Northants Bar Billiards League

Recap

With the draw perhaps slightly favouring the away side, an upset became a remote possibility. However, there were a few pivotal legs which were required in order to make that happen.

John’s excellent start put Dunc on the back foot from the beginning and he could never keep pace with the solid scoring of the home player and it soon became one-nil. Back, however swung the away team as Jason Neal looked in imperious form as he eased away from Leanne to level things up. Leg three was one of those pivotal games with Lorin having the break against Simon. Lorin struggled with the break and no matter what he did it was a challenge to compile a score – this was evidenced by him losing his opening 3k. Simon got the break back but also seemed to struggle only posting a little over a thousand. Play continued that way with neither player getting to grips with the table and the importance of the match ever growing in their minds. Finally Lorin was afforded a chance to compile a break and took a steady 4k or so. He touched on with a couple of minutes to go and, despite a late rally from Simon, took the leg.

The next leg became perhaps even more important as Sophie looked to draw the hosts level against Martyn. A scrappy game with plenty of chances, and never more than a couple of hundred between them, ended with Sophie taking the spoils. So to the decider, and Andy never looked comfortable with the pace of the table. Stephen was careful in compiling his scores and ran out an easy winner.

Nevertheless, the result got The Cardigan back to winning ways after a poor run of results, and also offered two valuable points for The Red Lion in their pursuit of the Division 2 title.