filled up with spectators.  McManus saw off the last red and put pressure on Glover with a 10 point lead on the yellow.  Glover was up to it with a fabulous long yellow, then green and brown meant he was only one behind and blue was pottable. 

Glover missed blue and left McManus with a possible cut back into the corner pocket.  McManus potted the blue needing only the pink to win.  But he’d left a three quarter table distance between the cue ball and pink, and the pink was close to the cushion a good foot from the pocket.  Safety or pot? –  the spectators were asking themselves.   McManus had no doubt no fear and confidently potted the pink to win the tournament.

Thanks guys for a great final.

Craig Glover (Runner up, Dave Sykes (President), James McManus (Winner)

Tom Welsh versus Bali Chana

Welsh’s 10 start due to the higher handicap soon disappeared following Bali’s good potting, and Welsh’s nervy cueing.  Nevertheless, the game was nip and tuck for the first period with each player producing some good breaks.  

However, Welsh continued to play below his best and it appeared his nervousness could have been the reason for this.  After reaching the Scratch final this year and missing out on victory here, he probably badly wanted this final to go his way.  Chana then took control of the game and with the last red down, he was 25 ahead with 27 left on the table.     

Chana potted yellow, green and brown.  Snookers required and despite Welsh’s gallant efforts to achieve them, he had to concede after a miss on the pink.  Congratulations Bali and well done Tom for getting to the final.  

Winner, Bali Chana with Dave Sykes (President) and Tom Welsh (Runner-up)

This final was a tale of two families; Adam Jarvis and brother in law Chris Hall against the father and son duo, Shiv and Jai Sibal.

Sibal ‘junior’ potted a fine cut red on his first shot, but couldn’t take further advantage.  Indeed, the brothers were favoured with a 15 handicap start, and Jarvis’ excellent 14 break of pinks and reds soon put them in a near 30 lead.

Jarvis continued to pot well, while his partner’s frustrations following missed chances were well audible.  Similarly Sibal ‘senior’ couldn’t believe how far he was missing pots by and these shots were followed with his John McEnroe type cries of  ‘You’re kidding me!!’   Sibal senior’s exasperation on the potting front saw him turn more to a containment game.  Despite this, the game seemed to be getting away from the Sibals’ with Hall as well as Jarvis gradually pushing up the score board more in their favour.

The game was just waiting for a classic  Sibal ‘senior’ quality break. It didn’t happen and with several snookers required when Jarvis potted the green, the Sibals conceded.    

Congratulations Adam and Chris and well done to Shiv and Jai on reaching the final.  As well as trophies awarded to the winners and the runners up, £55 was the cash prize for the winners.   Generously this was passed onto the bar for a round of drinks to everyone in the club.

Dave Tierney (President 2024) with the winners Adam Jarvis and Chris Hall

Dave Tierney, Chris Hall, Shiv Sibal, Jai Sibal, Adam Jarvis

Details of all competitions run by the club have been updated on the website and previous winners have been added. Follow this link to our Competitions Page

There are two competitions that members can currently sign up for and which will be starting soon. These are posted on the bar.

With no handicap, and the best of three frame matches, this tournament brings the cream of the club to the top.  Indeed, Glover and Welsh had to beat some of the clubs best players to reach this final. 

Welsh, one of the most improved players of the year, would have to be on his best form to beat the bookies favourite, Glover, over a three frame match.   He certainly started well with a very good long red after Glover’s seemingly safe break.  It was one of those classic professional long reds at just the right pace to hold for the black.  Alas, the black was missed and the 147 max was not to be.

Welsh continued to pot reds and hold for the black, unfortunately only to miss the black each time. Glover was being kept relatively quiet by Welsh’s safety play, but some 3 and 4 ball breaks by Glover gave him the advantage as the reds began to disappear.  The games turning point though was when Welsh miscued following a whirling dervish of a cue action.  He missed his red, set up a red for Glover who punished this mistake with a 25 break.  Soon after, Welsh conceded after missing the green from a snooker.  It could have been so different had those many opportunities on the black been taken.  

Frame 2 Both players’ excellent safety play and, to be honest some average shot making, resulted in 13 reds sitting pretty on the green baize for quite some time in this frame.  A lighter moment amid this dearth of potting was provided by several loud ‘KIAI’ shouts from the karate club downstairs, causing Glover to abort his shot after bursting into laughter.   Welsh, always aware that one careless shot could leave Glover with a chance to build a good lead, had to play very safely.  Reds seemed to have been magnetised to the black ball cushion, until inadvertently Glover dispersed some of them to make more potting opportunities.  Sure enough, both players scored red/black combos and the frame suddenly became more dynamic.  Glover was likely to benefit from this more open game and another red/black combo by him; a foul shot by his opponent and soon after a 23 break meant Welsh’s strong fight for the title was nearly over. Indeed Welsh conceded soon after and Glover was a worthy champion of the club’s prestigious Scratch tournament, 2 frames to nil.     

President Dave Tierney presents the winner’s trophies to Craig and the runners up trophy to Tom  

A brand new tournament introduced this year, ‘The Masters’ was limited to those players in the club with a handicap of 25 or less.  And so 16 of the club’s best players entered the Masters hoping to win the tournament in it’s inaugural year.   The two players who battled their way to a ‘trick or treat’ night final were:

Raj Kumar and Shiv Sibal

Frame One

Kumar broke off the first of a possible three frame match with a 15 start.  The players exchanged a few early punches with red/pink and red/black combinations, but the outstanding feature of the first phase of the game was both players’ high quality, end of break positioning of the cue ball on the baulk and black cushions leaving little on for the opponent.  Sibal fell behind further with consecutive foul shots after an in off and miscue.   These fouls galvanised Sibal into form with a good 15 break; a brilliant red from distance leading to black, red and pink.  Some good potting then from both players, with Kumar having the edge, meant that Kumar had increased his lead to 20 points (66 to 46) after the last red was down.  It looked like Kumar was one up.  But chickens could not be counted, as a fabulous yellow and good green set Sibal on his way to a remarkable finish.  He potted all the colours and won on the black – Kumar unfortunately miscalculating the pace on a safety shot.  You could say it was a ‘Masters’ ful clearance from Sibal.

Frame Two

Frame two provided a similar pattern of play and when only the colours remained, again Kumar was ahead, this time by 17 points.  Surely Sibal couldn’t pull off another multi-coloured victory snatching of the frame.  The ball positions meant that snookers were attempted by both players with some success.  However, as well as good snookers Kumar treated us to some magnificent potting which saw off any late challenge from Sibal.  Sibal conceded on the pink needing three snookers.   And so to a one match shoot out.

Frame Three

In this, the final frame Sibal made up the handicap deficit quite quickly and from then on, up until the last red, it was neck and neck on the scoreboard.  Only Sibal’s fluked last red led to him leading by 9 points when he followed up with a miraculous pot of the black in the middle pocket with absolutely no angle whatsoever to play with. A trick and treat!  Kumar responded with a remarkable yellow and green to gain ground on Sibal. 

With only four points separating the players, it was a nail biting finish.  Even when Sibal potted a very good brown on the double, and followed this up with the blue, Kumar could have potted pink and black for a re-spot.  It wasn’t to be, Sibal downed the pink and the frame and Masters was Shiv Sibal’s.

Well played Raj and Shiv, a great game of top quality snooker to watch and report on.  It really was a treat!!

Strings were drawn and Potter won the honour to break off.  With a handicap lead of 11 over Chana, Potter played cautiously at first to maintain his advantage.  However, Chana soon tipped the score his way, with a red/black combo and Potter’s bad luck. Potter’s attempted long pot on a red, resulted in a ricochet of balls and a canon on the black taking it into the corner pocket.     

The next period of the game saw both players in ‘safe/canny’ mode, wishing to avoid giving easy chances to each other.  For a short while, the tumbleweed was blowing down the table with little happening on the score board.

But then Potter unleashed a couple of breaks which completely changed the momentum and put considerable pressure on Chana to respond.    Reds and blacks were potted with great regularity.  Potter’s score escalated up to 45 giving him a 28 lead with 6 reds still on the table.  Chana fought back with his own red/black combos and reduced Potter’s lead to 14.

Then Potter’s safety play restricted Chana’s ability to reduce the deficit further and worse was to come when Potter deliberately left the cue ball flush with the cushion and good distance between it and the few reds left on the table.  With pressure mounting, Chana miscued and the white failed to reach it’s target.   

Yet, when only the colours were left, Potter was still catchable.  But Potter’s sinking of yellow to blue with good pots, put paid to Chana’s chance of a comeback, and the result was a 64 points to 36 points, Potter victory.    

The President Dave Tierney (right) presents the trophies to the winner Ian Potter (left) and runner up Bali Chana (middle)