On a roll

There are certain venues in the area that strike fear into the hearts of men. Bad beer, good players, a crap table, even female participants - all are guaranteed to make grown men tremble and rightly so.

The Swan in Burnham is not one of those venues.

Its a great pub with a great landlord, a good table and a good bunch of at-best above-average players whom we had already beaten earlier in the season. As such there can't be many better places to mark the end of a pool era.

The last game that Mr Darryl Hill played in the Thames Valley was marked by a win for the team (a rare event), two of which were from Darryl himself (even rarer), and a first win of the season for Mike Salmon (!).

We won the match 8-4. A controversial decision from captain-of-the-night Darryl saw me start the ball rolling with a well (un)deserved loss. Two further losses followed and we were 3-0 down.

Surprisingly, despite the poor start, we ended up 3-3 at the break. Perhaps even more surprising was my inclusion in the second half. I managed to grind out a result to set us up at 6-4 up.

It was down to Mike Salmon & Lee Greenwood to see us home and with Mike registering his afore-mentioned first win of the season, and Lee his usual solid self, we got to 8-4. The win gave us 2 wins from 3 games since the new year (we lost 8-4 after being 4-2 up in my absence last week) and renewed confidence.

I am back. And how.

New Year. A time when realistic and fact-based judgment calls are replaced by mindless optimism and enthusiasm. It's the time of year when strange things happen. Maybe it's been so long since our last game that we all actually convinced oursleves that we were good and we could win.

And so it happened.

Last night we beat The Lady Haig 8-4. And I won.

I was massive.

As I had lost in the previous game before Christmas I was due for a drop tip. However DJ Swan Master J and Titzy were both late so sneaked in to the third spot. Playing behind Tizz & Burkee is a great place to play. It is inconceivable that they will both lose. It is likely that that they will both win; and so it was. I played at 2-0, has three visits (one of which was a miscue) and won in ten minutes - leaving us 3-0 up and leading nicely into...

*Battle Of The Budg Update*

Mike played fourth, played well, and lost. Swanny played fifth, played OK, and won. 1-0 to swanny. Fifteen games played between them, one win.

5-1 up became 6-3 became 8-4 to give us only our second win of the season.

My personal record is played 10 won 3. I have to say though, in each of the games I lost I have been very unlucky. It's not true of course, but I had to say it.

Laters

Our name's on the plate.

Quick update on our first-round cup match against Rob Uzzel's crowd - we lost.

The first leg finished 6-6, and I genuinly felt we had a chance of winning. I felt that way all week. Right up to the point where I walked in the door just prior to us starting the second leg, and saw James Harness sitting there. He hasn't played all season. He was basically a ringer. He is better than all bar one of our team. It was then I knew we would not win.

Unluckily for my team-mates I arrived. I mean I arrived at the game an hour early, and with James H being there I proceeded to get drunk. At that point I had no way of knowing that Lee was planning to play me first, so on an empty stomach Jimbo & I hit the Stellas. Two pints and 45 minutes I was cueing up to play the first game and was at least partially sloshed.

Needless to say I lost, Tizzy played twice and won, and it was downhill after that. We lost 7-5 and we were behind pretty much all the way.

Their is a plate competition for first round losers, and we have won it for the last three years running. Always the bridesmaid...